Kaitlin Armstrong sentenced to 90 years in prison after murdering love rival professional cyclist Anna Moriah Wilson
A former fugitive has been sentenced to 90 years in jail after murdering her love rival in a jealous rage, before fleeing the US and having plastic surgery to try to evade authorities.
Kaitlin Armstrong, 35, was convicted of shooting dead professional cyclist Anna Moriah “Mo” Wilson after the 25-year-old went swimming and had a meal and rum drinks with Armstrong’s boyfriend Colin Strickland earlier that evening.
A Texas jury found Armstrong guilty of murder on Thursday and a day later took three hours to decide her sentence. She faced a maximum of 99 years for the crime.
Armstrong left the Austin courtroom immediately after the verdict, as her family could be heard sobbing.
Wilson’s family embraced each other after the sentencing, as her mother Karen Wilson addressed the court.
Looking at Armstrong, she said: “When you shot Moriah in the heart, you shot me in the heart… all the people who loved her, pierced their hearts.”
Armstrong used fitness app Strava to track Ms Wilson down to an apartment in Austin – where she shot her twice in the head and once in the heart before fleeing the scene.
At the time of the murder in May 2022, the killer was in a relationship with another professional cyclist, Mr Strickland.
The pair had been together for about three years before a period of separation – during which Mr Strickland had a brief relationship with Ms Wilson.
Armstrong and Mr Strickland then got back together, but she remained jealous of her rival and had called Ms Wilson warning her to “stay away”.
Two of Armstrong’s friends said she told them she wanted to, or could, kill Ms Wilson, jurors were told.
Victim Anna ‘Mo’ Wilson was a rising cycling star. Pic: AP
Ms Wilson had been visiting Texas for a cycling race and was among the favourites to win. She had been staying with a friend when she was killed.
Following the murder, police managed to briefly interview Armstrong. But she then sold her Jeep and fled to Costa Rica using her sister’s passport.
Once abroad, she spent more than $6,000 (£4,850) having surgery to change the appearance of her nose, as well as changing the colour and style of her hair.
But she was eventually arrested at a beachside hostel after 43 days on the run.
Armstrong made a second attempt to evade justice when she tried to escape authorities during a medical appointment outside jail last month. She faces a separate felony escape charge.
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Jurors deliberated for about two hours after two weeks of testimony before delivering their verdict on Thursday.
Earlier, Ms Wilson’s friend Caitlin Cash had told the court she discovered her body and tried to perform CPR.
She told jurors she had texted Ms Wilson’s mother earlier that day with a message: “Your girl is in safe hands here in Austin.”
“I felt a lot of guilt not being able to protect her,” Ms Cash said. “I fought for her with everything I had.”
A mugshot of Armstrong that was previously released by police. Pic: AP
Karen Wilson also told the court: “From the day she was born, she had a force in her.
“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.”
Armstrong, a yoga teacher, did not testify on her own behalf during the trial, which heard her Jeep was seen near the apartment at the time of Ms Wilson’s murder.
Bullet casings found near Ms Wilson’s body also matched a gun Armstrong owned.
She denied murder and her lawyers claimed she was the victim of a “nightmare” of circumstantial evidence.
At least 51 people have died after heavy rain caused flash flooding, with water bursting from the banks of the Guadalupe River in Texas.
The overflowing water began sweeping into Kerr County and other areas around 4am local time on Friday, killing at least 43 people in the county.
This includes at least 15 children and 28 adults, with five children and 12 adults pending identification, Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha said at a news conference.
In nearby Kendall County, one person has died. At least four people were killed in Travis County, while at least two people died in Burnet County. Another person has died in the city of San Angelo in Tom Green County.
People comfort each other in Kerrville, Texas. Pic: Jason Fochtman/Houston Chronicle via AP
Large piles of debris in Kerrville, Texas, following the flooding. Pic: Reuters//Marco Bello
An unknown number of people remain missing, including 27 girls from Camp Mystic in Kerr County, a Christian summer camp along the Guadalupe River.
Rescuers have already saved hundreds of people and would work around the clock to find those still unaccounted for, Texas governor Greg Abbott said.
But as rescue teams are searching for the missing, Texas officials are facing scrutiny over their preparations and why residents and summer camps for children that are dotted along the river were not alerted sooner or told to evacuate.
AccuWeather said the private forecasting company and the National Weather Service (NWS) sent warnings about potential flash flooding hours before the devastation, urging people to move to higher ground and evacuate flood-prone areas.
Debris on the banks of the Guadalupe River in Hunt. Pic: AP Photo/Julio Cortez
An overturned vehicle is caught in debris along the Guadalupe River. Pic: AP
The NWS later issued flash flood emergencies – a rare alert notifying of imminent danger.
“These warnings should have provided officials with ample time to evacuate camps such as Camp Mystic and get people to safety,” AccuWeather said in a statement that called Texas Hill County one of the most flash-flood-prone areas of the US because of its terrain and many water crossings.
But one NWS forecast earlier in the week had called for up to six inches of rain, said Nim Kidd, chief of the Texas Division of Emergency Management.”It did not predict the amount of rain that we saw,” he said.
Officials said they had not expected such an intense downpour of rain, equivalent to months’ worth in a few short hours, insisting that no one saw the flood potential coming.
One river near Camp Mystic rose 22ft in two hours, according to Bob Fogarty, meteorologist with the NWS’s Austin/San Antonio office. The gauge failed after recording a level of 29.5ft.
A wall is missing on a building at Camp Mystic in Hunt, Texas. Pic: AP/Julio Cortez
Bedding items are seen outside sleeping quarters at Camp Mystic. Pic: AP/Julio Cortez
A Sheriff’s deputy pauses while searching for the missing in Hunt, Texas.Pic: AP/Julio Cortez
“People, businesses, and governments should take action based on Flash Flood Warnings that are issued, regardless of the rainfall amounts that have occurred or are forecast,” Jonathan Porter, chief meteorologist at AccuWeather, said in a statement.
“We know we get rain. We know the river rises,” said Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly, the county’s top elected official. “But nobody saw this coming.”
Judge Kelly said the county considered a flood warning system along the Guadalupe River that would have functioned like a tornado warning siren about six or seven years ago, before he was elected, but that the idea never got off the ground because “the public reeled at the cost”.
A drone view of Comfort, Texas. Pic: Reuters
Officials comb through the banks of the Guadalupe River in Hunt, Texas. Pic: AP/Julio Cortez
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was asked during a news conference on Saturday whether the flash flood warnings came through quickly enough: “We know that everyone wants more warning time, and that is why we are working to upgrade the technologies that have been neglected for far too long.”
Presidential cuts to climate and weather organisations have also been criticised in the wake of the floods after Donald Trump‘s administration ordered 800 job cuts at the science and climate organisation NOAA, the parent organisation of the NWS, which predicts and warns about extreme weather like the Texas floods.
A 30% cut to its budget is also in the pipeline, subject to approval by Congress.
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Professor Costa Samaras, who worked on energy policy at the White House under President Joe Biden, said NOAA had been in the middle of developing new flood maps for neighbourhoods and that cuts to NOAA were “devastating”.
“Accurate weather forecasts matter. FEMA and NOAA matter. Because little girls’ lives matter,” said Frank Figliuzzi, a national security and intelligence analyst at Sky’s US partner organisation NBC News.
Elon Musk says he has created a new political party – the America Party –
after asking his followers if he should do so in an online poll.
It follows his public falling out with Republican President Donald Trump.
On Friday, the billionaire had asked his followers on X whether a new US political party should be created.
On Saturday evening he wrote on the same platform: “By a factor of 2 to 1, you want a new political party and you shall have it!
“When it comes to bankrupting our country with waste & graft, we live in a one-party system, not a democracy.
“Today, the America Party is formed to give you back your freedom.”
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Trump threatens to ‘put DOGE’ on Musk
The world’s richest man made the announcement just one day after President Trump signed a tax-cut and spending bill into law on Friday, which Musk had fiercely opposed.
Musk had previously said we would form and fund a new political party to unseat lawmakers who supported the bill.
From bromance to bust-up
The Tesla boss backed Trump’s election campaign with more than a quarter of a billion dollars, later rewarded with a high profile role running the newly created department of government efficiency (DOGE).
But observers of the two men, both with huge wealth and reputations, wondered how long the bromance would last.
Donald Trump gave Musk a warm send-off in the Oval Office in May. Pic: Reuters
In May Musk left the role, still on good terms with Trump but criticising key parts of his legislative agenda.
After that, the attacks ramped up, with Musk slamming the sweeping tax and spending bill as a “disgusting abomination” and Trump hitting back in a barbed tit-for-tat.
Trump earlier this week threatened to cut off the billion-dollar federal subsidies that flow to Musk’s companies, and said he would even consider deporting him.
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