HOUSTON – The wife of Antonio “A.J.” Armstrong Jr. is speaking out after the 23-year-old was found guilty of killing his mother and father while they slept in 2016.
In an exclusive interview, Kate Armstrong told KPRC 2 reporter Rilwan Balogun it was important for her to let the public know “how awful it’s been” since her husband’s conviction and how it has affected her family.
“The last few weeks, well it’s been three months now, have been very, very hard. I mean I became a single mom overnight, so that’s been a huge adjustment I’ve had to make. Trying to explain to my son why dad isn’t there,” Kate said. “I just tell my son, you know, ‘Dad is on a big work trip. It’s going to be a while until he comes home but mom’s doing everything she can to bring daddy home.’”
Kate told Balogun that A.J.’s absence has been a hard adjustment for the family. The couple spoke when A.J. was in Harris County Jail but they’ve only communicated through a tablet since he’s been at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. She says she’s been unable to schedule a visit with him.
“I mean I lost my best friend and my husband and the father of my child in one moment, and I haven’t been able to see him,” she said. “As soon as he was transferred to the state prison, I haven’t been able to talk to him on the phone or have any real contact with him, so that’s been really hard. I’ve been really worried about him. That’s not an easy thing to be put through.”
The couple’s son is now starting to ask more questions about A.J.’s whereabouts.
“I just tell him, ‘You’ll be able to talk to daddy on the phone soon, just not right now,’” she explained.
When asked about what she was going through when she heard her husband’s guilty verdict, Kate told Balogun she tries to avoid thinking about that moment.
“It was so traumatizing for all of us,” she said. “I could just tell A.J. was trying to be OK for me in that moment. I know the public was like, ‘He had no reaction.’ What reaction was he supposed to have finding out you’re going to be put in prison for the rest of your life?”
Kate says A.J. is innocent.
“You don’t know. You don’t know. You don’t know because if you did know what had gone on these last seven years and the facts of the case that hadn’t been talked about, things that hadn’t been talked about in court, you would change your mind, I promise you that,” Kate said.
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