GUILTY TX - Moriah Wilson, 25, Cyclist Fatally Shot Before Race, Austin, 2022 *arrest* #9

[Walela]

I read that also here (possibly not confirmed):

Post in thread 'TX - Moriah Wilson, 25, Cyclist Fatally Shot Before Race, Austin, 2022 *arrest* #7'
TX - Moriah Wilson, 25, Cyclist Fatally Shot Before Race, Austin, 2022 *arrest* #7

I believe it's felony convictions that can be brought in at sentencing (don't know for sure) and the theft of service was a misdemeanor so it doesn't count.

 

[Seattle1]

Kaitlin Armstrong verdict: Jury starts sentencing deliberations

It took the jury about two hours, after hearing testimony for two weeks, to deliver the guilty verdict.

www.newsnationnow.com

 

[arielilane]

Anna Moriah "Mo" Wilson.Courtesy Wilson family

Kaitlin Armstrong found guilty in the murder of cyclist Moriah 'Mo' Wilson

Armstrong, 35, had fled to Central America and undergone plastic surgery to evade capture, prosecutors said.

www.nbcnews.com

 

[Charlot123]

Yes, I agree about KA. She basically had it all: smart, very pretty, ability to earn money, various careers, friends and family. I known people (especially in my younger life) who were obsessive with their partners/exes but most of the time, they just talked non stop about it driving their friends crazy and finally got on with their lives. Thats where KA got stuck….

And all of this happened in a short brief period of time. Who knows, maybe there were a lot of “MO’s” and she finally just snapped (I’m sure “Snapped” will be highlighting her soon”).

Finally I also give a lot of grace to KAs parents. They acknowledged Mos family immediately. I can’t imagine having to sit at court and be her family. Knowing she destroyed another family. That’s almost as bad as the victim’s family. Sure they can still see here in prison, but what kind of life is that.

I can imagine that KA’s childhood was far from ideal, but there is a point in life where people have to admit, “I am an adult, it is the past, I just move on”. The explanation I saw in one article, “all of it happened because KA and CS were children of alcoholics”, doesn’t stay past 30. And, interestingly, all these traits, BPD, etc, start burning out after 30, too. I think that for some strange reason, KA was defining herself by her man. This is a trap, and exactly the one that young women in our day and age shouldn’t fall into. It is interesting that Mo seems to be more mature that either KA and CS together. In that world of professional athletes, most men, she was able to define herself as an independent, “winsome woman”, and didn’t lose her personality. I think that if there is any learning lesson from the story, it is “time have changed. You are no worse than any man. All doors are open for you. Use your own potential”. Also, on a side note, if your guy hasn’t been able to change emotionally by 34, chances are, he won’t. Too bad that a woman who had so much potential had to sacrifice her life for two immatures, but maybe it now falls on athletic communities to redefine their culture and to raise their daughters and sons with the knowledge that they have to gain? It is not “one bad apple”, it is some statistics.

 

[Seattle1]

Brianna Hollis
@BriHollisNEWS

We'll also have updates at this link. We WILL be allowed to film the sentencing, just like the verdict. It will likely be brief.



kxan.com


7:10 AM · Nov 17, 2023

The judge has entered the courtroom. Attorneys are at the bench.
7:25 AM · Nov 17, 2023

Armstrong is here now. Grey pantsuit and blue blouse again. She looked down as she walked in.
7:59 AM · Nov 17, 2023

Judge is reading the punishment documents to the jury.
8:06 AM · Nov 17, 2023

The punishment range is 5-99 years or life. Jurors will also decide if Armstrong should play a fine.Now, attorneys on both sides will once again deliver arguments.
8:09 AM · Nov 17, 2023

Prosecutor Rickey Jones places a photo of Mo Wilson on the screen as he addresses the jury.
8:13 AM · Nov 17, 2023

He tells the jury they can feel compassion for Armstrong's family, who also delivered emotional testimony yesterday, but reminds them that Armstrong is still here.
8:15 AM · Nov 17, 2023

"Look at that picture on the screen and put it in your brains before you leave here."
8:16 AM · Nov 17, 2023

Jones brings up Cash's testimony yesterday about how she went back to her apartment so as to not let the tragedy take control over her.
8:16 AM · Nov 17, 2023

Jones: Armstrong was selfish, she put her sister in harm's way by using her passport.

He then brings up her escape last month.
8:19 AM · Nov 17, 2023

"That says a lot about who she is. Not her demeanor over there. Some people read too much into people's demeanor. I'm not asking you to put any value on how she's looking sitting there. I'm asking you to look at her actions."
8:20 AM · Nov 17, 2023

Jones: A shrinking violet (which the Defense referred to Armstrong as) doesn’t stand over a person and put one more shot in the heart for good measure. That’s cold.
8:21 AM · Nov 17, 2023

Jones discusses Cash a lot during his punishment closings. He brought up how Cash sent a picture to Mo's family the night of the murder, before she got home to find Mo on the ground, saying something like "your daughter's safe with me."
8:24 AM · Nov 17, 2023

Jones concludes. Defense asks if parties can approach the bench.
8:25 AM · Nov 17, 2023

Defense attorney
@rickcofer , speaking softly, begins by thanking the jury for their work.
8:29 AM · Nov 17, 2023

Cofer: We have no recommendation for an appropriate sentence. Two families are suffering. Kaitlin has no criminal history.
8:30 AM · Nov 17, 2023

“Forgiveness doesn’t mean not holding people accountable. Forgiveness allows only for the possibility of atonement.”
8:31 AM · Nov 17, 2023

Cofer: Most sentences are not life w/o possibility of parole.
8:31 AM · Nov 17, 2023

Cofer: Redemption isn't a gift for the offender, it seeks accountability but ultimately is a type of hearing for everyone involved. He ends by thanking the jury "from the bottom of [his] heart"
8:34 AM · Nov 17, 2023

Prosecutor Guillermo Gonzalez now addresses jurors. He tells them the fine does not go to the Wilson family.
8:35 AM · Nov 17, 2023

"One thing I want you to think about is that accountability for your actions are just as important as redemption and forgiveness."
8:36 AM · Nov 17, 2023

Gonzalez: She had a long time to think about what she was about to do.
8:37 AM · Nov 17, 2023

Gonzalez: This is a person who had time to think/meditate/calculate her actions. Then after she committed this murder, she acted out how to get away with it, how to avoid the consequences.
8:38 AM · Nov 17, 2023

Gonzalez: This is not a spontaneous act, this was a person with the capability to think and understand and calculate what she did.
8:39 AM · Nov 17, 2023

Gonzalez on Armstrong: It struck me also that she also damaged her own family.
8:41 AM · Nov 17, 2023

Armstrong continues to look straight ahead.
8:43 AM · Nov 17, 2023

Gonzalez ends with saying "I think your calculations should start at a minimum of 40 years."
8:44 AM · Nov 17, 2023

The jurors have been dismissed to deliberate.
8:46 AM · Nov 17, 2023

 

[arielilane]

After law school, I cut my teeth working for a prominent criminal defense attorney before starting a career in prosecution in Travis County, where I served as Assistant County Attorney and Assistant District Attorney. I handled thousands of cases, from DWI, domestic violence, and juvenile crimes to serious felonies like sexual assault, murder, and child abuse.

In 2018, I started my own law firm. In March of 2020, I partnered with Jeffrey Connelly to start Cofer & Connelly, PLLC. "We wanted to build a law firm that’s different, that does more." We pride ourselves on extraordinary client communication and responsiveness. We believe that you should expect excellence from your attorney and settle for nothing less.

Partner Rick Cofer | Cofer & Connelly, PLLC

While most of Rick Cofer's work involves representing adults facing serious charges, his practice also focuses on juvenile cases and mental health matters.

www.coferconnelly.com

 

[Seattle1]

Recalling the the prosecution and defense both waived opening statements on Thursday for the "sentencing phase" of this case but gave closing statements this morning before jury dismissed to deliberate.

Not hearing anything during closing about KA's petition for community supervision in lieu of prison, and her defense still denying KA had a criminal record (albeit misdemeanor theft), I suppose this argument will be to the Judge after verdict delivered???

Also, I know the sentencing verdict has to be unanimous (i.e., David Temple).

 

[arielilane]

Kaitlin Armstrong was found guilty in the fatal shooting of the gravel racer Moriah Wilson. Last year, Ian Parker wrote about the case, which one cyclist described as “the most tragic and shocking thing that’s ever happened in this small community.” http://nyer.cm/tsW1O6c

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https://twitter.com/NewYorker

One morning in June, before dawn, cyclists began gathering at an intersection in Emporia, Kansas, to remember the victim of a recent murder. These were professional athletes as well as serious amateurs, on high-end bikes that click-clicked loudly while coming to a stop. The riders hugged; their bike lights blinked. By five-thirty, a few dozen women and men had collected in the dark.


These cyclists had travelled to Emporia to compete in races the following day, in which most of them would ride for two hundred miles, on rolling unpaved roads, for at least nine and a half hours. The event is the biggest in the new niche sport of gravel-bike racing—a form of slog that presents itself as both a solo endurance test and a party in the mud. “Gravel” became a cycling term only about a decade ago, to describe machines that are a compromise, in weight and handling, between road bikes and mountain bikes. Gravel bikes, and gravel racing, have since proliferated—at a time when American participation in racing of the Lance Armstrong kind (skinnier tires, lighter frames) has been in decline. Indeed, the Kansas event, Unbound Gravel, can now fairly describe itself as the most important in all of American competitive cycling—even if many of the hundreds who pay to ride in it each year have little competitive ambition beyond not giving up. Like a big-city marathon, a typical gravel race is both an élite contest and, at the rear, something less pressing. Gravel evangelists sometimes like to compare this mix to a mullet haircut: “Business at the front, party at the back.” Emporia, a low-rise college town, had been filling with video crews and podcasters. Banners printed with the muddy faces of past winners hung from street lamps. The manufacturers of rival anti-chafing creams had set up stands.

The early-morning cyclists were about to begin a memorial ride for Moriah Wilson, one of the sport’s leading athletes. She had died three weeks earlier, in what Amy Charity, who was riding that morning, described to me as “the most tragic and shocking thing that’s ever happened in this small community.” Wilson grew up in Vermont, the skiing daughter of a champion skier; she graduated from Dartmouth in 2019, then moved to California. This spring—a year after her first gravel race—she seemed poised to dominate the women’s field. In California in April, she won a major competition by twenty-five minutes. She was predicted to prevail at Unbound. In May, VeloNewsdescribed Wilson as “the winningest woman in the American off-road scene.”

...

 

[arielilane]

Jury deliberating time: 1 hour and 30 minutes

 

[Sundog]

Today a jury will begin sentencing deliberations for #KaitlinArmstrong who on Thursday was found guilty of murdering professional cyclist Anna Moriah "Mo" Wilson. Armstrong could spend the rest of her life in prison if dealt the maximum punishment. Live tweets below.

Judge says that Kaitlin Armstrong is eligible for parole after serving at least half of her sentence or 30 years, whichever comes first.

Verdict must be unanimous. A financial penalty not to exceed $10,000 is also applicable.

https://twitter.com/alcaprari23

<snipped for focus>

That surprises me that the judge is giving the jury information on when KA would be eligible for parole. Some states, IIRC, don't allow the judge to give this information to the jury as the jury decides on the sentence and should not be considering issues like possible parole, as that is another legal matter.

Judge says that verdict must be unanimous, so I assume that if it is not unanimous, then the judge will decide on the sentence.

IANAL, moo.

 

[arielilane]

@JimVertuno

A big Jason’s Deli order going back to jury room in Kaitlin Armstrong case as we await sentencing.


1:09 PM · Nov 17, 2023

 

[Seattle1]

Mills Hayes
@MillsHayesTV

Jury is back and have been handed copies of rules of punishment. Judge is reading the rules now. Armstrong may be eligible for parole after serving at least half her sentence or 30 years. She could face 5-99 years in prison for the murder of Moriah Wilson.

8:07 AM · Nov 17, 2023

"Think about a few things. Although she was free to leave, she put her sister in harms way by stealing her passport, that's a federal offense. She put everybody at risk. She was selfish," Jones says about #KaitlinArmstrong. KA's sister, Christine, seen wiping tears away
8:19 AM · Nov 17, 2023

"I'm not asking you to put any value on how she is looking sitting there. Because that's not fair to her. Look at her actions," Jones says about Armstrong. "A shrinking violet doesn't stand over a person and give them another shot in the heart for good measure."
8:21 AM · Nov 17, 2023

"Her friend had to pump on her chest for 10 minutes not knowing she was already dead," Jones says of Caitlin Cash. He says home is supposed to be a safe, relaxing place. But now home for Cash is the place where she watched her best friend die.
8:22 AM · Nov 17, 2023

Defense Attorney Rick Cofer up talking with jurors now. It's hard to hear. Tells jurors they had a difficult job. Defense has no recommendation for appropriate sentences. Two families are hurt. "The pain that's in this room, today, yesterday, is palpable."
8:30 AM · Nov 17, 2023

Cofer reads jury a quote from Revered JC Austin, "We do no do it to let perpetrators off the hook, but to preserve our own humanity" and another quote about redemption from author Bell Hooks.

"Thank you for your service," Cofer says, walking back to defense. That was quick.
8:33 AM · Nov 17, 2023

Gonzalez tells jurors, "Accountability for your actions are just as important as redemption & forgiveness." Says Armstrong was an adult when murder happened, sought about by friends/family about financial matters, world traveler.
8:36 AM · Nov 17, 2023

"This sophisticated person made a decision to embark on this path that has brought us here together," Gonzales tells jurors. He says Armstrong had a long time to think about her actions the day of the murder. She had time to think, meditate about actions.
8:37 AM · Nov 17, 2023

Gonzalez says after committing the murder, Armstrong made plans to leave. "This is not a teenager. This is not a spontaneous act," he says. Reminds jurors 3 weeks before trial, Armstrong escaped deputy custody, trying to avoid accountability once again.
8:39 AM · Nov 17, 2023

Says jealousy is what this is all about and Armstrong could have decided to leave Colin Strickland, but had to weigh losing him and his financial standing. Instead, she decided to murder Moriah Wilson. Gonzalez says the jury should at a minimum give Armstrong 40 years in prison.
8:44 AM · Nov 17, 2023

 

[Seattle1]

<snipped for focus>

That surprises me that the judge is giving the jury information on when KA would be eligible for parole. Some states, IIRC, don't allow the judge to give this information to the jury as the jury decides on the sentence and should not be considering issues like possible parole, as that is another legal matter.

Judge says that verdict must be unanimous, so I assume that if it is not unanimous, then the judge will decide on the sentence.

IANAL, moo.

When the jury could not decide on the fate of David Temple, the Court declared a mistrial and a new jury was later selected just for the punishment phase. (There was one hold out for life w/o parole). Earlier this year, the second jury got it right -- life with no parole.

 

[BrownRice]

View attachment 461703

Kaitlin Armstrong sentenced to 90 years in prison after murdering love rival professional cyclist Anna Moriah Wilson

Armstrong shot her love rival dead after tracking her on Strava, then fled to Costa Rica using her sister's passport. She then changed her hair and spent $6,000 (£4,850) on a nose job in an attempt to evade justice before eventually being caught.

news.sky.com

edited to add:

Yoga Teacher Kaitlin Armstong Turns Down Plea Deal in Love-Triangle Slaying of Cyclist

A Texas woman who allegedly fled to Costa Rica after killing her boyfriend’s love interest last year reportedly turned down a plea deal that could have reduced her prison sentence by decades. Sources told the Daily Mail that Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza offered accused murderer...

www.crimeonline.com

….reportedly turned down a plea deal that could have reduced her prison sentence by decades.

That’s insane!

 

[Walela]

Recalling the the prosecution and defense both waived opening statements on Thursday for the "sentencing phase" of this case but gave closing statements this morning before jury dismissed to deliberate.

Not hearing anything during closing about KA's petition for community supervision in lieu of prison, and her defense still denying KA had a criminal record (albeit misdemeanor theft), I suppose this argument will be to the Judge after verdict delivered???

Also, I know the sentencing verdict has to be unanimous (i.e., David Temple).

I wonder if that petition was what the bench discussion was about this morning. Did the defense want to have it addressed before deliberation so the jury would think they had that option?

 

[SteveP]

@JimVertuno

A big Jason’s Deli order going back to jury room in Kaitlin Armstrong case as we await sentencing.


1:09 PM · Nov 17, 2023

Yesterday, the pizza seemed to be a sign that things were finished, or finishing up, as the jury came back in with their verdict less than a half hour after lunch arrived. I wonder if perhaps today's lunch will prove to be another such indicator. JMO

ETA...I can't speak to yesterday's pizza, but Jason's Deli makes good sandwiches and salads. Nice to see they are not having to eat bad food while serving.

 

[Seattle1]

When Cofer offered that most sentences are NOT life w/o parole, this is definitely true of all the plea agreements in TX for cases I've followed.

Guilty Plea agreements are very popular in TX-- especially in Travis County: although parole is not promised, most agreements include the defendant will be eligible for release after serving 30 years of their sentence.

 

[Seattle1]

I wonder if that petition was what the bench discussion was about this morning. Did the defense want to have it addressed before deliberation so the jury would think they had that option?

I wondered the same...

 

[SMK777]

That’s insane!

She apparently thought she had a chance at Not Guilty.

 

[SMK777]

Yesterday, the pizza seemed to be a sign that things were finished, or finishing up, as the jury came back in with their verdict less than a half hour after lunch arrived. I wonder if perhaps today's lunch will prove to be another such indicator. JMO

Exactly what I was just thinking and hoping.