A Texas jury on Friday sentenced a woman to 90 years in prison for the May 2022 shooting death of rising professional cyclist Anna “Mo” Wilson in a case that sent investigators on a 43-day international search for the killer.
Jurors deliberated for several hours before delivering the verdict for 35-year-old Kaitlin Armstrong, who investigators said tracked Wilson to the apartment where she was staying and shot her three times. They took only two hours on Thursday to convict her.
Prosecutors said Armstrong gunned down the 25-year-old Wilson in a jealous rage. Wilson had briefly dated Armstrong’s boyfriend several months earlier. Wilson went swimming and to a meal with him the day she was killed.
Armstrong’s defense attorneys had urged the jury to consider something less than life that could offer the chance for parole.
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PROSECUTORS IN KAITLIN ARMSTRONG MURDER TRIAL ASK FOR 40 YEARS
“This is a person who had time to think, meditate and calculate her actions," said Travis County Assistant District Attorney Guillermo Gonzalez. “It's time for accountability.”
The murder charge carries a range of five to 99 years, or life, in prison. Armstrong attorney Rick Cofer did not suggest a sentencing range but asked jurors to consider something less than life, which could offer the chance for parole.
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“Forgiveness doesn’t suspend justice or holding people accountable,” Cofer said. “It has a possibility of atonement.”
Prosecutors said Armstrong gunned down the 25-year-old Wilson in a jealous rage in May 2022. Wilson, also known as “Mo,” had briefly dated Armstrong’s boyfriend several months earlier. Wilson went swimming and to a meal with him the day she was killed.
After two weeks of testimony, jurors deliberated for about two hours before delivering their verdict.
“From the day she was born, she had a force in her,” Wilson's mother, Karen Wilson, told jurors Thursday at the start of the punishment phase of the trial. “She lived as if every day was her last day. And she lived it so fully. She never wasted any time. … It’s as if she knew her life would be short.”
Wilson's family and friends, who sat in the front row for most of the trial, hugged and cried after the verdict.
Caitlin Cash, the friend who found Wilson's body and tried to perform CPR, told jurors she had texted Wilson's mother earlier that day with a photo of her starting a bike ride with a note: “Your girl is in safe hands here in Austin."
“I felt a lot of guilt not being able to protect her," Cash said. "I fought for her with everything I had.”
Armstrong’s younger sister Christine and their mother sat behind the defense table and cried after the verdict. Armstrong’s father stood silently for several minutes.
Christine Armstrong told jurors her older sister “is not a bad person.”
“She's such a special person,” Christine Armstrong said before looking at her sister. “I’ve always looked up to you. … She’s always cared for other people.”
A Vermont native and former alpine skier at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, Wilson was an emerging star in pro gravel and mountain bike racing. She was visiting Austin ahead of a race in Texas, where she was among the favorites to win.
Kaitlin Armstrong tracked Wilson to the apartment where she was staying through a fitness app and shot her three times, twice in the head and once through the heart, investigators said.
“I would have done anything to stand in the way of that bullet," Karen Wilson said. "She did not deserve a death like that.”
Kaitlin Armstrong did not testify on her own behalf during the trial.
Her Jeep was seen near the apartment around the time Wilson was shot and bullet casings found near Wilson’s body matched a gun Armstrong owned. Armstrong briefly met with police before selling her vehicle and using her sister’s passport to fly to Costa Rica.
She spent more than $6,000 on a nose job there and changed the color and style of her hair to evade authorities before she was arrested at a beachside hostel, investigators said.
Armstrong again tried to escape authorities during an Oct. 11 medical appointment outside of jail. She faces a separate felony escape charge.
