Two witnesses testified in Kaitlin Armstrong’s murder trial on Wednesday that the yoga teacher was so angry at the thought of her boyfriend, Colin Strickland, dating pro cyclist Mo Wilson that she told them she would kill her.
Nicole Mertz, who said she was Armstrong’s close friend in 2021 and 2022, was with Armstrong at an Austin, Texas, restaurant in November 2021 when Wilson walked in, and Armstrong became “visibly angry,” the Austin American-Statesman said.
“I had never seen her like that before, which is why I remember,” Mertz said. “I asked Kaitlin if Colin ever started dating anyone else seriously what would she do, and she said, ‘I would kill her.’”
Mertz said that Strickland, also a professional cyclist, and Armstrong were on one of the “off” swings of their on and off relationship at the time.
Armstrong fled the country and had plastic surgery to change her appearance after Wilson was shot to death on May 11, 2022, at a friend’s apartment after she and Strickland had gone swimming and out to dinner, as CrimeOnline reported. Investigators eventually found her teaching yoga under an assumed name in Costa Rica and extradited her back to Texas to face trial.
Armstrong also tried to escape last month, arranging to be taken to a medical appointment outside the jail where she has been held since her arrest and then then making a run for it. Officers chased her down and brought her back to jail.
Jacqueline Chasteen testified that she met Armstrong through Strickland and that Armstrong told her in January 2022 that she had learned Strickland cheated on her at an Arkansas bike race with Wilson, the American-Statesman said. Armstrong told her that Strickland apologized but that Wilson kept texting him.
Chasteen told the court that Armstrong said “in so many words that she wanted to kill Wilson, or had thought about killing her” and had talked about getting a gun.
Chasteen also said that Armstrong had talked about having a gun or getting one.
Earlier on Wednesday, a detective testified about more than two dozen search warrants executed in the course of the investigation, including several involving Armstrong’s electronic devices and internet accounts. In one of them, Austin Police Detective Richard Spitler said, investigators found a deleted note on Armstrong’s phone containing an address four numbers of the one where Wilson was staying while she was in Austin.
Spitler said Armstrong deleted the note — and a Google map showing the location — from her phone the day after Wilson’s murder.
Armstrong’s defense attorneys asked Judge Brenda Kennedy to declare a mistrial Wednesday morning in the middle of the cross-examination of Spitler. Attorney Rick Cofer said that the defense had never been given a police report about vandalism outside the house where Armstrong and Strickland lived.
Strickland testified that after the murder but before Armstrong sold her Jeep and fled, his motorcycle was shoved into Armstrong’s Jeep and paving stones were overturned. He said he reported the vandalism to police.
Spitler testified that the vandalism was not part of the murder investigation, and Kennedy denied the motion for a mistrial.
Cofer also tried to assert that Spitler did not not interview Wilson’s ex-boyfriend or another close male friend until after Armstrong had fled and an warrant was issued for her arrest. Spitler said the interviews with those two men determined that they were nowhere near Austin when Wilson was shot to death.
The defense attorney demanded to know why evidence was not tested to determine if Wilson was sexually assaulted. Spitler said there was no physical evidence at the scene that indicated she could have been, as she was still wearing her bathing suit and dress over it when her body was found. There were no other signs of assault either, he said.
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[Featured image: Kaitlin Armstrong/police, Colin Strickland/Flo Bikes, and Mo Wilson/family]
