The boyfriend whose relationship with pro cyclist Moriah Wilson, prosecutors believe, led to her murder took the stand Friday in his girlfriend’s murder trial.
Yoga instructor Kaitlin Armstong, 36, is charged with shooting Wilson to death on May 11, 2022, shortly after Colin Strickland, Armstrong’s boyfriend, dropped Wilson off after the pair had dinner and went swimming together.
Prosecutors say Armstrong believed Strickland and Wilson were still seeing one another after a brief relationship less than a year before.
Wilson was in Austin for a cycling race and staying at a friend’s apartment. Testimony earlier Friday included a forensic scientist who said that DNA found on Wilson’s bike after the shooting likely belonged to Armstrong, CrimeOnline reported. The bicycle was found outside the friend’s apartment in a patch of bamboo.
On Friday morning, jurors saw a neighbor’s surveillance video that showed Strickland, also a pro cyclist, drive by on his motorcycle just after dropping Wilson at the apartment. Detectives said other footage showed the drop off.
In his testimony Friday afternoon, Strickland testified that his relationship with Armstrong was “sometimes tumultuous” but “at times extremely comfortable and loving,” KXAN reported. He admitted that they had occasional “off and on” cycles, including one in which he went on a date and had a brief relationship with Wilson. He said he and Wilson had known one another strictly platonically for about a year, after meeting at a race in Idaho, before the date in late 2021.
He said that particular break up happened because he and Armstrong fought about him going on a mountain bike ride with Wilson and others after a race in Arkansas.
He and Armstrong got back together after Wilson left town, Strickland said. He also testified about a phone call Wilson received from Armstrong while he and Armstrong were broken up. Wilson told him that Armstrong confronted her about her relationship with Strickland, he said. “She was upset,” Strickland said on the stand.
Strickland admitted to deleting a text thread with Wilson on his phone and changing Wilson’s name in his contacts so as not to “aggravate the defendant.”
He said that Wilson texted him that she was competing in the race in Hico in May 2022 and would be in Austin a few days before. On the day of Wilson’s murder, Strickland testified that he went on a bike ride in the morning with Armstrong and a friend, but Armstrong stopped early because she couldn’t keep up.
That afternoon, he said, Wilson sent him a text with a photo of herself on a solo ride, and the two discussed meeting up “just to connect because she was in Austin and I wanted to greet her in my home city.” She texted him an address, and the texts, he said, were on a device that Armstrong had access to, but he did not tell Armstrong about his plans to meet up with Wilson.
Strickland testified that he picked Wilson up at her friend’s apartment, and they went went swimming, then stopped at a restaurant for dinner.
The rest of Strickland’s testimony on Friday touched on his “highly unpleasant” interview with police and Armstrong’s paranoia about microphones in their house — she refused to talk inside, so they went to a coffee shop to talk. After that discussion, he said, he did not see Armstrong again.
Strickland will return to the stand on Monday.
Cameras are barred from the courtroom except for opening statements and closing arguments. Armstrong faces 99 years in prison if convicted.
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[Featured image: Kaitlin Armstrong/police, Colin Strickland/Flo Bikes, and Mo Wilson/family]
