AJ Armstrong Jr.'s third capital murder trial to begin on Monday after 2 delays
HOUSTON - After a second delay, the third trial in the AJ Armstrong Jr. murder case is set to begin on Monday.
The trial was originally scheduled to begin on June 5 but was pushed back to June 12. The trial was again reset on June 12.
During Armstrong's first two trials in 2019 and 2022, the juries were unable to come to a unanimous verdict.
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In 2022, the jury informed the judge saying they couldn’t agree on a verdict. The judge instructed them to keep deliberating but eventually declared a mistrial a few hours later.
Making the Case: A closer look at AJ Armstrong’s pre-trial held ahead of 3rd trial
Antonio Armstrong Jr. was back in court Wednesday for a pre-trial hearing. He’s being tried for a third time on capital murder charges for the deaths of his parents inside their Bellaire homes in 2016. He’s maintained his innocence through all these trials and the last two ended in hung juries. FOX 26 News Edge Legal Analyst Charles ‘Big Angry’ Adams shares his insight on what this trial will mean and whether history will repeat itself.
Each day when they were dismissed during the trial, the judge had them sequestered, so their decision would be based solely on the evidence and not swayed by outside influences.
Armstrong is accused of killing his parents in their Bellaire home in July 2016, when he was 16-years-old.
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In the second trial, prosecutors say Armstrong shot his parents to death as they, after they say he first tried setting the house on fire two days earlier.
Defense attorneys also attempted to blame the murder on AJ’s older brother Josh who they claim suffers from mental illness. Josh Armstrong was 19 years old at the time and lived in his own apartment down the street from his parents and two younger siblings.