Houston, Texas (KTRK) – The evidence that will appear in the third trial for the death of Armstrong, which will be punishable by death, was presented on Thursday. Text messages between Armstrong and his parents in the months leading up to the murders, police interrogation, and autopsy photos of Dawn and Antonio Sr. were admitted during a pre-trial hearing.
But there is one surveillance video that Judge Kelly Johnson has not yet decided whether to allow jurors to see.
Twelve days after the murders, the black and white video shows what appears to be two men breaking into a gym owned by the Armstrongs in Bellaire and stealing two computer monitors.
Armstrong’s defense attorney Rick Detuto argued that the video was evidence that there could be an “alternate perpetrator”. Armstrong was in prison, accused of killing his parents, when the break-in occurred.
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Prosecutors fired back, saying there was no connection between the robbery and the murders.
Assistant District Attorney Ryan Trask noted that in the capital murder, “nothing was taken from the house.”
Dawn and Antonio Sr. were shot and killed in July 2016. Their son was arrested and charged hours after their murder. In two separate interviews with ABC13, Armstrong maintained his innocence.
From the first trial, the defense suggested that Armstrong’s older half-brother, Josh Armstrong, who suffers from mental illness, could be the real killer.
Detuto said the evidence shows that “it’s getting stronger”.
“Josh Armstrong is not on trial here,” Trask argued.
Prosecutors also asserted that neither of the two people seen in the surveillance video was identified as Josh.
In Armstrong’s first trial, the jury watched the video. In the second trial, the defense changed its strategy and did not use it.
RELATED: The jury has chosen the third murder trial of AJ Armstrong, set to begin Monday
Judge Johnson is expected to rule on Monday, June 5, before jurors sit down, on whether or not the video will be evidence in the new trial.
Opening statements will start with 45 minutes of prosecutors laying out their theory of how AJ Armstrong killed his parents when he was 16 years old.
The defense will have just as much time to show why Armstrong wasn’t the killer.
The jury of 12 and four alternates was selected on Wednesday after an in-depth three-week selection process.
The trial is expected to last between two and three weeks.
If Armstrong is found guilty, he will automatically be sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 40 years.
Watch more from ABC13’s seven-year coverage of the AJ Armstrong murder trial.
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