Teen has family support at trial

Antonio Armstrong Jr. says he didn’t kill his parents three years ago. Much of his family believes him.

Relatives showed up as a steady contingent during the first six days of the 19-year-old’s capital murder trial in a Harris County courtroom, pulling up to eighthour days on court benches and listening to painstaking testimony on the deaths of two beloved family members. They heard Armstrong’s interrogation tape, in which he gave an account that investigators said was inconsistent with the facts, and watched video of his mother, bloody and shot to death on her bed.

Through everything, Armstrong’s family trusts that he’s telling the truth, his attorney said.

“Everyone in his family has fully supported A.J. 100 percent,” defense attorney Rick DeToto said. “It’s not just during trial; it’s since Day 1.”

Armstrong, who was 16 at the time, said during his interrogation that he heard gunshots before his parents, Dawn and Antonio Sr., were found in their beds on July 29, 2016. He told

investigators that he saw an intruder leaving, but police were perplexed when they saw that the home was secure, as if no one had left at all.

The parents were well-known in the Bellaire area and owned a small chain of fitness centers. Antonio Armstrong Sr. was a standout football player at Texas A&M University before briefly playing in the National Football League.

Prosecutors have established that Armstrong might have been upset with his parents for disciplining him and also making him go to a public school where he most likely wouldn’t have been on the starting roster of the football team. The defense has meanwhile turned the blame on another family member — the teen’s older brother.

‘A different light’

Many of Armstrong’s friends and family have been subpoenaed and are barred from speaking to reporters during the trial, which resumes Tuesday in state District Judge Kelli Johnson’s court after a four-day recess. But

beforehand, they were vocal on social media, often posting about the case along with the hashtag #FreeAJ.

The reasons they believe Armstrong, who goes by A.J., are varied. In a video posted on Facebook Live in September 2018, his grandmothers questioned the thoroughness of the investigation. An aunt pointed to a lack of forensic evidence tying Armstrong to the scene.

And in other media interviews, family members said Armstrong simply isn’t capable of doing something so horrific. His friends and girlfriend have similarly pointed to Armstrong’s character in Twitter and Facebook posts.

Some of that support likely stems from a positive relationship with the teen and a desire to believe the best in someone, said Ellen Marrus, the director of the Center for Children, Law & Policy at the University of Houston Law Center. It can also mean that the family has some good reason to believe him, as families are better equipped to look past inconsistent stories — which are common among teenagers for developmental reasons — and judge the facts from a more personally knowledgeable perspective, she

said.

“Family members know each other better than strangers do,” Marrus said. “In that sense, they can look at some of that information in a different light.”

‘Family support’ humanizes

Armstrong was arrested the day of the slayings and sent to the Harris County juvenile detention center. After he was certified to be tried as an adult in 2017, he posted bond.

On the first day of trial, the teen waited for proceedings to begin as he sat on a bench, drinking out of a coffee cup and surrounded by family members. He chatted with supporters in the hallway, giving them hugs, and spoke to them during recesses over a partition separating him from the audience.

On another day, he ate lunch with a group of friends in the basement of the courthouse. They spread over two tables, and he moved between both, laughing with them just as if they were at a high school lunch table.

While some of those interactions happen out of the sightline of the jurors, the physical presence in a courtroom can make a difference in a verdict, said Erik Locascio, an adjunct clinical professor at the UH Law Center’s Criminal Defense Clinic.

“Any sort of family support of a defendant works to humanize that person in the face of a serious charge like murder,” Locascio said. “The fact that Armstrong is a juvenile being charged as an adult while still having strong family support also can show the jury that the defendant is still really just a kid and that the state has made a mistake in charging him as an adult.”

Jury decisions are only supposed to take evidence, not external factors, into account. The presence of supporters could add an element of reasonable doubt, which could play a bigger role in the jurors’ decision if there isn’t a strong motive, Williams said. He stipulated that there could be some relatives who don’t believe Armstrong, and they’re not at the trial.

The number of supporters present has decreased over the course of the trial, which is expected to last through the month. Several people are always there, regardless, sitting in the audience behind Armstrong’s spot in the courtroom.

Several family members, as well as Armstrong’s girlfriend, are expected to testify when the defense takes the stand. That could have an effect on sentencing as well as the verdict, Marrus said. Having someone with the suspect in court means they’ll be supported in the outside world, and could make a jury or judge feel more comfortable with the idea of them being out of jail.

‘A subliminal message’

“It does send a subliminal message to the jury,” said Kenneth Williams, a professor of law at South Texas College of Law Houston. “Maybe they should be questioning the guilt.”

During testimony, family members could validate that Armstrong’s relationship with his parents wasn’t out of the ordinary, Williams said. And with a wealthier upbringing and popular status, he seemed to have more to lose.

“Why would he throw all of that away and kill his family?” Williams asked. “That’s going to be the question for the jury. The fact that he’s got a family supporting him is going to make that question more paramount.”