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NFL STAR & WIFE SHOT DEAD IN BED AT LUX CONDO: SHOCK SUSPECT · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:05
Speaker 1: An NFL star and his wife found dead, shot to
0:11
Speaker 1: death in their own bed, in their own home. What happened?
0:17
Speaker 1: I mean, I see grace. This is crime Stories. Thank
0:20
Speaker 1: you for being with us here at Fox Nation and
0:22
Speaker 1: Series X one eleven. First of all, take a listen
0:26
Speaker 1: to this fifty three fourteen Palmetto Street, the time stamp
0:30
Speaker 1: one forty am the morning of July twenty ninth, twenty sixteen.
0:35
Speaker 1: Inside is seemingly scared. Antonio Armstrong Junior on the phone
0:39
Speaker 1: with a nine one one dispatcher, claiming minutes earlier he
0:43
Speaker 1: heard gunfire. Any medical attention needed, asked the dispatcher, Yes,
0:47
Speaker 1: replied The then sixteen year old video recorded later that
0:51
Speaker 1: morning by a crime scene unit investigator for the Houston
0:54
Speaker 1: Police Department traces the trail to the second floor master bedroom,
0:58
Speaker 1: the place where Tonio Armstrong Senior and wife Don were shot.
1:03
Speaker 1: Both died. He played football for Texas A and M
1:06
Speaker 1: before joining the Miami Dolphins as a linebacker. We featured
1:09
Speaker 1: his wife Don in a news story a few years ago,
1:12
Speaker 1: talking about a quilt she was making for her son
1:14
Speaker 1: going off to college. Since the news of the double
1:17
Speaker 1: shooting broke this morning, Antonio's Facebook page is filling up
1:20
Speaker 1: with comments from friends saying they just can't believe what
1:23
Speaker 1: has happened to this family. And we also know Antonio
1:27
Speaker 1: coached the Southwest Football League here for more than a decade.
1:31
Speaker 1: We will certainly keep you updated on his condition. Right now,
1:34
Speaker 1: he is fighting to stay alive. You are hearing our
1:36
Speaker 1: friends at KPRC and KATRK covering the shootings at the
1:41
Speaker 1: time they happened. Antonio Armstrong a superstar? Did fame have
1:48
Speaker 1: anything to do with the murder of him and his wife?
1:51
Speaker 1: Joining me an all star panel? But first to Dave
1:53
Speaker 1: Matt Crime online dot Com investigative reporter. For those people
1:57
Speaker 1: that don't know who anton Armstrong was, Phillipson, Antonio Armstrong
2:04
Speaker 1: Nancy was. He was the All American guy. He played
2:09
Speaker 1: football at Texas A and m He was good enough
2:12
Speaker 1: to be drafted into the NFL and spent time with
2:14
Speaker 1: the San Francisco forty nine ers and then a number
2:17
Speaker 1: of years with the Miami Dolphins. This was a guy
2:20
Speaker 1: that people said, what a good man. But on top
2:24
Speaker 1: of the athletics, Nancy he was into fitness, healthy eating,
2:27
Speaker 1: a healthy lifestyle. He also was the pastor associate pastor
2:32
Speaker 1: at his mother's home church. So all week long he
2:35
Speaker 1: worked with youth coaching football, he gave motivational speeches and
2:40
Speaker 1: put things on YouTube about living a healthy life, being
2:43
Speaker 1: healthy inside and out. And then on the weekend he's
2:46
Speaker 1: unbread church and he's again in a leadership position there.
2:49
Speaker 1: So all American, good guy and a natural born leader
2:53
Speaker 1: and a happy family. You know. Karen starting joining me
2:57
Speaker 1: right now psychologists joinings out of Manhattan at karen start
3:00
Speaker 1: dot com. It's Karen with a See Karen. You and
3:04
Speaker 1: I talked about this so many times. I've investigated and prosecuted,
3:09
Speaker 1: put plenty of dope dealers away, drug lords, child molesters,
3:14
Speaker 1: you name it. But it always especially hurts when you
3:19
Speaker 1: see a great person, just good natured, innocent, hard working, dedicated,
3:30
Speaker 1: this guy devoted to his family. It hurts when you
3:33
Speaker 1: see a really great person. You know, the good people
3:38
Speaker 1: in the world just cut down, mow down. And that's
3:41
Speaker 1: that's exactly where that comes from. Answered this idea of
3:45
Speaker 1: you know, only the good dim It's this idea that
3:49
Speaker 1: this guy everybody talks about, what a great family, how
3:53
Speaker 1: wonderful he was, and that makes it just devastating to
3:58
Speaker 1: think that he's killed like that. And another thing, did
4:01
Speaker 1: you hear what the mother was doing. The mother was
4:05
Speaker 1: hand quilting a quilt for her son to take away
4:11
Speaker 1: to college. It reminds me of my little niece when
4:15
Speaker 1: her I think, when her little brother was going to college.
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Speaker 1: She his favorite team is the Braves, and she hand
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Speaker 1: quilted him a quilt made out of all the Braves,
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Speaker 1: you know, logos and the team member numbers and just
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Speaker 1: anything to do with the Braves. It took her forever
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Speaker 1: to do that. And here is the mom, just out
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Speaker 1: of love quilting a quilt for the son to take
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Speaker 1: away to college. I mean, they're dedicated parents and he's
4:46
Speaker 1: also a football star. What more do we know about
4:49
Speaker 1: the family? Take a listen our friends at crime Online,
4:53
Speaker 1: Dawn and Antonio Armstrong. Their eighteen year marriage was the
4:57
Speaker 1: all American dream. The couple was raising bright, outgoing and
5:01
Speaker 1: accomplished children. They were savy entrepreneurs, owning a small chain
5:05
Speaker 1: of local gems. At one time, Antonio Armstrong was a
5:09
Speaker 1: respected football player. He played for Texas A and M
5:12
Speaker 1: in college and went on to play for the Miami Dolphins.
5:15
Speaker 1: Alongside running the gems, Armstrong was a motivational speaker and
5:20
Speaker 1: an assistant pastor at his mother's church. Dawn, in addition
5:24
Speaker 1: to help running the businesses, spends a lot of time
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Speaker 1: volunteering or driving her children to their various sports practices.
5:32
Speaker 1: Don Armstrong's family always came first, and it showed on
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Speaker 1: her Facebook page, which was filled with beach vacations, cars
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Speaker 1: and exclusive private school life for her kids. A lot
5:43
Speaker 1: of their family life and motivational speaking, a community service.
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Speaker 1: Just a really loving family is featured even on YouTube
5:53
Speaker 1: take list our fens at KTRK. Everyone we've spoken to
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Speaker 1: has described this family as all American, a loving family.
6:00
Speaker 1: I want to show you Antonio Armstrong. He ran this
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Speaker 1: gym in bel Air. It's called First First Class Training.
6:06
Speaker 1: He ran it with his wife Don. She was a
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Speaker 1: business partner of his. Now, according to sources, she died
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Speaker 1: in this morning shooting Hello every One. Antonio is known
6:18
Speaker 1: for advocating health and fitness. He's also a motivational speaker.
6:22
Speaker 1: These are videos he made on YouTube. The latest one
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Speaker 1: was posted just this last week straight out to Dave
6:28
Speaker 1: mac joining us from crime online dot Com. Dave, tell
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Speaker 1: me about the neighborhood and tell me about the shootings.
6:36
Speaker 1: Were they both in the same bed, were they in
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Speaker 1: the master bedroom? How many times were they shot? Anything
6:41
Speaker 1: you can tell me about the facts. All right, here
6:43
Speaker 1: we go. This is a it's an upscale neighborhood, Nancy.
6:46
Speaker 1: It's a town home. We're talking about a three story
6:50
Speaker 1: town home. The bedroom where Antonio and Don were shot
6:56
Speaker 1: is on the second floor. They were both in bed,
7:00
Speaker 1: and they were both shot in the head. Again, it's
7:03
Speaker 1: a quiet, upscaled neighborhood. I don't know how much you
7:06
Speaker 1: know about Houston, but you know Houston in this particular
7:08
Speaker 1: area is a well to do section of town. It's
7:11
Speaker 1: not a town home like you know, an apartment complex
7:14
Speaker 1: that you had seen aor a university. This is one
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Speaker 1: of those expensive, upscale town homes. And again it's three stories.
7:20
Speaker 1: Their bedroom was on the second floor, as was their daughters.
7:23
Speaker 1: You know another thing about the town homes, they're connected.
7:28
Speaker 1: Now I'm saying that, I mean like his unit is
7:31
Speaker 1: actually connected to another unit, and that is significant to me.
7:37
Speaker 1: And I'm gonna go to you. James Shellnut joining me
7:42
Speaker 1: twenty seven years on Metro major case including Swat now
7:48
Speaker 1: lawyer at the Shellnut firm. When you have a crime
7:52
Speaker 1: like this double murder. Go down in a home, second
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Speaker 1: floor and connect to condos. That great reduces your points
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Speaker 1: of entry. Two whole sides of the dwelling are unattainable,
8:06
Speaker 1: so you really only got the bottom door and the
8:10
Speaker 1: bottom back door. Nobody is scaling up the side of
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Speaker 1: the condos to break into a window. That reduces your
8:18
Speaker 1: points of entry, and that's significant. Oh, I agree, agree,
8:22
Speaker 1: And that reduces the possibilities of people who would have
8:27
Speaker 1: access to that apartment also or that town home. Also
8:31
Speaker 1: joining me, Jonathan T. Gilliam, former FBI special agent, former
8:35
Speaker 1: Navy seal, author of Sheep No More, The Art of
8:39
Speaker 1: Awareness and Attack Survival on Amazon. Jonathan Gilliam, thank you
8:43
Speaker 1: for being with us. Both of them shot in the head.
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Speaker 1: Shot in the head. That tells me both of them
8:51
Speaker 1: were asleep, and that see the mark of a hitman
8:55
Speaker 1: as an execution style killing. Shot in the head in
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Speaker 1: their bed. So next to actually stabbing someone, I would
9:02
Speaker 1: say that this is potentially a sign of a more
9:07
Speaker 1: personal attack, somebody that was actually in their room while
9:13
Speaker 1: they were sleeping and took the time to shoot each
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Speaker 1: one in the head and in their life in such
9:20
Speaker 1: a personal manner. There were other people in that house
9:23
Speaker 1: that were not targeted. So we know that these two people.
9:27
Speaker 1: You know, that word targeted gets used so much. But
9:31
Speaker 1: I think in this case, because you know, we know
9:35
Speaker 1: that the son was awake, because these one who called
9:38
Speaker 1: nine one one, there was nobody else was touched in
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Speaker 1: that house. So to me, when I hear that somebody
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Speaker 1: shot in their head in their bed while they sleep,
9:48
Speaker 1: that's a very personal targeted attack. Guys, think a listen
9:52
Speaker 1: to our fens at KPRC on the phone with nine
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Speaker 1: one one. The couple, son Junior or AJ, appeared confused
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Speaker 1: pas an act while answering questions. The dispatcher asks if
10:03
Speaker 1: medical attention was needed in AJ's parents bedroom. AJ responded yes,
10:08
Speaker 1: and their door is cracked open. Later, the dispatcher asks
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Speaker 1: if gunshots AJ heard sound like a handgun, rifle or shotgun.
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Speaker 1: I'm not good with guns, AJ replies, but I guess
10:19
Speaker 1: like a I don't know, fifteen or something like that.
10:24
Speaker 1: I know my dad has a gun underneath the god
10:26
Speaker 1: where does he keep his gun? Aj asks aloud, eventually
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Speaker 1: saying I think he keeps it in the drawer right
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Speaker 1: next to his bed. Dave Matt how many times were
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Speaker 1: they shot at the Dawn was shot twice in the
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Speaker 1: head and Antonio was shot one. Okay, Lisa, Daddy are
10:41
Speaker 1: joining me for him? Police lieutenant Inhaven PD jumping Lisa.
10:45
Speaker 1: I agree with what's been said so far. You know,
10:47
Speaker 1: we have something so personal in someone's home. Twice to
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Speaker 1: the mom's head, which is obviously a little concern. I
10:57
Speaker 1: wonder why that was and only once to you know,
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Speaker 1: the husband's father's head. And you know, when you see
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Speaker 1: something so personal and so violent happened to the face
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Speaker 1: the head, you have to agree that it's more of
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Speaker 1: a personal in nature type of crime perpetrated by someone
11:16
Speaker 1: that knows the victims. Time stories with Nancy Grace for
11:34
Speaker 1: those of you just joining us. An NFL star and
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Speaker 1: his wife murdered in their own bed, seemingly execution style,
11:43
Speaker 1: joining me. Professor Forensics, Jacksonville State University, an author of
11:47
Speaker 1: Blood Beneath My Faith on Amazon, just got Morgan. What
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Speaker 1: do you make of the fact the mom was shot
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Speaker 1: twice and the dad's shot once. Well, the individual that
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Speaker 1: did the attack was aware of the fact that this gentleman,
12:00
Speaker 1: the father is in bed and he is a former
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Speaker 1: NFL player, he's a fitness guy. He would be the
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Speaker 1: first target, I would think, because that's the biggest threat.
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Speaker 1: And so once that weapon is initiated, once that round
12:15
Speaker 1: goes off and puts him down, the mother may have
12:19
Speaker 1: awoken at that point in time and in the confusion
12:24
Speaker 1: or in the attempt to end her life, she was
12:26
Speaker 1: shot twice Nancy to take her down in that moment
12:29
Speaker 1: because she was aware that there was gunfire going on.
12:32
Speaker 1: Even if she's in a deep sleep, she's gonna wake
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Speaker 1: up and you know she's finished off at that moment.
12:38
Speaker 1: Listen to more from Crime Online. At nine forty am
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Speaker 1: Antonio Armstrong, Junior AJ calls nine one. He tells the
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Speaker 1: operator that he is hiding in a closet in his
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Speaker 1: room on the third floor after hearing gunshots in his
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Speaker 1: parents room. Armstrong is on the phone with police for
12:55
Speaker 1: sixteen minutes until one fifty six. He tells the operator
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Speaker 1: that the only people in the home are himself, his parents,
13:02
Speaker 1: and his younger sister. His parents and the sister are
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Speaker 1: on the second floor, Armstrong says no one is on
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Speaker 1: the first floor. Armstrong is heard on the nine one
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Speaker 1: one call waking up his sister. They go downstairs, and
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Speaker 1: AJ Armstrong turns off the security alarm as the police
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Speaker 1: entered the front door. Down and Antonio were shot in
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Speaker 1: the head while they slept. Okay, wait a minute, I
13:24
Speaker 1: think that I'm just hearing that he turned off the
13:28
Speaker 1: security alarm to allow police in. So this double murder
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Speaker 1: goes down while the security system is intact, taking less
13:38
Speaker 1: staffres at Katie rk Her father was carried out of
13:42
Speaker 1: the family's town home on a stretcher. Kira was in
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Speaker 1: the house asleep in her second floor bedroom when her
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Speaker 1: parents were shot in their room on the same floor
13:51
Speaker 1: a few feet away. The night before the murders. She
13:54
Speaker 1: went to bed around eleven pm after hugging her mom
13:57
Speaker 1: and dad and sending the house alarm. The next thing
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Speaker 1: she remembers was AJ waking her up telling her to
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Speaker 1: come with him downstairs. AJ says she was half asleep,
14:06
Speaker 1: could barely process what was happening. She was separated from AJ,
14:11
Speaker 1: putting a cop car, her hands bagged and tested for
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Speaker 1: gunshot residue. Okay, what does that mean to test for
14:17
Speaker 1: gunshot residue? James Shalnut weigh in, Well, you know when
14:22
Speaker 1: a weapon is fired. When a gun is fired. The
14:26
Speaker 1: way that it fires is some type of firing pin
14:29
Speaker 1: strikes a shell or casing that has powder in it,
14:34
Speaker 1: black powder. It ignites that powder, and it pushes the
14:37
Speaker 1: bullet called the projectile out the end of the gun
14:41
Speaker 1: well from that powder igniting, it leaves residue, just like
14:46
Speaker 1: if you were to hold your hand over smoke outside
14:48
Speaker 1: over the fire pit, it will leave residue. And there
14:51
Speaker 1: are wipes that contain certain chemicals that will detect the
14:56
Speaker 1: presence of that gunshot powder residue on fingers, hands, and
15:01
Speaker 1: even objects. Okay, joining me, Jess got Morgan from Jacksonville
15:04
Speaker 1: State University forensics expert explain how close you have to
15:10
Speaker 1: be to the weapon at the time of firing to
15:13
Speaker 1: get the gunshot residue on your hands or arms. The
15:16
Speaker 1: outer limit for a pistol in particular is about eighteen
15:20
Speaker 1: inches and so. And just imagine this big puff goes
15:24
Speaker 1: up in the air, and contained within that puff is
15:28
Speaker 1: going to be unburned powder, and then the residue that's
15:31
Speaker 1: given off as is ignition takes place. You've got two
15:35
Speaker 1: types of powder here. You've got the primer strike, which
15:38
Speaker 1: is more unstable, and then you have the propellant which
15:42
Speaker 1: is driving that projectile down the barrel. So there are
15:46
Speaker 1: two unique chemical structures here. If an individual is holding
15:50
Speaker 1: the weapon, one of the places that you target in
15:52
Speaker 1: order to swap the hands. If people will just look
15:55
Speaker 1: at kind of the U shape that your hand makes
15:58
Speaker 1: between your thumb and your index finger, you'll go in there.
16:02
Speaker 1: You'll swab that particular area to see if anybody was
16:05
Speaker 1: holding the weapon now on the other end of it.
16:07
Speaker 1: On the other end of it, you might have propellant
16:10
Speaker 1: that comes out on a victim, say, for instance, if
16:13
Speaker 1: on the contact surface of them. It'll give you an
16:15
Speaker 1: idea that that's the direction which the projectile was actually
16:19
Speaker 1: fired in. And it's very curious. A lot has been
16:23
Speaker 1: made in the last days of the Idaho students, four
16:28
Speaker 1: of them slain, we believe at least in their beds,
16:32
Speaker 1: if not in their sleep. Much has been made of
16:34
Speaker 1: the fact that their bottom floor roommates, the two girls
16:39
Speaker 1: that sleep downstairs heard nothing. I don't find that unusual
16:43
Speaker 1: at all, And I harkened back to the Ted Bundy
16:46
Speaker 1: case where many of the girls in the ky Omega
16:50
Speaker 1: strory house at FSU heard nothing, and Bundy had gotten
16:54
Speaker 1: in it was bludgeoning people, trying to kill them, people
16:58
Speaker 1: he had never even met. In this case, you have
17:01
Speaker 1: the sister Kiera who heard nothing, and in her sleep,
17:06
Speaker 1: after she hugs her mom and dad good night, her
17:09
Speaker 1: parents are executed, shot dead, just down the hallway there
17:13
Speaker 1: in the family home, and she heard nothing. Is that suspicious?
17:18
Speaker 1: Maybe I find it completely believable. But let's listen to more.
17:24
Speaker 1: Take a listen to Courtney Fisher. Kaira says Aj and
17:28
Speaker 1: her parents had a great relationship. That he was acting
17:31
Speaker 1: like his normal, happy, goofy, playful self the day of
17:34
Speaker 1: the murders. But her older brother, Josh, he was different
17:38
Speaker 1: when he came home from college in May. Quote, Josh
17:41
Speaker 1: was distant. He acted like the black sheep of the family.
17:45
Speaker 1: He acted like our parents loved us more because we
17:48
Speaker 1: were biologically there's. Kaira said. She and Aj were both
17:51
Speaker 1: done and Antonio seniors kids. Josh was just John's son.
17:56
Speaker 1: Kaira says Josh was doing more drugs more often when
17:59
Speaker 1: he came home from school. Quote, he started talking to
18:02
Speaker 1: himself a lot. He stayed in the restroom for hours
18:05
Speaker 1: and hours. He'd sit there and talk to himself. He
18:08
Speaker 1: stopped caring about his appearance. Okay, I see a lot
18:12
Speaker 1: of problems right there, Dave MC joining me. Dave MC,
18:15
Speaker 1: who is Josh? I know about Aj, the boy there
18:20
Speaker 1: in the home that called nine on one. I know
18:21
Speaker 1: about the sister Kara. Who's Josh? All right, Josh is
18:25
Speaker 1: actually Dawn's son from a previous relationship. He is not
18:31
Speaker 1: biologically the son of Antonio. And that's the friction of
18:35
Speaker 1: which they speak. Josh is three years older than Aj,
18:40
Speaker 1: and he was nineteen at the time of the murders. Okay,
18:43
Speaker 1: to you, Karen, start, your psychologist. You heard the description
18:47
Speaker 1: of Josh's behavior. What does that mean? Well, that means
18:50
Speaker 1: that something's us psychologically, Nancy. He comes back, he's behaving
18:57
Speaker 1: in a strange way. I don't know who was like
19:00
Speaker 1: that before, but clearly he could be by polar schizophrenic.
19:05
Speaker 1: I'm not sure what the diagnosis would be, or he
19:08
Speaker 1: could just be doing drugs care and start. It made
19:10
Speaker 1: me just that simple. Well, I'm a psychologist, so immediately
19:14
Speaker 1: I start thinking about what kind of mental disorder it
19:16
Speaker 1: might be. Yeah, you're right, go ahead, but something is
19:19
Speaker 1: wrong clearly, and the fact that he feels like a
19:24
Speaker 1: black seaboards the Louis. He's treated that way, Resentment is
19:29
Speaker 1: building at his own identity is not confirmed for himself.
19:33
Speaker 1: He's not sure about where he did. You know another
19:36
Speaker 1: thing about sibling jealousy, You know, it could start at
19:40
Speaker 1: a very young age and it goes on all the
19:44
Speaker 1: way through adulthood. I mean, you'll have adults forty fifty
19:49
Speaker 1: sixty years old still talking about you were mom's favorite.
19:53
Speaker 1: I mean, really get over it. But it festers and
19:57
Speaker 1: it sticks with people their whole life, and they don't
20:00
Speaker 1: over it. They really don't. It's constantly you were. No,
20:04
Speaker 1: I was mons favorite, No you were. I hear people
20:06
Speaker 1: say that all the time, the people that I work with,
20:10
Speaker 1: I was not the favorite, or I was always the favorite.
20:12
Speaker 1: I mean, we even see it playing out in national headlines.
20:15
Speaker 1: I'm not even gonna say Prince Harry and William. I mean,
20:20
Speaker 1: if I have to read one more headline about how
20:23
Speaker 1: this one is mad at that one and this one
20:25
Speaker 1: is mistreated, blah blah, they're millionaires and they're still talking
20:30
Speaker 1: about it. Okay, let me let me focus on something
20:34
Speaker 1: that I really understand, and that is hard science. Take
20:40
Speaker 1: a listen to our friend Demolli Keith at Fox twenty
20:45
Speaker 1: six all points to one person. Fronsacutor say every door
20:52
Speaker 1: and window were closed and locked at the Armstrong's Beller
20:55
Speaker 1: home on July twenty nine, twenty sixteen, when Antonio Senior
20:59
Speaker 1: and Dawn arms Strong were shot to death with their
21:01
Speaker 1: own gun as they slept, and prosecutors point to the
21:05
Speaker 1: alarm that was set at nine fifty two pm and
21:07
Speaker 1: was never triggered, and alarm record show motion sensors set
21:11
Speaker 1: off in the house, but no exterior doors opening or closing. Okay,
21:15
Speaker 1: isn't it true? Jonathan Gilliam, former or FBI special agent.
21:22
Speaker 1: It's not just a matter of the fact, being that
21:27
Speaker 1: all of the alarms were on. No alarm went off.
21:31
Speaker 1: There was a motion detector, it didn't go off. But
21:34
Speaker 1: isn't it true that alarm companies that are monitoring your
21:37
Speaker 1: alarm system can tell if you turn the alarm off
21:41
Speaker 1: and turn the alarm on. Last night, two thirty am,
21:46
Speaker 1: the alarm goes off. My husband and I jump out,
21:50
Speaker 1: a band start running. I don't even know what's happening,
21:52
Speaker 1: And he, immediately before he could even turn the alarm off,
21:54
Speaker 1: said you cracked a window. I didn't not even know
21:58
Speaker 1: what he was talking about. As it turns out, my
22:01
Speaker 1: mom was up who lives with us, ninety one years old,
22:05
Speaker 1: and dropped a cake pan in the kitchen. I didn't
22:10
Speaker 1: hear any of that, but I sure heard the alarm
22:12
Speaker 1: going off, and of course they meanly call the house
22:15
Speaker 1: to find out if everything's okay because the alarm thinks
22:19
Speaker 1: somebody is breaking the window. My point is long story
22:23
Speaker 1: I just unfolded short. The alarm company knows when you
22:28
Speaker 1: disable and then restart the alarm, so it's not just
22:32
Speaker 1: a matter of the alarm being on and not tripping.
22:37
Speaker 1: But nobody cut it off and cut it back on either, right,
22:41
Speaker 1: you know. And also this is the family. They own
22:44
Speaker 1: another business, So these are people that you know. It
22:47
Speaker 1: sounds like they go out of their way that the
22:50
Speaker 1: business had been robbed or was robbed sometime around that,
22:54
Speaker 1: and so they they these are people who take their
22:57
Speaker 1: security seriously. It appears, so you know it once these
23:02
Speaker 1: alarms are set. That is the whole gist of the
23:06
Speaker 1: sales of these alarms is that if they go off,
23:08
Speaker 1: you always and every alarm I've ever had in any
23:12
Speaker 1: house I've ever lived where the alarm's gone off. Within
23:15
Speaker 1: a matter of minutes, you have a phone call from
23:18
Speaker 1: the alarm company and then they're going to check to
23:21
Speaker 1: see if if everything's okay. I don't know if that
23:25
Speaker 1: phone call occurred in this circumstance. Well, no, because the
23:28
Speaker 1: alarm was never tripped. The alarm never went off, but
23:31
Speaker 1: when the police came to the door, that is when
23:34
Speaker 1: the alarm was shut off. So and the only way
23:40
Speaker 1: somebody could have been in there to do that most likely,
23:43
Speaker 1: if the technologies technology of these alarms worked, was that
23:47
Speaker 1: they were already in the house, And there have been cases.
23:50
Speaker 1: There was a guy, I don't remember what state it
23:52
Speaker 1: was in, but he was notorious. He robbed over twenty
23:55
Speaker 1: million dollars because he figured out that a lot of
23:59
Speaker 1: these motions send they're not put in the bedrooms of
24:02
Speaker 1: where people live because in big homes, that's where they
24:06
Speaker 1: primarily move around at night. So they'll set the alarm,
24:08
Speaker 1: they'll be in the room, and if there's any movement
24:11
Speaker 1: in other places, the alarm will go off. I don't
24:13
Speaker 1: think that's the kate there, because they had two other
24:16
Speaker 1: kids in the house, which means that these were just
24:18
Speaker 1: perimeter alarm. Yeah, and you know what else, James shell
24:21
Speaker 1: Nutt Gilliam is right. There could have been somebody hiding
24:24
Speaker 1: under the bed the whole night, or hiding somewhere that
24:27
Speaker 1: creep out commit the murder. Then they go back and
24:29
Speaker 1: hiding and they wait for the cops to come, and
24:32
Speaker 1: then they sneak out and little green men from ours
24:35
Speaker 1: could have beamed down and kill both the mom and
24:38
Speaker 1: the dad and then beam back up. That didn't happen,
24:42
Speaker 1: all right, That is not what happened. Someone in that
24:46
Speaker 1: home murdered mom and dad. Nobody snuck out when the
24:52
Speaker 1: alarm system got turned off. Now we got to figure
24:56
Speaker 1: out who who. But also, also, as Gilliam just pointed out, correctly,
25:02
Speaker 1: their business had also just been robbed. Is that a coincidence?
25:07
Speaker 1: There's a robbery at the business and now suddenly they're dead.
25:10
Speaker 1: But what do you think about the alarm situations, y'all?
25:12
Speaker 1: Not well, I think exactly what you think. I think
25:14
Speaker 1: that what the alarm did is it limited of course access,
25:19
Speaker 1: It identified who was in the proximity when mom and
25:24
Speaker 1: dad were killed, and it limits your possible suspects. I
25:28
Speaker 1: do agree there have been times where people have come
25:30
Speaker 1: in and waited. I don't think that was the case here.
25:33
Speaker 1: No one hurt anything. There was no evidence of robbery
25:36
Speaker 1: at the home. There was no evidence of burglary at
25:39
Speaker 1: the home. There was no other evidence of struggle at
25:42
Speaker 1: the home. The only evidence there was was that someone
25:45
Speaker 1: was inside that house, walked into those parents' bedrooms and
25:49
Speaker 1: put a bullet in their head without anyone stopping them.
25:53
Speaker 1: And I don't believe it was anyone that did it
25:56
Speaker 1: that was outside of that apartment. Guys, the cops are
25:59
Speaker 1: stymy until they notice somebody has got a very odd demeanor.
26:07
Speaker 1: Now I have heard, I've had defense attorneys attack me,
26:11
Speaker 1: and I understand why they do it. They're not totally
26:15
Speaker 1: wrong when I say, well, this just ain't right. Okay,
26:20
Speaker 1: they're not acting the way I would expect them to act.
26:23
Speaker 1: But I'm telling you, demeanor matters to cops and it
26:27
Speaker 1: matters to jurars. Take a listen to demali Keith Fox
26:31
Speaker 1: twenty six. Prosecutors also played a portion of Antonio Junior's
26:35
Speaker 1: interview with police as he talked about his mother after
26:38
Speaker 1: learning she was shot dead. Even in the moment and
26:45
Speaker 1: he realizes his mother is dead, he has so much
26:48
Speaker 1: disdain for her. He can't even sane thing positive and
26:52
Speaker 1: more from Fox twenty six A Houston police investigator gave
26:55
Speaker 1: testimonies saying then sixteen year old Antonio Armstrong Junior did
26:59
Speaker 1: not here to be scared, nervous, or in shunk while
27:03
Speaker 1: being interviewed by two homicide detectives the morning his parents,
27:06
Speaker 1: former NFL player Antonio Armstrong Senior and Down Armstrong, were
27:11
Speaker 1: murdered as they slept in their Bellair area home back
27:14
Speaker 1: in twenty sixteen. The detective also says aj never mentioned
27:17
Speaker 1: seeing an intruder in the sixteen minute nine one one call,
27:20
Speaker 1: but later told investigators he saw a masked man, So
27:24
Speaker 1: Antonio Armstrong did not appear to be afraid, or nervous
27:29
Speaker 1: or in shock following the murder off his parents. He
27:33
Speaker 1: could not conjure up one good word about his mother.
27:39
Speaker 1: I mean, Jess Got Morgan, Professor forensics and death investigator,
27:45
Speaker 1: You've been at plenty of death sayings, and usually the victims'
27:50
Speaker 1: families are distraught. They're absolutely crushed because this is an
27:54
Speaker 1: event that first off, no one expects it to happen,
27:57
Speaker 1: and then when death visits these individuals. I've seen people
28:01
Speaker 1: that are in almost a catatonic state. But then I've
28:04
Speaker 1: seen people that are essentially falling apart emotionally. It runs
28:09
Speaker 1: the gamut. But you know, I always take issue many
28:12
Speaker 1: times when I go out the scenes and I see
28:14
Speaker 1: people that are showing little or no emotion, or maybe
28:17
Speaker 1: an inappropriate level of emotion, And certainly from an investigative standpoint,
28:23
Speaker 1: it's going to make you look harder at that individual
28:26
Speaker 1: to see why they're not reacting in what would be
28:29
Speaker 1: deemed a normal manner under these abnormal circumstances. And there
28:34
Speaker 1: is the issue of him changing his story. That's the
28:40
Speaker 1: biggest tell in my mind of almost anything. Was he
28:44
Speaker 1: catch somebody red handed? He now tells investigators he saw
28:49
Speaker 1: a masked man. Where wasn't he Dave Mack in the closet,
28:55
Speaker 1: hiding in the closet when he called nine one one. Yeah,
28:58
Speaker 1: AYJ said that he was on the third story and
29:01
Speaker 1: in the closet and he was hiding in fear. He
29:04
Speaker 1: heard the gunshot and boom, He's hiding, So yeah, I
29:07
Speaker 1: don't know how he could see anybody in the closet,
29:09
Speaker 1: So he doesn't mention that at first. You know, it
29:12
Speaker 1: kind of reminds me of somebody we have all analyzed
29:17
Speaker 1: two bits, and that is miss Jodiarius, who changed her
29:22
Speaker 1: story so many times from not being at the scene
29:26
Speaker 1: of Travis Alexander's murder. Two ninjas with masks on their
29:32
Speaker 1: faces covered sneaking in and murdering Travis, and she managed
29:36
Speaker 1: to get away to self defense. This is right up
29:40
Speaker 1: there with the ninjas. Would you agree or disagree? Joe
29:44
Speaker 1: Scott Morgan? It is right up there with the ninjas.
29:47
Speaker 1: How preposterous is this? You begin to think about, you know,
29:51
Speaker 1: who has access to this environment when one thing that
29:54
Speaker 1: really stands out to me is who would know? Who
29:58
Speaker 1: would actually know that this weapon was kept in a
30:02
Speaker 1: specific area and it's apparently the same weapon that was
30:05
Speaker 1: used to perpetrate these homicides. It's an individual that has
30:08
Speaker 1: intimate knowledge of this environment, can move through this environment
30:12
Speaker 1: and understands where people are oriented. And I'm talking about
30:15
Speaker 1: this man and his wife who are peacefully sleeping in
30:18
Speaker 1: their bit and they are essentially executed. Not only that,
30:22
Speaker 1: we now learn of a throwaway comment made later on
30:28
Speaker 1: during the nine moment call made by the son aj
30:33
Speaker 1: Armstrong take a listen to KPRC. Houston police were on
30:37
Speaker 1: their way at this point in Aj not a suspect.
30:40
Speaker 1: Then the dispatcher then directs him to wake up his
30:42
Speaker 1: twelve year old sister. Later during that nine on one call, AJ,
30:46
Speaker 1: who today stands trial accused of killing his parents, can
30:51
Speaker 1: be heard saying something unthinkable, possibly self incriminating, quote, it's
30:57
Speaker 1: all my fault. Wow, all my thought he thought to
31:02
Speaker 1: say that on the nine one one call. But why?
31:05
Speaker 1: What could possible motivation be? Take a list to ABC
31:08
Speaker 1: thirteenth texts from October through May, up to two months
31:12
Speaker 1: before the murders. It shows a frustrated, exhausted pair of parents,
31:15
Speaker 1: Dawn and Antonio, telling Aj over and over he's a
31:19
Speaker 1: quote disappointment that they're tired of his lying, he's spending
31:22
Speaker 1: money his bad grades. In April, Antonio Senior texted AJ,
31:26
Speaker 1: I'm sick of getting reports about silly crap you are doing.
31:29
Speaker 1: Keep screwing up and doing silly things like speed through
31:32
Speaker 1: the park. I'm trading your car and for one that
31:34
Speaker 1: matches your maturity. Last morning. This text from mom in June.
31:38
Speaker 1: We gave you all and the best we had. We
31:40
Speaker 1: wanted the best for you. We provided the best education,
31:43
Speaker 1: bought you a great car. To celebrate you. We tried
31:46
Speaker 1: to be open with you and what was important to you,
31:48
Speaker 1: and all you do is lie to us, scheme behind
31:51
Speaker 1: our backs. Okay, you're hearing the inner thoughts and feelings
31:55
Speaker 1: of the mom and dad and they're threatening to change
32:00
Speaker 1: out his new car. Remember at the time, he's sixteen
32:05
Speaker 1: years old. Time stories with Nancy Grace. What more do
32:25
Speaker 1: we know about the disagreements between the son Aj and
32:29
Speaker 1: the mom and dad? Dave mack Well, what we know,
32:31
Speaker 1: Nancy is that Aj was not the golden child that
32:37
Speaker 1: he pretends to be. He had been kicked out of
32:40
Speaker 1: an exclusive school called King Kaid and that was over
32:44
Speaker 1: pot and pot dealing, pot smoking. We know that this
32:48
Speaker 1: was a major friction between Aj and his parents, to
32:53
Speaker 1: the point where his mom wrote in a text message
32:56
Speaker 1: in April, we know I know you were sneaking out
33:00
Speaker 1: because the alarm doesn't lie. The alarm caught AJ leaving
33:05
Speaker 1: the house. You know how we talked about that a
33:07
Speaker 1: minute ago? How that Mark? Yeah, they used that alarm
33:09
Speaker 1: to prove that Aj was lying to them he was
33:11
Speaker 1: sneaking out at night. In addition to the anks between
33:15
Speaker 1: mom and dad and sixteen year old son, which could
33:19
Speaker 1: be true of any American family, James shell Nut. We
33:22
Speaker 1: also learn that the teen boy and I quote, practiced
33:28
Speaker 1: killing his NFL dad and mom four months before shooting
33:34
Speaker 1: them dad. Now what do I mean by that? He
33:37
Speaker 1: practiced how to silence a gun with blankets and pillows
33:42
Speaker 1: and the run up to his parents' murders. Also in
33:46
Speaker 1: his room was a crack pipe pipe. I'm not talking
33:49
Speaker 1: about an adderall here and there. Smoking a joint crack
33:54
Speaker 1: is a whole another thing, shell Nut, And I gotta
33:58
Speaker 1: tell you that police found the twenty two caliber pistol
34:02
Speaker 1: on a counter, along with a note that says, I've
34:06
Speaker 1: been watching you for a long time. Really, that's a
34:13
Speaker 1: fake note? Why what killer? I mean? It sounds like
34:17
Speaker 1: and I've used this phrase before when I'm talking about
34:19
Speaker 1: the John and a Ramsey case and the Rasom note.
34:23
Speaker 1: It sounds like a fifth grade girl wrote a mystery novel.
34:26
Speaker 1: I've been watching you as total byes. It stinks right
34:30
Speaker 1: here in the studio just saying it. And practicing with
34:35
Speaker 1: pillows and blankets. He knew he was gonna have access
34:39
Speaker 1: to pillows and blankets and he's gonna shoot him in
34:42
Speaker 1: their sleep, and he practiced for months leading up to
34:46
Speaker 1: their murders. Absolutely, you know. As soon as you said
34:50
Speaker 1: that about the ransom note, and I've read that in
34:51
Speaker 1: proposial story, I will tell you that's the first thing
34:54
Speaker 1: that came to minds John and a Ramsey case. How
34:56
Speaker 1: ridiculously corny, how absurd, and it's just nothing like person
35:00
Speaker 1: would actually right if they were left a note. And
35:02
Speaker 1: my boy, I've never seen a killer leave a note
35:04
Speaker 1: at the sea. Total b. Yes, it's not murder, she wrote,
35:08
Speaker 1: you know, forget about the hokey note. The teen boy
35:11
Speaker 1: wrote in Aj Armstrong's bedroom, Cops, fine, not only a
35:18
Speaker 1: crack pipe, but a pillow in a comforter set with
35:23
Speaker 1: bullet holes through them. So here are their choices. You
35:28
Speaker 1: got Aj Armstrong, the teen boy who's angry about his
35:31
Speaker 1: car being snatched, and a twelve year old girl who
35:35
Speaker 1: comes down rubbing her eyes out of the sleep, out
35:37
Speaker 1: of her eyes. Those are the choices. It's not a
35:40
Speaker 1: murder suicide because the weapon would have been dropped by
35:44
Speaker 1: the killer right there when he committed suicide after murdering
35:48
Speaker 1: the spouse, So it's not murder suicide. Please, let's get real.
35:52
Speaker 1: The little girl did not kill her parents. She's asleep
35:55
Speaker 1: in fact, aj Armstrong says, two, nine one one, let
35:59
Speaker 1: me go at my sister, she's asleep in bed. That
36:02
Speaker 1: leaves him well, And I would even know she was
36:05
Speaker 1: asleep if he wasn't already up yet, Nancy jump in
36:08
Speaker 1: when it comes to the nine one one calls. I
36:11
Speaker 1: keep pointing this out over and over again, and people
36:13
Speaker 1: are always blown away by this. Twenty percent of the time,
36:17
Speaker 1: the person who committed a homicide is the person who
36:20
Speaker 1: makes the nine one one call. And when they do,
36:23
Speaker 1: and I'm sure you're familiar with this term minimization, they
36:26
Speaker 1: minimize the circumstances and they minimize their role in the circumstances.
36:33
Speaker 1: So everything that you're saying, and the way that he's
36:36
Speaker 1: describing where he is, the way he's describing that he
36:39
Speaker 1: you know, he has knowledge that his sister's awake, but
36:42
Speaker 1: yet he's in a closet, that he doesn't know where
36:45
Speaker 1: the gun is, but I think it might be here,
36:48
Speaker 1: and that he has ringing in his ears, but yet
36:51
Speaker 1: it happened in another room. You're right, Gilliam. Listen to
36:54
Speaker 1: our cut twenty Our friends at ABC Houston Police say
36:58
Speaker 1: there were no signs of a break in. Investigators found
37:01
Speaker 1: bullet holes on the floor of AJ's room, in a
37:04
Speaker 1: pillow and comforter in his closet, but AJ's fingerprints in
37:08
Speaker 1: DNA were not on the gun that was found on
37:11
Speaker 1: the kitchen counter, along with the note that read I
37:14
Speaker 1: have been watching for a long time. Get me So
37:17
Speaker 1: with all of this evidence, why has this happened? Take
37:23
Speaker 1: a listen twenty eight kp R. C. Houston. When you
37:27
Speaker 1: look at this case, by the numbers two mistrials in
37:31
Speaker 1: the most recent trial, the jury deliberating some seventeen hours
37:34
Speaker 1: fifty eight minutes, sending several notes of concern to Judge Johnson,
37:38
Speaker 1: ultimately split eight four not guilty here. But whether A J.
37:43
Speaker 1: Armstrong did it isn't the question at hand tonight. Rather,
37:46
Speaker 1: why is it that prosecutors weren't able to successfully unanimously
37:50
Speaker 1: swayed yours is at this time on the court's own motion,
37:54
Speaker 1: I am declaring a mistrial in this case, straight from
37:57
Speaker 1: Judge Kelly Johnson's mouth hung jewelry. In the case of AJ.
38:01
Speaker 1: Armstrong Junior, they brought their best prosecutors, They tried to
38:05
Speaker 1: bring their best case, and the split as far as
38:08
Speaker 1: we know when they broke was a for not guilty.
38:11
Speaker 1: And last but not least, we find after his both
38:17
Speaker 1: of his parents are shot dead. Aj Armstrong starts a
38:20
Speaker 1: fire right there in the home. Jess got Morgan, what
38:25
Speaker 1: is happening? Why did he start a fire? How did
38:28
Speaker 1: he start a fire? Most people that are involved with
38:32
Speaker 1: fire setting like this as as a result of a
38:34
Speaker 1: homicide perhaps are trying to, you know, to destroy evidence.
38:38
Speaker 1: And apparently it didn't work very well. What was burned?
38:41
Speaker 1: The carpet. You know, they went in and took a
38:44
Speaker 1: big example of the carpet in this particular cation that's
38:47
Speaker 1: been used in court in these other two trials, and
38:51
Speaker 1: you know what would happen is that they would clip
38:53
Speaker 1: this out and examine it and to see what the
38:55
Speaker 1: origin of the fire was. How was it initiated? Now
38:58
Speaker 1: I doubt that this individ was going to be a
39:00
Speaker 1: professional firestarter, but was there accelerant there? And that's hard
39:04
Speaker 1: to do with carpet, you know why, because carpet itself,
39:07
Speaker 1: if it's synthetic, it is actually petroleum based. A lot
39:10
Speaker 1: of people don't realize that. So they have to separate
39:12
Speaker 1: this out and be very careful about it. But you know,
39:15
Speaker 1: this wasn't very sophisticated. But why would he start a fire?
39:19
Speaker 1: And where in the home and when would he have
39:21
Speaker 1: the opportunity to start a fire? I think I think
39:26
Speaker 1: that this goes to no DNA was found on the weapon.
39:31
Speaker 1: I think that he had a block of time here
39:34
Speaker 1: that's unaccounted for, where he went and probably cleaned the weapon,
39:39
Speaker 1: washed his hands perhaps, And in addition to that, in
39:43
Speaker 1: addition to that, he's going to try to start a
39:45
Speaker 1: fire in proximity to the bodies to burn them up
39:48
Speaker 1: to get it, you know, to give this this idea
39:51
Speaker 1: that there's not going to be any evidence. And of
39:53
Speaker 1: course it didn't work. It just it collapsed in on itself.
39:57
Speaker 1: And so again that goes back to this idea, who
40:01
Speaker 1: would have had access to that particular area, who would
40:04
Speaker 1: have had the ability to start a fire approximating whereas
40:08
Speaker 1: parents were actually found murder? So, Dave mac two mistrials.
40:12
Speaker 1: What's going to happen now? Actually it's going to be
40:14
Speaker 1: a third trial now, Nancy, in February of twenty twenty three.
40:18
Speaker 1: They're going to try one more time to get twelve
40:20
Speaker 1: people to say guilty. Wow, with this evidence, I mean
40:24
Speaker 1: You don't have to be deaf, dumb, and blind not
40:27
Speaker 1: to see that this guy, then sixteen years old and
40:31
Speaker 1: angry about his car getting taken away, murdered his parents.
40:34
Speaker 1: It's it's I don't understand what's happening. We'll keep you
40:39
Speaker 1: updated as trial nears. We wait as justice unfolds. Nancy
40:44
Speaker 1: Grace Crime Stories, signing off, goodbye friend,