The judge presiding over the murder trial for Kaitlin Armstrong, accused in connection to the shooting death of cyclist Moriah Wilson, has dismissed two motions to suppress evidence filed by Armstrong’s defense team.
“There was no evidence of any intentional disregard for the truth,” Judge Brenda Kennedy stated in a court hearing on Wednesday.
Armstrong’s murder trial was expected to begin in October but was delayed pending Judge Brenda Kennedy’s decision on the two motions. The jury trial is now scheduled to begin on June 26, 2023.
Armstrong has been formally charged with first-degree murder in connection to Wilson’s death in an East Austin, Texas, home on May 11. She is currently held at the Travis County Jail in Austin, with a bond set at $3.5 million. She pleaded not guilty to the charges.
In a pre-trial hearing on October 19 at a Travis County court, Armstrong’s defense team requested that Judge Brenda Kennedy throw out some of the evidence obtained by authorities during their investigation of the case.
Armstrong’s defense team filed a Frank’s Hearing and Motion to Suppress Evidence that challenged the truth of the information which detectives put forth in their written affidavit to support the search and arrest warrants during their initial investigation.
Prosecutors acknowledged errors in the original affidavit but suggested that those errors were not a reckless disregard for the truth.
Judge Brenda Kennedy stated in court on Wednesday “there was no evidence of any intentional disregard for the truth,” according to a report in KXAN (opens in new tab), an Austin-based news outlet.
In addition, the defense team argued the legality of authorities’ questioning of Armstrong on May 12, in a video interview, when she was brought in with an outstanding class B warrant for her arrest that concerned an unrelated incident. At that time, she was briefly detained and questioned by authorities about the death of Wilson, but the defense team argued that she was not read her full Miranda rights.
State attorneys have said that the detective who questioned Armstrong told her that she was free to leave five times.
Judge Brenda Kennedy said that the defense team did not convince the court that detectives acted unconstitutionally and the court would not suppress the video evidence of the interview in the upcoming trial set to begin on June 26, 2023.
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