HOUSTON – It was one of Houston’s most closely watched murder cases for nearly a decade. Now, Antonio ‘AJ’ Armstrong will get a chance to argue in court that prosecutors withheld information that could have helped his defense.
That’s because the Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas rejected an attempt by the state to stop the hearing.
The court denied the State’s request Thursday and lifted the stay that had put the hearing on hold.
It’s the latest turn in the case that went through three trials before a jury convicted Armstrong of killing his parents.
Armstrong was 16 when his parents, Antonio Armstrong Sr. and Dawn Armstrong, were shot and killed inside their southwest Houston home in 2016. His first two capital murder trials ended with hung juries before a third jury convicted him in 2023 and sentenced him to 40 years in prison.
The case can now return to Harris County for a hearing focused on Armstrong’s claim that prosecutors failed to turn over information involving their witness and blood spatter expert Celestina Rossi.
Armstrong’s defense team says a complaint was made to the Texas Forensic Science Commission accusing Rossi of planting evidence in an unrelated case and should have been turned over before the third trial.
“They did not disclose that to us, which would have affected a very important decision in the case,” said Rick DeToto, Armstrong’s longtime defense attorney.
In Thursday’s order, the Court of Criminal Appeals found, “the trial court’s failure to hold that hearing was an erroneous failure to act that the trial court remained empowered to correct” and that the state “has not established a clear and indisputable right to relief.”
“As a defense team, we are looking forward to having the lead prosecutor in this case come into the courtroom and take the oath and get on the stand and testify to what he knew and when he knew it,” said DeToto.
For those reasons, the court denied the state’s request and lifted the stay, clearing the way for the hearing to move forward.
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The ruling does not grant Armstrong a new trial. It gives his attorneys the opportunity to make their case before a judge on whether that information should have been disclosed and what impact, if any, it could have had on his third trial.
A spokesperson for the Harris County District Attorney’s Office said:
“A jury of AJ Armstrong’s peers found him guilty of the heinous act of shooting and killing his own parents. While we are disappointed in the court’s ruling we will continue to relentlessly defend the jury’s verdict in this case and ensure that justice continues to prevail.”
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