Kaitlin Armstrong murder trial resumes after key revelations: Updates

Before fleeing the country last year in a desperate bid to evade charges of murder against Wilson, Ms Armstrong was a yoga teacher. She and Mr Strickland met online in the fall of 2019 and eventually started a relationship.

Ms Armstrong stayed over Mr Strickland’s home during the Texas freeze of 2021, and never left.

She became a pivotal part of his cycling business and acted as his manager. According to testimony heard in court, Ms Armstrong had access to all of Mr Strickland’s social media and financial accounts.

Jacqueline Chasteen, a friend of Strickland who also befriended Ms Armstrong, said during her testimony that Mr Strickland would openly say he didn’t have a girlfriend, despite being “head over heels” at the beginning of his relationship with Ms Armstrong.

Ms Chasteen went on to say that during a party in early 2022, Ms Armstrong confided in her that Mr Strickland had “cheated” on her with Wilson.

“She had described how Colin had cheated but while she was describing that, she had said in so many words that she wanted to kill her,” she said, per NewsNation. “That she had thought about it. But how she said it at the time I didn’t take it seriously…she said something to the effect that she had bought a gun… I do know the words kill and the words gun were used.”

Mr Strickland and Ms Armstrong were told about Wilson’s murder by Austin Police detectives on 12 May 2022, just a day after the murder. Bodycam footage shown to the court reportedly showed that the two seemed shocked after learning the tragic news.

Mr Strickland later joined investigators at the police station, where he gave a statement for nearly six hours. The following day, authorities served a search warrant and seized weapons from his home.

Crime scene specialist Mirezha Guevara testified on November 3 that while she was taking pictures of the firearms evidence and Ms Armstrong’s black Jeep, she also noticed Ms Armstrong’s passport and foreign currency inside the home.

An attorney representing both Mr Strickland and Ms Armstrong was present while the warrant was served, but investigators did not ask to interview Ms Armstrong.

However, they did ask Mr Strickland about her black Jeep, the same model of car seen on surveillance footage near the home where Wilson was found. The car had also been spotted near the swimming pool bar that Mr Strickland and Wilson had been at just hours before she was killed.

Mr Strickland suggested during his testimony that investigators knew it belonged to Ms Armstrong.

Mr Strickland said that after he was interviewed and the warrant was served, he and Ms Armstrong were exhausted. He asked her to write a timeline of her activities on the day and reportedly said she went to yoga and visited a “healer” but made no mention of seeing Wilson.

He then went to his business’ headquarters in Lockhart and did not see Ms Armstrong again.

On 14 May, Ms Armstrong took a flight from Austin to Houston. She was found in Costa Rica 43 days later.

The man at the centre of the love triangle that prosecutors say is the motive behind Wilson’s murder took the stand on 3 November.

Visibly shaken and with his eyes closed for most of his testimony, according to reporters in the courtroom, Mr Strickland told the jury about his relationship with both Wilson and Ms Armstrong.

Mr Strickland said that while he and Ms Armstrong loved each other, their relationship was “tumultuous” due to her constant fits of jealousy. He also said that he and Wilson maintained a brief relationship while he and Ms Armstrong were broken up, but remained friendly after he reconciled with the yoga teacher.

However, Wilson and Mr Strickland kept seeing each other at competitions or cycling events. And in one instance shortly before the murder, he posted a video on Instagram of himself after a race in which Wilson happened to be in the background.

“Send my love to Mo,” Mr Strickland testified that Ms Armstrong had texted him in reference to the video, which he said he found “passive-aggressive.”

Dramatic courtroom testimony on 2 November revealed that DNA evidence found on Wilson likely ties her accused killer to the crime scene.

Jurors heard testimony from Sgt Timothy Price who responded to the scene of the murder. He said Wilson’s bike was found lying in the middle of bamboo a few yards from the apartment.

It was swabbed by another crime scene investigator, he said.

DNA found on the bike was “highly likely” to have come from Ms Armstrong, prosecutors told the court during opening statements.

But, during witness testimony, defence attorney Rick Cofer questioned crime scene specialist Katie Ferrara about why the bike had been taken to the police department without a protective covering.

She said the police did not have a big enough bag for the bike.

Ms Ferrara also testified that there were no track marks in the grass leading to where the bike was located, and that she did not know how the bike got there.

Austin police detective Rolando Ramirez, another witness for the prosecution, testified on 2 November that he thought Wilson’s killing was “more of a personal thing or more of anger type of shooting”.

His theory was based on the fact that there was no sign of forced entry and no signs of struggle. Nothing appeared to have been stolen from her home, he added.

Defence attorneys in the ongoing murder trial against Kaitlin Armstrong shocked the courtroom after they motioned for a mistrial over claims that an investigator had cleared her ex-boyfriend from the crime too early.

On Wednesday, the defence tried to poke holes in the prosecution’s case, arguing that a lot of evidence in the case was not thoroughly reviewed, NewsNation reports.

The attorneys questioned Austin Police Department detective Richard Spitler on why a rape kit performed on Wilson was never processed, and why Mr Strickland’s laptop was returned to him just eight days after the murder without having been analysed forensically.

Mr Strickland is a professional mountain and gravel cyclist. He is well-known in the Austin cycling community and it was his love for the sport that made him bond with Wilson, he told the court.

Mr Strickland and Wilson met in 2021 and had a short romance before he and Ms Armstrong reconciled. However, he continued seeing Wilson and going on rides with her — while hiding their encounters from Armstrong to avoid confrontation, he testified.

He described his relationship with Ms Armstrong as at time “tumultuous.”

On the night of Wilson’s murder on 11 May 2022, he and Wilson went out swimming and dined together. He then dropped off Wilson, who was visiting Austin, at her friend’s home where she was staying.

Mr Strickland’s initial remarks to the court about he and Ms Armstrong loving each other but not being compatible long-term took a turn on Monday after he seemingly tried to distance himself from the disgraced yoga teacher.

“You know Kaitlin Armstrong very well, don’t you?” Ms Armstrong’s attorneys asked during cross-examination on Monday (6 November).

Activity from Kaitlin Armstrong’s iCould accounts reportedly shows that she searched for her name online and for “can imei be tracked if not making phone calls.”

Some of her searches led to articles about her escape to Costa Rica and Wilson’s murder. Ms Armstrong also searched “can pineapples burn your fingerprints” and appeared to land on an article that debunked the myth.

Mr Strickland’s many mishaps with members of the media reportedly led to one photographer filing charges against him.

In footage captured by reporters who attended the trial on 6 November, Mr Strickland appeared to purposefully go out of his way to stamp on a photographer’s foot while he left court.

In the video shot by NewsNation correspondent Alex Caprariello, he takes what seems to be a deliberate step to the left and comes into contact with a man holding a video camera. The man lets out a shout of pain, but Mr Strickland carries on walking.

According to Mr Caprariello, the photographer has pressed charges over the incident. The man said Mr Strickland had also tried to knock down his camera during the lunch recess. The photographer managed to catch the camera just before it fell to the ground, Mr Caprariello said.

A similar incident took place on 3 November, also filmed as Mr Strickland left court. A separate video also shared by Mr Caprariello showed him walking at a fast pace while a photographer walked backwards in front of him.

The cameraman did not seem to realise there was a barricade behind him and lost balance when he tripped on it, eventually falling to the ground. Mr Strickland appeared unphased and stepped over him before entering a vehicle and leaving the courthouse.