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.
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.”
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.
Advertisement
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.
Image: Victim Anna ‘Mo’ Wilson was a rising cycling star. Pic: AP
Ms Wilson had been visiting Texasfor 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.
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.”
Image: 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.
Ukraine’s president is offering an olive branch to Donald Trump with a dramatic public message aimed at mending their relationship and ending Russia’s war.
He did not go so far as to apologise for a fiery bust-up with Mr Trump at the Oval Office last Friday – a move that some members of the US administration have called for, even though it was the American president and his deputy JD Vance who laid into Mr Zelenskyy.
Image: Ukrainian forces fire a missile towards Russian troops near Chasiv Yar. Pic: Reuters
Most significantly though was his spelling out of a vision for the first stage of how Russia’s war with Ukraine could end.
Pushing back on false claims by Trump allies such as Elon Musk that Mr Zelenskyy wants an endless war, he said that Ukraine is committed to peace and is ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible.
Crucially, he said: “We are ready to work fast to end the war, and the first stages could be the release of prisoners and truce in the sky – ban on missiles, long-ranged drones, bombs on energy and other civilian infrastructure – and truce in the sea immediately, if Russia will do the same.”
More on Donald Trump
Related Topics:
Appealing to the US president’s ego, he praised Mr Trump’s “strong leadership” and repeated his gratitude for past American support – again responding to criticism from the American commander in chief and his team that he is not showing enough gratitude.
Spreaker
This content is provided by Spreaker, which may be using cookies and other technologies.
To show you this content, we need your permission to use cookies.
You can use the buttons below to amend your preferences to enable Spreaker cookies or to allow those cookies just once.
You can change your settings at any time via the Privacy Options.
Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to Spreaker cookies.
To view this content you can use the button below to allow Spreaker cookies for this session only.
He also said Kyiv was ready to sign a key minerals deal with Washington – something else Mr Trump is seeking.
This message appears to be an attempt by Mr Zelenskyy to steer his relationship with Mr Trump back on track and to map out his idea for an end to the war – a conflict that Ukraine did not seek but which was brought to its land by Russia’s invading forces.
Image: Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House on Friday, before their Oval Office bust-up. Pic: AP
Will Mr Zelenskyy’s expression of regret and clear wish to end the war provide enough of an off-ramp for Mr Trump to defuse the row and – for the sake of Ukraine’s ability to defend itself – switch back on the flow of military assistance to the country?
Another major factor, of course, is how Vladimir Putin reacts and whether he could countenance a limited ceasefire in a war that he started and – unlike Mr Zelenskyy – appears to have no genuine desire to halt.
Donald Trump’s 25% tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada have come into effect, as has an additional 10% on Chinese products, bringing the total import tax to 20%.
The US president confirmed the tariffs in a speech at the White House – and his announcement sent US and European stocks down sharply.
The tariffs will be felt heavily by US companies which have factories in Canada and Mexico, such as carmakers.
Mr Trump said: “They’re going to have a tariff. So what they have to do is build their car plants, frankly, and other things in the United States, in which case they have no tariffs.”
There’s “no room left” for a deal that would see the tariffs shelved if fentanyl flowing into the US is curbed by its neighbours, he added.
Mexico and Canada face tariffs of 25%, with 10% for Canadian energy, the Trump administration confirmed.
And tariffs on Chinese imports have doubled, raising them from 10% to 20%.
More on Donald Trump
Related Topics:
Canada announced it would retaliate immediately, imposing 25% tariffs on US imports worth C$30bn (£16.3bn). It added the tariffs would be extended in 21 days to cover more US goods entering the country if the US did not lift its sanctions against Canada.
China also vowed to retaliate and reiterated its stance that the Trump administration was trying to “shift the blame” and “bully” Beijing over fentanyl flows.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
2:45
What is America’s trade position?
Mr Trump’s speech stoked fears of a trade war in North America, prompting a financial market sell-off.
Stock market indexes the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite fell by 1.48% and 2.64% respectively on Monday.
The share prices for automobile companies including General Motors, which has significant truck production in Mexico, Automaker and Ford also fell.
Spreaker
This content is provided by Spreaker, which may be using cookies and other technologies.
To show you this content, we need your permission to use cookies.
You can use the buttons below to amend your preferences to enable Spreaker cookies or to allow those cookies just once.
You can change your settings at any time via the Privacy Options.
Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to Spreaker cookies.
To view this content you can use the button below to allow Spreaker cookies for this session only.
Consumers in the US could see price hikes within days, an expert has said.
Gustavo Flores-Macias, a public policy professor at Cornell University, New York, said “the automobile sector, in particular, is likely to see considerable negative consequences”.
This is due to supply chains that “crisscross the three countries in the manufacturing process” and ” because of the expected increase in the price of vehicles, which can dampen demand,” he added.
A truck has collided with a bus in southern Bolivia, killing at least 31 people, according to police – just two days after a deadly crash claimed at least 37 lives.
Officers said the bus rolled some 500m (1,640ft) down a ravine after the collision on Monday, which took place on the highway between Oruro, in the Bolivian Altiplano, and the highland mining city of Potosi.
The driver of the truck has been arrested, while the cause of the accident is under investigation.
Police spokesperson Limbert Choque said men and women were among the dead, and 22 people suffered injuries.
Image: Rescue teams operating at the site of the crash. Pic: Bolivia’s attorney general/Reuters
Bolivia’s President, Luis Arce, expressed condolences for the victims on social media: “This unfortunate event must be investigated to establish responsibilities,” he said in a post on Facebook.
“We send our most sincere condolences to the bereaved families, wishing them the necessary strength to face these difficult times.”
Image: The crash happened between Oruro and Potosi
On Saturday morning, a crash between two buses killed more than three dozen people in the same region.
More on Bolivia
Related Topics:
It happened between Colchani and the city of Uyuni, a major tourist attraction and the world’s largest salt flat.
Image: People stand near the wreckage of one of the two buses involved in a crash on Saturday. Pic: Reuters/Potosi Departmental Command
Coincidentally, one of the buses was heading to Oruro, where one of the most important carnival celebrations in Latin America is currently taking place.
More than 30 people were also killed after a bus crash on 17 February.
In that crash, police said the driver appeared to have lost control of the vehicle, causing it to drop more than 800m (2,600ft) off a precipice in the southwestern area of Yocalla.
Bolivia’s mountainous, undermaintained and poorly supervised roads are some of the deadliest in the world, claiming an average 1,400 fatalities every year.