(NewsNation) — An Austin Police Department detective testified Monday that Kaitlin Armstrong’s iPhone was viewing pictures of Anna Moriah “Mo” Wilson 10 days before the professional cyclist died.
Armstrong is accused of killing Wilson, who was found unconscious with a gunshot wound at a friend’s house May 11, 2022. She has pleaded not guilty to a first-degree murder charge.
Wilson had a brief romantic relationship with Colin Strickland, another professional cyclist, while he was on a break with Armstrong. Strickland has previously testified that he’d had an “on-again, off-again” relationship with Armstrong, a yoga instructor.
Monday marked the seventh day of testimony in the trial.
APD forensic detective Daniel Portnoy said he extracted data from Strickland and Wilson’s phones but could not get a read on Armstrong’s because it had been factory reset the morning after Wilson’s killing.
Another extraction report from the police showed nearly 100 contacts blocked on Strickland’s phone, including Wilson. However, Christine Wall, which was Strickland’s name for Wilson in his phone, was not blocked, Portnoy said.
Defense attorneys questioned Portnoy over whether the data could tell who blocked the contacts from Strickland’s phone, to which the detective said it could not.
Brandi Stanfield with the Travis County District Attorney’s Office testified in the afternoon. The court was shown different pictures that were introduced into evidence, including one of Armstrong with a firearm that had been posted to Instagram. Another photo showed a log of names and dates of people who signed into a gun range, with the name “Allison Paige” listed.
More photos shown to the court include ones of Armstrong with a bandage around her nose.
The defense asked whether the picture of Armstrong with a firearm was a screenshot of someone else’s story, and stated that Instagram photos can be posted well after the date they were actually taken.
Another witness, David Luppino, the general manager of The Range at Austin, took the stand after Stanfield. As he testified, prosecutors displayed receipts from Armstrong and her sister Christine for rounds of ammunition purchased in January 2022, NewsNation local affiliate KXAN wrote. According to KXAN, Strickland had previously testified that he purchased firearms in December 2021 after Armstrong stated she was paranoid about biking in the woods alone, and a nearby homeless camp.
Jill Zann, the next witness to testify on Monday, used to live in Christine’s apartment building. Zann said she met Kaitlin Armstrong when she would come by with her dog. The sisters had also come to Zann’s home to learn gun safety rules.
Back in January 2022, Kaitlin Armstrong brought her black 9 mm pistol to Zann’s home, and the three of them went to the gun range. While Zann can’t remember if Armstrong was a “good shot,” she did recall that she hit the target.
Zann described Armstrong as “sweet, calm, friendly,” and called her a good student who was paying attention to the instructions as she learned about gun safety education.
Defense attorneys established that 28 other people bought the same ammunition Armstrong did on the same January day. Luppino replied that the kind Armstrong bought is popular among gun enthusiasts.
Last week, the court heard from a number of witnesses, including crime scene specialists, Austin Police Department officers, friends of Armstrong and even Strickland himself.
Two friends of Armstrong’s testified that they remember Armstrong saying she wanted to kill Wilson out of jealousy. Austin Police Department Detective Richard Spitler also said on the stand that he believes evidence shows Armstrong was jealous, and this could be a potential motive.
There was no court on Friday due to Veteran’s Day being that Saturday. Thursday’s testimony ended with a digital forensic detective from the APD going through GPS data he analyzed with Armstrong’s Jeep, NewsNation local affiliate KXAN reported. An interactive map presented by the state shows the Jeep in the east Austin neighborhood where Wilson was shot on the night of the killing.
Earlier in the trial, prosecutors had displayed home surveillance videos they said put Armstrong’s Jeep near the home as well, KXAN wrote. Armstrong’s DNA, according to police, was also on Wilson’s bike in the grass near the murder scene.
However, the defense team for Armstrong has argued that no cameras caught the accused herself at Wilson’s friend’s home.
NewsNation local affiliate KXAN contributed to this article.
