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To get this episode of Forensic Tales ad-free, please visit patreon.com/forensictales. Forensic Tales discusses topics that some listeners may find disturbing. The contents of this episode may not be suitable for everyone. Listener discretion is advised. Antonio and Dawn Armstrong had it all. They were the ultimate power couple living an extraordinary life in the vibrant city of Houston, Texas.
But then, in the dead of night, their lives were shattered. Both were gunned down without warning, and there was no signs of forced entry. So the unsettling and obvious question hung heavily. Who's responsible for this awful crime? This is Forensic Tales, episode number 181, The A.J. Armstrong Story.
Welcome to Forensic Tales. I'm your host, Courtney Fretwell-Ariola.
Forensic Tales is a weekly true crime podcast covering real, spine-tingling stories with a forensic science twist. Some cases have been solved with forensic science, while others have turned cold. Every remarkable story sends us a chilling reminder that not all stories have happy endings.
As a one-woman show, your support helps me find new compelling cases, conduct in-depth fact-based research, and produce and edit this weekly show. You can support my work in two simple ways. Become a valued patron at patreon.com slash forensic tales and leave a positive review. Before we get to this week's episode, we've got a brand new supporter that I want to thank.
Thank you so much to Julia S. for becoming the show's newest top-tier patron. Now, let's get to this week's episode. Antonio Donnell Armstrong created the perfect life for himself. His football career began at Cashmere High School in Houston, Texas.
Then he headed to Texas A&M, where he became a star after winning Defensive Player of the Game honors with eight tackles and three sacks in the 1994 Cotton Bowl Classic. After college, it was on to professional football.
Antonio Armstrong was drafted in the sixth round of the 1995 NFL Draft by the San Francisco 49ers, but was released from the team after only a few practices following a fractured ankle. But the injury didn't mean his professional football career was over. After fully recovering later that year, he was picked up by the Miami Dolphins.
Throughout his short NFL career, Antonio Armstrong played for the Miami Dolphins and the St. Louis Rams before transferring to play in the Canadian Professional Football League for a couple of years. But Antonio didn't only make football his entire life's career. As soon as he retired from playing, he became a successful business owner.
In just a few short years, he had opened a chain of fitness gyms across the Houston, Texas area called First Class Training. He was also a dedicated church member serving as an associate pastor. He hosted a popular YouTube channel with a large social media following. After football, Antonio met and married a woman named Dawn Armstrong. Before meeting Antonio, she had a son of her own named Josh.
but Antonio eventually legally adopted Josh and became his stepfather. After they married, Antonio and Don had two kids of their own. First came Antonio Jr., or AJ as he would become known, and then their daughter, Kyra. Once they became a family, they settled in Bel Air, Texas, a smaller town less than 10 miles from Houston.
They quickly became this picture-perfect Texas family centered on faith and football. Both Antonio and Dawn were successful business owners. Their family went to church every Sunday. Antonio Armstrong had created a successful life for himself and wanted the same for his family and children.
Nothing about the Armstrong family's life could have predicted what would happen to them on July 29, 2016, a night that would change everything for the Armstrong family. Around 1.40 a.m. on the morning of July 29, 2016, 16-year-old A.J. Armstrong called 911, saying he heard gunshots coming from his parents' Antonio and Dawn's bedroom.
The entire phone call lasted 16 minutes, but A.J. told 911 dispatchers that he was hiding in his closet and he heard at least two gunshots coming from his parents' bedroom. A.J. said his bedroom was on the third floor and his parents' was on the second. It took the police and paramedics about 16 minutes to arrive at the Armstrong's house in the 5300 block of Palmetto Street.
And when they arrived, AJ had to disarm the family's security system and unlock the front door to let first responders inside. Once entering the house, the cops do a complete search. First, they're looking for the shooter. They had no idea whether the gunman was still inside the house. But besides the shooter, they're also looking for evidence. Was there an unlocked door or window where the shooter got inside?
Was there glass on the floor from a broken window? They looked for anything to suggest how the shooter got inside. But after searching every nook and cranny of the house, they didn't find anything. No broken windows, no unlocked doors. The entire place was completely locked. So they could only enter the house after AJ turned off the alarm system and unlocked the front door.
To add to the mystery of no apparent break-in, the police made a shocking discovery. When they went into the kitchen on the first floor, they found a gun sitting on the kitchen counter. It was a .22 caliber handgun. And next to the firearm, they found a strange note that read, I've been watching for a long time. Get me.
As cops swept the house for evidence, paramedics got to work on Antonio and Dawn, but they were too late. Dawn had been shot twice in the head, and her husband, Antonio, had been shot once in the head. Paramedics pronounced Dawn dead at the scene, and Antonio was transported to Memorial Hermann Hospital, where he died a few hours later from his injuries.
Both Antonio and Dawn had been shot in the head from close range. In fact, according to the medical examiner, Dawn was shot right behind her ear and likely shot before Antonio. Immediately after, 16-year-old AJ called 911. He said he woke his sister up, 14-year-old Kyra, who was sleeping in her bedroom. He woke her up, told her what happened, and brought her downstairs to wait for the cops.
He also said he called his older brother, Josh, who lived down the street from his parents. After hearing about what happened, Josh grabbed his shotgun, hopped into his car, and drove to his parents' house, where he was met by the police. Investigators documented everything they observed inside the house.
The lack of forced entry, the locked front door, the armed security system, the gun on the kitchen counter, and the odd note found next to it. They also found other strange things, like a bullet hole in A.J.'s bedroom leading directly to his parents' bedroom on the floor underneath his. When the cops asked A.J. about the bullet hole, he said it happened years ago when he was a kid.
He said he hadn't handled any of his parents' firearms in over eight years. So the bullet hole in his bedroom leading directly down into his parents' bedroom was old. Then there was a weird burn mark on top of the second floor staircase right near Antonio and Dawn's bedroom. According to AJ, he had dropped a lit match stick a few weeks earlier while playing with matches with some friends.
He said his parents had already disciplined about it, about him playing with matches inside the house and that everything was fine. He said the burn mark had nothing to do with his parents' murders. But there was something suspicious about AJ's story. The cops believed he knew more than what he was saying.
Based on everything they observed in the house, the investigators were confident this was a double homicide. It couldn't have been a murder-suicide or anything like that, because Don and Antonio were both found shot to death inside their bedroom. And the murder weapon, the .22 caliber pistol, was found on the kitchen counter. So the only logical explanation was that this was a double homicide.
But who could have broken into the house, stolen the Armstrong's gun, shot them, written the note, and left the handgun on the kitchen counter inside a seemingly locked house? About an hour after 911 was called, 16-year-old AJ was put in handcuffs and arrested. Since the house was locked at the time of the shooting, the cops believed the shooter must have come from inside the house.
This meant it was either AJ or his younger sister. But they leaned toward AJ as being the more likely suspect. He was older. He was the one who called 911 and woke his sister up before the cops got there. He was the one who had to disarm the family's security system to let the first responders inside. So according to the police, it had to be him.
Before placing AJ in handcuffs, investigators bagged both his and his sister's hands for evidence. They were bagged because they wanted to test them for gunshot residue. If either of them had recently fired a gun, they would have some type of residue on their hands. So the investigators bagged both of their hands to be tested. But only AJ was arrested and transported to the police station for questioning.
At just 16 years old, he was accused of shooting both his parents. About two weeks after the shooting, on August 10th, two men broke into one of Antonio and Dawn's gym facilities. From the gym's security cameras, you can see two men breaking into the gym and looking around for something. They eventually stole a computer, but that was it. Nothing else was taken.
Although the break-in happened just days after Antonio and Dawn were murdered, the cops didn't believe the two incidents were connected. On April 13, 2017, A.J. had his first major court appearance. By then, he had already spent nine months in a juvenile hall facility.
At this court hearing, A.J. was finally bonded out of juvenile court after the judge finally agreed to grant him bail, which was set at $200,000. He was also ordered to wear an ankle monitor to track his whereabouts, remain on house arrest, and submit to random drug and alcohol testing. A.J. learned the harsh reality of his charges.
Although he was only 16 when his parents were killed, the state charged him as an adult. If convicted, he was looking at spending the rest of his life in prison. While out on bail, A.J. maintained his innocence and said he had nothing to do with his parents' murders. But besides some of his family members, many people, including the public, just didn't believe him.
Two years before the murders, A.J. was a star athlete at the Kincaid School, a private pre-K to 12th grade college prep school near Houston, Texas. Like his father, he played football and was considered a standout by all of his coaches. But something seemed to change by A.J.'s junior year of high school. Instead of being a star athlete on the school's football team, he became something else.
a kid who prosecutors would later argue turned bad. According to the prosecution, at the time of the murders, AJ and his parents were constantly fighting. They mostly fought about AJ's terrible grades in school and drug use. In 2016, AJ was kicked out of the private school that he was attending because his grades were so awful. He was also smoking a lot of marijuana.
So in the months leading up to the shootings, Antonio and Dawn were frustrated with AJ. They had both been very successful and worked hard to provide for the family. And they wanted all three of their children to be equally successful. So when AJ started struggling in school and smoking marijuana, they were disappointed in him. They thought that he could do so much better.
The prosecution also thought that A.J. had a long history of lying. According to text messages obtained from A.J.'s cell phone, he had lied to his girlfriend, Kate Ober. He said he got kicked out of school because he got caught smoking marijuana. He didn't tell her the truth that he got kicked out because of his grades.
The prosecution also said they found text messages that A.J. lied to his parents about grades and the drug use. Although these were relatively small lies for a 16-year-old boy to make, the prosecution believed it established a pattern, a pattern that proved A.J. was a liar. And in the months leading up to the murders, he constantly fought with his parents to
which prosecutors believed was a possible motive for the shooting. A.J.'s murder trial got underway in April 2019. By this point, A.J. was 19. But despite only being 16 at the time of the murders, he was being charged as an adult. And if convicted, he was looking at spending a tremendous amount of time behind bars in an adult Texas prison.
The prosecution's case relied heavily on what the cops observed inside the Armstrong's home the night of the murders. They had a total of 28 witnesses who testified to everything they observed and the evidence they collected. The home's alarm security system was one of the prosecution's biggest pieces of evidence.
According to the DA, a forensic analysis of the alarm system indicated no one entered or exited the home before and after the shooting. The system was only disarmed after AJ called 911 and let the first responding officers inside.
The prosecution also had an expert testify that a sensor on the second floor near Antonio and Dawn's bedroom recorded movement between the third and second floor roughly 30 minutes before AJ called 911.
The prosecution argued this evidence showed that AJ traveled from his bedroom on the third floor down to the second floor where his parents were sleeping just minutes before dialing 911. The evidence also suggests no one else was inside the home because if someone had broken in, this would have triggered the alarm system.
But according to the prosecution's expert, the system didn't indicate anyone either coming or leaving the house. It was only disarmed when the cops arrived. So the prosecution argued the shooter must have come from inside the house. And based on the sensors, the shooter came from the third floor where AJ's bedroom was.
The prosecution also reminded the jury that the cops found no signs of a break-in or forced entry. After sweeping the entire house, they found no broken doors or windows. They found nothing suggesting anyone had broken into the house that morning, further suggesting the shooter had to have already been inside the house. How else can you explain how a dumble homicide can occur behind locked doors? There was no way in and no way out.
The shooter had to have come from within. But AJ's defense lawyers had their own explanation about the alarm system and sensors. They said the system had been faulty and unreliable for years. According to their expert, the alarm system, including window sensors, wasn't installed correctly.
Jim Parkers, the expert witness for A.J.'s defense, testified that the first and second floor motion detectors were, quote, unreliable, and the system wasn't accurately recording movement throughout the house. In other words, someone could have broken into the Armstrong's home without triggering the alarm because the system wasn't installed properly.
To prove his point, he testified that the alarm data didn't even accurately record AJ's movements after he called 911 and went downstairs to let the police inside. Based on a forensic analysis of the alarm system, it didn't detect his movements, which, according to the defense, proves the system wasn't working properly.
How could AJ call 911 and let the police inside without triggering the alarm? AJ's girlfriend at the time, Kate Ober, also testified for the defense about the family's alarm system. According to her, she knew about the broken system. She said it didn't always work, which explains why no one triggered it on the night of the murders.
One of the state's expert witnesses was an employee of ADT, the alarm system company that owned the Armstrong system. According to the ADT employee, the system was reliable and they found no errors on the night of the murders. He also claimed it had been properly installed. In other words, according to ADT, the alarm system was working just fine.
And the only movement inside the house came from AJ's bedroom on the third floor and went towards his parents' room on the second floor. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. What are some of your self-care non-negotiables? Maybe you never skip leg day or therapy day. When your schedule is packed with kids' activities, big work projects, or podcasting like me, it's easy to let your priorities slip.
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That's betterhelp.com. The alarm system wasn't the only significant piece of evidence at trial. The forensic evidence was also vital for the prosecution and AJ's defense. The gun used to murder Antonio and Dawn was a .22 caliber pistol that belonged to Antonio, so they were shot and killed with their own gun.
According to the prosecution, this piece of evidence further pointed toward A.J.'s guilt. Someone would have had to break into the Armstrong's house without triggering the alarm system. And then they also had to know where the gun was. Plus, the gun was found on the kitchen counter after the cops got there. All of this pointed towards A.J. as the gunman, as argued by the prosecution.
But A.J.'s defense had a reasonable explanation for this forensic evidence as well. When the cops collected A.J.'s clothes on the night of the shooting, they didn't find any gunshot residue on them. They also didn't find any GSR in his hands. Remember, both A.J.'s and his sister's hands were bagged shortly after the cops got to the house. So they were both tested for gunshot residue right after the shooting, but
But when they tested AJ's hands, they came back negative for gunshot residue. They also found no DNA or blood evidence on AJ's clothes. This is crucial evidence for the defense because we know Antonio and Dawn were shot from very close range. Evidence from the autopsy suggested the gun had been placed against Dawn's ear right before it was fired.
So naturally, you'd expect the shooter to get at least a little bit of Don and Antonio's blood on him after the shots were fired. But they didn't find anything on AJ's clothes. No DNA, no blood spatter, no gunshot residue, nothing.
AJ's defense also told the jury that there was no evidence he tried to clean up. He didn't change his clothes. There was no evidence inside the house that he had recently taken a shower or tried to wash away evidence. There was absolutely no forensic evidence found on AJ's clothes or his hands proving he was the gunman. And the defense said that's because he was innocent.
Next up was the gun, the .22 caliber pistol used in the murders. Well, when the gun was tested, they didn't find AJ's DNA or fingerprints on it. They also didn't find his fingerprints on the handwritten note beside the gun on the kitchen counter. But there's a little bit of a problem with the gun.
According to one of the first responding officers, another cop had picked it up with bare hands but was immediately told to put it down. This meant the gun might have been touched by someone else and therefore contaminated. The 911 call was also center stage at trial.
Although you can't hear every word on it, the prosecution played the entire 12-minute phone call for the jury. And at one point, he's heard saying, it's all my fault. On the call, A.J. told dispatchers he heard gunshots coming from his parents' bedroom. He said his parents' bedroom door is usually closed, but it was cracked open. 911 then asked him if he could hear anything else.
AJ, no, there's nothing. I don't know. 911, okay. Did it sound like a handgun, rifle, or shotgun? AJ, I'm not good with guns, but I guess, I guess like a, I don't know, 15 or something like that. I know my gun has a gun underneath the, God, where does he keep the gun?
Um, I think he keeps it in his drawer next to his bed. AJ also told 911 he was hiding in the closet inside his bedroom on the third floor and his parents' bedroom was on the second. Four minutes into the call, AJ can be heard saying, how'd you get into our house? And seven minutes later, he says, it's all my fault. Although AJ made a comment about how'd you get into our house?
He didn't mention anything to 911 about an intruder being inside the house. But later on, AJ told Eyewitness News in an exclusive interview he saw a masked black man running from the home. But he didn't mention anything about that on the 911 call. AJ's defense presented their own theory about who might have killed Antonio and Dawn. And it was someone very close to the family.
Dawn's son and Antonio's stepson, Josh. According to the defense, in July 2016, at the time of the murders, Josh was also having a lot of problems with his parents. He was also reportedly suffering from mental health issues. In fact, just a few weeks before the shooting, Josh was kicked out of the house. AJ's defense alleged he wasn't the only one with access to his parents' house.
They said Josh also had the alarm codes for the house. He knew how to disarm the security system, and he also had a key. According to the defense, there wouldn't be any signs of a forced entry if Josh did it because he wouldn't need to break in. He already had access to the house. It wasn't just AJ. Six months after the murders, Josh was admitted to a mental health facility. According to the facility's records, some of them said, quote,
Josh was having suicidal thoughts. He heard voices. He was gradually deteriorating. He kept saying there was a woman in his head he wanted to hurt. He was depressed and withdrawn. He had no motivation and dropped out of college in October 2017, just a few months after the murders. End quote. After checking himself out of the mental health facility, Josh was diagnosed with schizophrenia.
And at AJ's trial, his former girlfriend testified to his mental state around the time of the murders. According to Josh's former girlfriend, he spiraled down a dark hole immediately after the shooting. AJ's girlfriend also testified about Josh. She said AJ wasn't capable of killing his parents, but Josh was.
She told the jury about several incidents where she was at the house and saw Josh talking to himself and having conversations. He testified that he used a lot of drugs and was also fighting with his parents in the weeks leading up to the murders. And ultimately, Josh got kicked out of the house. Josh never went to the hospital after the murders either.
Although Don was pronounced dead at the scene, Antonio was transported to the hospital where he died a few hours later. But Josh never went to the hospital. And according to AJ's defense, this pointed towards his guilt. Several other people testified similar feelings about Josh. They all said he had a troubled relationship with his mom and stepfather and was experiencing mental health and drug issues at the time.
He also lived just a few minutes away from his parents. The defense believed he could have easily walked over to his parents' house, committed the murders, and went back home. AJ's iPhone was an important piece of evidence for the prosecution. They show jurors several text messages between AJ and his parents extracted by forensic investigators between April and July 2016.
In the four months leading up to the murders, prosecutors showed the jury that Don and Antonio sent several text messages to AJ calling him a liar, expressing anger he was smoking marijuana, letting his grades slip, and disobeying their rules. It was clear from these text message exchanges that his parents were extremely upset with him at the time they were killed. And if you asked the prosecution...
This was the motivation for A.J. to murder his parents. The prosecution alleged that there were three motivating factors for A.J. to want his parents dead. Number one, his drug use. According to prosecutors, A.J. smoked marijuana heavily for at least one year before the murders. They showed text messages after text message between A.J. and his parents showing how disappointed they were about him smoking.
So prosecutors alleged A.J. was so sick and tired of hearing about the drug use that he decided to kill them. Motive number two was the alcohol use. Not only was A.J. regularly smoking marijuana, but he was also drinking alcohol heavily. And this was another behavior his parents disapproved of. Finally, the last motive was A.J.'s failing grades.
By the time of the shooting, AJ had already been kicked out of his private school, a failure that truly upset his parents. They raised AJ to be better. Antonio had a career in the NFL and professional Canadian football league and became a successful business owner and motivational speaker. His wife, Dawn, was just as successful. She played a huge part in the fitness businesses they owned together.
So when A.J. struggled to keep his grades up in school, his parents were very disappointed. They wanted a lot more out of their son. So the prosecutors alleged this served as a motive. A.J. was fed up. He was an angry teenager who was just sick and tired of hearing his parents complain about his failing life. But once again, A.J.'s defense had a different story.
According to them, A.J. had no motive to want his parents dead. He was only 16 years old at the time. And if his parents were dead, who would take care of him? They also said smoking marijuana and bad grades wasn't a big enough motive for committing a double homicide. He had never been in trouble with law enforcement before, and he never mentioned to anyone that he wanted to kill his parents.
The biggest character witness for the defense was A.J.'s girlfriend at the time. She testified to the jury that he simply wasn't capable of murdering his parents. He never showed any violent tendencies. He never talked about hurting anyone, especially his own parents. And killing his parents would have been completely out of character for A.J. After the prosecution and defense rested, the case was handed over to the jury.
The prosecution didn't have much forensic evidence on their side, so they needed the jury to focus on the security system evidence and other circumstantial evidence if they were going to find A.J. guilty. But after several days of deliberating, the jury couldn't reach a unanimous decision. They were hopelessly deadlocked, four to eight. Four people thought A.J. was innocent, and eight people thought he was guilty.
So the court had no choice but to rule a mistrial on April 4th, 2019. Instead of letting the case go, Texas prosecutors immediately announced that they were refiling criminal charges against AJ. They believed they had the right person on trial for Antonio and Don's murders, and they were determined to convince a 12-member jury.
And since the first jury was deadlocked on a decision, A.J.'s rights against double jeopardy weren't violated. Under the Constitution, a criminal defendant can't be tried twice for the same crime. But in A.J.'s case, he wasn't convicted. The jury couldn't unanimously decide, and the judge declared a mistrial. So prosecutors in this case were free to pursue a second murder trial. And they did.
AJ's second murder trial didn't get underway for almost two and a half years. The delay between trials was largely caused by two factors. Number one, the COVID-19 pandemic. Like AJ's case, the pandemic postponed many criminal trials. During this time, most courts only heard the most important and time-sensitive cases, which AJ's case wasn't either.
So the second trial didn't start until October 2022. But before the trial began, AJ's defense filed a motion to have his cell phone records be inadmissible. They wanted the judge to rule that the prosecution wouldn't be allowed to use the cell phone records as evidence against him. The defense alleged that the prosecution lost AJ's iPhone after the conclusion of the first criminal trial.
So all data and evidence extracted from the cell phone should be inadmissible. This included 80,000 pages of phone records the prosecution presented at trial against A.J. Most of that evidence was text messages between A.J. and his parents showing their troubled relationship during the months leading up to the murder.
The defense also said in the motion that 22 additional pieces of evidence, including DNA swabs, shell casings, and the gun case, were lost after the first trial. AJ's attorneys accused the prosecution of withholding this information about the lost evidence from them.
They said they knew about the missing items six or seven months earlier, but didn't tell them about it until recently. Before the start of AJ's second trial, a spokesperson for the DA said the missing evidence was accidentally thrown away. In a statement published by ABC 13 News, the spokesperson said, quote,
It was with the other evidence. It was presumed to be safe. It was being carried in a bag back and forth. Sometimes it's a bag or a box, end quote. Either way, a total of 22 pieces of evidence related to AJ's case were mistakenly thrown away by the prosecution between the end of the first trial and the start of the second.
But the judge in the case seemed to side with the prosecution because he allowed all the data extracted from AJ's missing iPhone to be presented as evidence during the retrial. AJ's second trial started in October 2022. This was now six years after Antonio and Don were shot and killed. And during the trial, the prosecution zeroed in on AJ's iPhone activity on the night of the murders.
So they didn't just present all the mean text messages between him and his parents during the months before, but they also had new forensic evidence. Nathan Gates, a Harris County District Attorney's Office digital forensic investigator, was a critical expert witness for the prosecution. He testified that the night Antonio and Don were murdered, A.J. used his cell phone nonstop.
Gates testified that AJ was using his cell phone until 1.02 a.m. and plugged it into charge at 1.04 a.m. Four minutes later, at 1.08 a.m., it's unplugged. From 1.16 to 1.24 a.m., Gates testified the iPhone screen repeatedly went on and off.
And according to the prosecution, this type of activity was consistent with someone using their phone's home screen as a flashlight in the dark. Prosecutors said this forensic evidence suggested A.J. was awake and was on his cell phone right before the shooting. Remember, he called 911 around 1.40 a.m.,
And prosecutors believed he used his iPhone as a flashlight to be able to walk through the dark house without waking up his sister or parents. He used the phone like a flashlight to get his dad's gun. And this explains why the phone screen was repeatedly turned on and off between 1.16 a.m. and 1.24 a.m.
The prosecution suggested this gave A.J. enough time to get the gun without his parents hearing or seeing him, shoot them both, and then call 911 by 140. Nathan Gates' testimony about the forensic evidence was huge for the prosecution's case. This new information wasn't available for the first trial.
They didn't have this type of technology in 2019, so this was all new information for the second trial, and it was used to support the prosecution story that A.J. was awake at the time. This was on top of the security alarm system evidence that showed movement right before the murders going from A.J.'s bedroom on the third floor to his parents' room on the second.
At the second trial, AJ's defense stuck to their story from the first trial that AJ's brother Josh was more likely to be the shooter. They told the jury about his rocky relationship with his parents. They talked about him getting kicked out of the house, and they also testified how he was diagnosed with schizophrenia several months after the murders. So mental health may have played a role.
The second trial mirrored the first one very closely. The jury heard about the alarm system, which the defense said was faulty and the prosecution said was fine. They listened to the entire 911 call, which the defense said portrayed a hysterical AJ and the prosecution said pointed towards his guilt and inconsistencies. They heard about the lack of forensic evidence, DNA, fingerprints on the murder weapon.
The defense argued this proved A.J. wasn't the shooter. The prosecution said he could have wiped away his prints. The jury heard testimony that A.J.'s brother, Josh, might have been the shooter. The defense pointed towards his mental health issues at the time. And the prosecution said no one could have entered the house because the alarm system wasn't triggered.
The second trial quickly became a battle of which version of the story you believe the most. After both sides rested, the case was once again handed over to the jury. After 18 hours of deliberating, they were once again deadlocked. They couldn't reach a unanimous verdict just like the first one. So now for the second time, the judge ruled another mistrial.
Despite two mistrials, Texas prosecutors are still determined to try A.J. Armstrong for a third time in his parents' murders. Instead of letting him go, they immediately refiled charges against him and vowed to go to trial for a third time. A.J.'s third murder trial is scheduled to begin any day now. He is looking at facing his third murder trial in less than seven years.
He's also much older than he was when his parents were murdered. He's not a 16-year-old boy anymore. He's a 23-year-old adult who's worn an ankle monitor his entire adult life since bonding out of jail in 2017. Since his last trial, AJ has married the mother of his son and his high school sweetheart, Kate Ober. She was the girlfriend who testified at both trials.
As of the time of this episode recording, AJ is scheduled to go to trial on July 31st, 2023, but it's unclear if there will be any further delays. Between Hurricane Harvey, COVID-19, dozens of rescheduled hearings, and lost evidence, this case has become one of Harris County's most backlogged criminal cases.
It's unclear what evidence the prosecution will rely on the most during the third trial to secure a conviction against AJ. It's also unclear what tactics his defense will employ to finally get him the acquittal that they have sought for years. And it's unclear how important the role of forensic evidence will be at his third trial.
Will the prosecution develop a better way to explain why AJ's DNA and fingerprints weren't found on the murder weapon? Or why he didn't have blood on him when the first responding officers got to the house? Or will the defense be able to explain the alarm system and the cell phone data?
How can they explain how a Dumbel homicide occurred behind locked doors and locked windows? Only time will tell what happens in this third murder trial against A.J. Armstrong. If you'd like to follow A.J.'s case that is set to go to trial next month, I encourage you to look for updates posted by ABC 13 News.
They have extensively covered the case since it started, and this news station was a massive help to me while creating this episode. To share your thoughts on the story, be sure to follow the show on Instagram and Facebook. To find out what I think about the case, sign up to become a patron at patreon.com slash forensic tales. After each episode, I release a bonus episode where I share my personal thoughts and opinions about the case.
You'll want to listen to this one because I'm going to share what I think about AJ's case and let you know my opinions about his guilt or innocence. Don't forget to subscribe to Forensic Tales so you don't miss an episode. We release a new episode every Monday. If you love the show, consider leaving us a positive review or tell friends and family about us. You can also help support the show through Patreon.
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to find out how you can become involved. For a complete list of sources used in this episode, please visit ForensicTales.com. Thank you for listening. I'll see you next week. Until then, remember, not all stories have happy endings.