Texas yoga teacher who murdered love rival and fled country seeks retrial, pushing victimhood narrative

Kaitlin Armstrong, 36, killed pro cyclist Anna Moriah Wilson on May 11, 2022. The Austin woman tried to escape the consequences, fleeing to Costa Rica, where she got a new nose, changed her hair, and took up a short-lived career as a yoga instructor.

American authorities ultimately managed to track her down and drag her back to face justice. Following her failed attempt to flee, a Texas jury convicted Armstrong of first-degree murder, slapped her with a $10,000 fine, and awarded her a 90-year prison sentence.

Once again, the 36-year-old killer appears keen to avoid accountability for her callous crimes.

Armstrong is now seeking a retrial, hoping a new victim narrative and dubious claims about being pregnant after the slaying might prompt a more sympathetic response from a jury.

Green-eyed jealousy

Blaze News previously reported that Wilson, a 25-year-old Vermont native and world-class cyclist, was in Austin on May 11, 2022, to compete in a cycling race. Hours before her slaying, she went out for a bike ride and a meal with Colin Strickland, a fellow cyclist and former boyfriend.

Strickland also happened to be an on-again, off-again boyfriend of Armstrong's.

Strickland told the Austin-American Statesman that he and Wilson "had a brief romantic relationship from late October-early November 2021 that spanned a week or so while Wilson was visiting Austin. At the time, she and I had both recently ended relationships. She returned to her home in California and about a month later, Kaitlin Armstrong and I reconciled and resumed our relationship."

Strickland noted that his subsequent encounters with Wilson were "platonic and professional."

Prosecutors revealed during the trial that Armstrong had access to Strickland's texts and also used a geolocation app to track Wilson. In addition to obsessing over the victim's social media profile in the days leading up to her trigger pull, she also made note of Wilson's address.

Authorities later learned that ahead of the slaying, Armstrong acquired a firearm and expressed indignation upon learning Strickland had been romantically involved with Wilson.

A fleet-footed murderer

On the night of the murder, surveillance video caught Armstrong pulling up in her black Jeep Grand Cherokee to the residence where Wilson was staying — just moments after Strickland dropped the cyclist off following their platonic get-together.

Prosecutor Rickey Jones told the jury, "The last thing Mo did on this Earth was scream in terror."

Surveillance footage caught the sound of the victim's screams, "followed by pow! Pow! Two gunshots – one to the front of the head, one to the side of the head that hits the index finger as it passes. You won't hear any more screams after that," said Jones.

Caitlin Cash, Wilson's friend whose apartment Armstrong transformed into a crime scene, returned home to find Wilson unresponsive and bleeding on the bathroom floor. She reportedly performed CPR, but to no avail.

Police later pronounced Wilson dead at the scene, three days before she was scheduled to compete in the 157-mile Gravel Locos bike race.

After murdering Wilson, Armstrong solder her Jeep for $12,200, according to the U.S. Marshals Service. This appears to have provided her with sufficient cash for her exodus.

Armstrong went on the run for 43 days. During this time, she changed her appearance, searched news reports about the murder investigation, and researched how to burn off her fingerprints.

Finally, U.S. and Costa Rican authorities tracked her down to a hostel on Santa Teresa Beach in Provincia de Puntarenas and busted her on June 29, 2022.

The murderer attempted to dodge consequence again on Oct. 11, 2023, faking an injury to go to a doctor's appointment outside the prison, then running away from corrections officers. Deputies were able to catch up with her before she could flee to another Latin American destination.

Armstrong was found guilty of murder on Nov. 16. She elected for the jury to determine her sentence, which turned out to be 90 years in the slammer.

Another attempt to avoid accountability

The murderer's attorney filed a motion for a new trial in the District Court of Travis County, Texas, on Dec. 15.

In the filing obtained by the Daily Mail, Armstrong's attorney argued a jury might otherwise have given her a lighter sentence had they known she was supposedly pregnant — a claim not once made during her trial, which some now find hard to believe.

Austin attorney Adam Loewy told the Daily Mail, "There's many problems with the theory."

For starters, while evading justice in Costa Rica, Armstrong got a nose job, a brow lift, and filler injections. Such surgeries require medical professionals to inquire about a woman's health status, including whether they are pregnant. According to testimonies heard in court, Armstrong was cleared for surgery after providing her surgeons with the requisite lab work, which apparently omitted any mention of her being with child.

"The fact is she's just trying, or her new lawyers are trying, any kind of desperate move to try to overturn the conviction," said Loewy. "You try everything in these situations and you hope that the appellate courts bites on something."

The filing also tries to paint the cold-blooded killer as a victim whose dad abandoned her and her alcoholic mother.

"As her family struggled during her childhood, her childhood friend also recalled Kaitlin was the victim of multiple instances of (actual or attempted) sexual violence," claimed Armstrong's lawyer.

On the basis of the pregnancy and victimhood allegations, the filing states, "Considering the sentence here was for 90 years and a maximum fine, there should be no question that this mitigating evidence would have resulted in a more lenient punishment."

It appears Armstrong's lengthy sentence is her own doing — and not just because she's guilty.

The George Soros-backed Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza who set a serial sex offender free reportedly offered Armstrong a plea deal ahead of her trial, which would have meant a prison sentence less than half of what she ultimately received.

A legal source told the Daily Mail, "Against the advice of her attorney, she rejected the plea deal."

Reaction after Kaitlin Armstrong found guilty of murdering Moriah Wilsonyoutu.be

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