'He was not a typical 16 year old': Prosecutors talk evidence, why they say AJ Armstrong killed his parents
Prosecutors talk about AJ Armstrong trial
For seven years, you may have heard a lot about what happened in the deaths of Dawn and Antonio Armstrong Sr. but you likely haven't heard from the prosecutors as they're not allowed to speak during the trial. Now that their son, Antonio Armstrong Jr. has been found guilty of their murder, they sat down with FOX 26's Damali Keith to share more.
HOUSTON - For seven years you may have heard a lot about what happened to Dawn and Antonio Armstrong Sr., but you likely haven’t heard from the prosecutors. They’re not allowed to speak during the trial but now that Antonio Armstrong Jr. has been found guilty of murdering his parents they sat down to talk with me.
Houstonians have had a lot of questions about the case of 16-year-old AJ Armstrong who’s been found guilty of murdering his own parents, from what’s the evidence, to why was he tried three times, to how is it possible that blood wasn’t discovered on AJ’s shirt for seven years?
Prosecutors John Jordan and Ryan Trask are answering all of our questions.
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"Everybody wants a reason. Sometimes certain offenders, certain murderers, notorious murderers there’s not a reason. They just want the person dead," says Jordan.
That’s a large part of why prosecutors say it was so difficult to convict Antonio Armstrong Jr., a 16-year-old kid accused of destroying his beautiful family by murdering his own parents Antonio Sr. and Dawn Armstrong, shot with their own gun.
"They were being great parents. They were doing everything they could for their kids. They spent money on them to go to great schools and have the best education that money can buy, and people look at that and say why would he want them dead," Trask explains.
From there prosecutors say a false narrative was created. "And it’s a narrative people want to believe. No one wants to believe someone so handsome and so young could commit one of the most brutal crimes Harris County has seen in years. He walked into his parents' bedroom and shot them both in the middle of the night," says Jordan.
"To us, the evidence was always so clear that it was him," adds Trask.
Some of the most powerful evidence includes the doors and windows at the home were found locked. Also, the home alarm was set and records show no windows or doors were opened, but alarm sensors went off inside the house that early morning in July 2016, coinciding with AJ’s cell phone activity.
"The fact that he unplugged it (his cell phone) at 1:08 a.m. on the third floor, and then one minute later the second-floor sensor goes off at 1:09 that’s pretty powerful evidence," says Jordan.
Also, for several minutes AJ’s phone is lighting up as if he was using it to light his way through a dark house. At 1:25 a.m. an alarm sensor was tripped on the first floor where the murder weapon and a note were found in the kitchen and all the drawers were left open.
AJ calls 911 at 1:40 a.m.
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"The way that worked with the alarm records was a puzzle the defense just could not get around. I mean down to the minute they overlapped each other," says Trask.
"It was really important to show that jury that he was not a typical 16-year-old. Don’t even try to understand it and understand his conduct. We told jurors in Opening Statements you may never know at the conclusion of this trial why he did it, but you are going to know he did it," says Jordan.
Jurors also heard how Armstrong first test fired the murder weapon through blankets and pillows, leaving a bullet hole in his bedroom floor. "And what 16-year-old pours gasoline across the top steps of their home with their parents bedroom right outside and sets it on fire? He did that two days before the murder," Jordan explains.
Prosecutors also point to AJ saying on the 911 call he could hear ringing in his ears, common when someone fires a gun without ear protection. "Boy that is about as big of a confession as you’ll ever get," says Jordan.
During the 16 minute 911 call AJ never mentions seeing a masked intruder. Hours later he tells police he was standing on the steps and saw a masked man come out of his parents' room. "I mean they would have been closer, Damali than you and I are right now, and if you had seen that the first thing you’re going to say on the 911 call is I just saw him he ran right by me…nobody breaks into a house and goes through the house to find the homeowners gun to kill them with, make sure it was loaded, run back around the other side of the bed and kill mom. That makes no sense," Trask explains.
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Dawn Armstrong was shot twice and killed first. "His animosity for his mother was so evident and her realization of who he was, was evident. In his statement, he said something that’s odd. He says I’m not saying that my dad put a hit out on my mom and something went wrong. That shows an intimate knowledge of that crime scene because that’s exactly what it looks like. There’s a real possibility when he entered that room he was planning on killing one person but by the time he left that room he’d killed two," says Jordan.
Four times during the 16-minute 911 call AJ asks if can he get his 12-year-old sister but never says he wants to check on his parents. "And we know based on the layout of the house to go get his sister he has to pass by his parents' bedroom. To never look in there, never to say hey mom, dad are you ok is powerful evidence," says Trask.
"It was just as important for Ryan and I to clear Josh’s name in our community as it was to hold the defendant accountable of this crime," says Jordan.
Prosecutors presented text messages in the trial where AJ’s mom repeatedly calls AJ a liar, messages they say showed there was a significant strain on the relationship between parents and teen.
"In the second trial I think that jury got a sense, and they understood that Dawn and Antonio were done with him, but they didn’t understand why. So when we were able to do simultaneous text messages that he’s having with other people including his girlfriend to show in real time how he operates. Within 20 seconds he’s changing what he’s saying based on what people are saying so you could see why they call him a schemer and a liar," Jordan explains, and he says "We also presented messages between Dawn and Josh. Some of those messages were extraordinary. When she is chastising AJ for failing out of school she reaches out to Josh. ‘I can’t stop crying’ and Josh lifts her up. It’s this ordinary beautiful relationship, and he has empathy for his mother which you never see in the defendant's messages to his mother. We had text messages right up until the day of the murder where the defendant is trying to sneak out of the house and borrow Josh’s Mustang and to go Galveston and Josh is like I’m not going to let you do that mom and dad said you can’t use the car,".
The Mustang actually belonged to AJ, but his parents took it away from him because of his behavior, and they gave the car to Josh.
"Josh’s medical records, thousands of pages, where he says my parents' death was the worst day of my life. He had more emotion than the defendant is even capable of showing…It’s difficult I think for anybody to grasp…through the text messages you could see the hopelessness in Dawn. It was more than just saying you’re a liar. She was saying to AJ things like all you do is smoke, drink, and lie. You’re a liar like I’ve never seen before and all you do is scheme behind our backs. What did we ever do to deserve that?" Trask explains.
"Clearly his intent going in that room was to kill his mother. His dad raises his head slightly, and he’s shot across the bed. Maybe he thought when he did the test fire it wouldn’t be as loud as it was," says Jordan.
"It’s not that we were going after him to try to get somebody because we never even had a family behind us. We never had a family saying I want justice for Dawn and Antonio. Nobody ever told us that, but we felt we had to do it for the parents, and we felt it was clear he was the person who was responsible for it. I think this time the jury got it right," says Trask.
"Our hearts go out to the family. We understand they love the defendant, and so we will never say anything bad about them. It was an honor to put in this work, to achieve a result and get justice for Dawn and Antonio Sr. because they deserve it," says Jordan.
As far as AJ’s dad’s blood that was recently discovered on AJ’s shirt under an HPD visitors sticker, the prosecutors point out, a lab analyst testified he never checked under the sticker when the shirt was tested in 2016. The crime scene investigator who finally peeled back the sticker in June 2023 was on surveillance video making the discovery, which included a fleck of blood and dried blood splatter called ‘expiration blood’ which is usually a mix of air and blood expelled from the lungs.
AJ is appealing the guilty verdict.