'He’s just a boy, a child. He’s just 16!' | Antonio Armstrong Jr's grandmother, sister give emotional testimony as defense presents its case

The attorneys for Antonio Armstrong Jr. began presenting their defense after prosecutors rested their case Friday morning in his capital murder trial.

Armstrong Jr. is on trial for a third time after the first two ended in mistrials. He's accused of killing Antonio Sr. and Dawn Armstrong in their Bellaire-area home in southwest Houston in 2016 when he was 16.

After the jury walked into the court Friday morning, the state immediately rested its case. The defense began calling its witnesses to the stand.

The first witness they called was Donshika Deyon, Armstrong Sr.’s sister. She talked about going with Dawn to pick up Josh Armstrong, Armstrong Jr.’s older brother, from Blinn College in May 2016, which was two months before the shootings.

Armstrong Jr.’s defense previously indicated Josh Armstrong could have been behind the killings.

She said Josh Armstrong was disheveled, wearing a hoodie when it was hot outside, and sat in the middle of the backseat.

“(His eyes) were just in a daze, like a glare,” she said.

Then defense lawyer Chris Collins asked about Josh Armstrong’s demeanor in August 2016 after the killing.

“Not the Josh you knew three or four months prior,” he asked.

“No,” she replied.

On cross-examination, prosecutor John Jordan asked about Deyon’s close relationship with Armstrong Sr. growing up, especially after their dad died when she was 11.

“He was pretty much like the man in my life,” she said. “He walked me down the aisle.”

Deyon also talked about Josh Armstrong’s close relationship with his mother, Dawn Armstrong. When Josh Armstrong moved back the first week of July 2016, shortly before the killings, he started working at the family gym.

The second witness the defense called was Kay Winston, Armstrong Sr.’s mother.

Winston talked about her son’s upbringing in Kashmere Gardens, his football career, his transition to owning gyms in Bellaire and Tanglewood, and the closeness between Armstrong Sr., Dawn, their kids, and grandparents.

“We did everything together,” she said. “This has been one of the worst things in my life, to lose my son and my beautiful daughter-in-law.”

Winston talked about how sweet and smart all the kids were growing up and how Armstrong Sr. adopted Josh Armstrong when he was young.

"Josh was a sweet kid," she said, explaining that he did well in school and was a bright kid.

She then described Armstrong Jr. as being a strong athlete like his dad.

"Sweet, loving kid,” she said. “He was good at football, basketball, and track. Armstrong kids were like that."

Things took a turn when the boys got older, Winston said. In the months leading up to the shootings, they were having trouble with both sons.

In May 2016, Winston testified, “Joshua was having problems at school.” Dawn Armstrong brought him back to Houston from Blinn College. “He was in a dark place.”

Once Josh Armstrong moved back into the family’s home, she said he was different.

“He was dealing with paranoia,” she said. “His hygiene was not good. He would give you this death stare.”

The defense asked, in the interest of fairness, for Winston to also describe Armstorng Jr. at the time.

“AJ was being a boy like his father,” she said.

She testified he would sneak out of the house, lying about where he was, dating his girlfriend, and failing at school.

July 2016 earlier in the month, the parents were out of town when Armstrogn Jr. and his sister Kayra Armstrong were staying with Winston. She said she stopped by the house so the kids could pick up things for church.

However, she said she grew concerned seeing lots of cars out front she didn’t recognize. She then entered through a door via the garage.

Winston said she smelled a foul odor and saw empty bottles and marijuana. She also found kids laying on the sofa, kids in Armstron Jr. and Kayra Armstrong’s rooms, and Josh Armstrong smoking marijuana.

She said Josh Armstrong’s girlfriend Hannah and cousin Trenton were there, too.

Winston said she kicked everyone out and told Antonio Sr. and Dawn. They kicked Josh Armstrong out of the house and made him move into the apartment around the corner.

Hours before the shootings on July 28, 2016, Kayra Armstrong had been staying with Winston for several days, the grandmother testified. Armstrong Jr picked her up. She testified she never saw Armstrong Jr. angry, anxious, or frustrated.

“If I did, I would have prayed with him and talked to him,” she said. “We was happy, joking around and being Armstrong Jr., very goofy. He was in good spirits. There was nothing for me to be concerned about.”

Winston began to get emotional as her testimony continued. She said she had gone to bed that day and then her daughter Olivia woke her. She told her that they needed to hurry and get to Antonio Sr. and Dawn’s home. She told her shots had been fired.

Winston said Olivia drove them 100 mph to the house from Fresno.

When they arrived at the scene, Winston said she tried to see her grandkids, but they were in police cars. No one gave her information.

She said the police brought Winston to Kayra Armstrong, who she said was “hysterical” after learning what happened to her parents. Winston said she then learned that AJ was a suspect.

At that point, an officer asked Winston a question, and defense lawyer Chris Collins read a statement she made: “If AJ did something like this…it’s got to be drug-related.”

Winston testified that the officer did not give her a chance to explain that statement.

“AJ loved his parents,” she testified, getting very emotional. “He would have never killed his parents.”

She then described Armstrong Jr. as being just a boy.

“He’s just a boy, a child. He’s just 16! Experienced officers interrogated him!” she testified, growing even more emotional.

While his grandmother was on the stand, Armstrong Jr. could be seen wiping his eyes with a tissue in the courtroom.

The jury also heard from Dr. Mark Moeller, a forensic psychiatrist who testified that Josh Armstrong was already delusional when he checked into Ben Taub six months after the shooting, contradicting a previous timeline laid out by the state's expert.

Armstrong Jr. and Josh Armstrong's sister, Kayra Armstrong, also took the stand on Friday. She said the three of them grew up with a normal relationship with their parents.

"Nothing out of the ordinary," she said about AJ's relationship with his parents. "We all got in trouble."

She reiterated what other witnesses said previously, that Josh Armstrong was different when he came back from college.

"He was physically there but not mentally," she said.

The night of the shooting, Kayra Armstrong said Armstrong Jr. seemed very normal. He had picked her up from their grandmother's home where she'd spent the week and had gotten home around 9 or 10 p.m.

"There was no problem. He wasn't upset, he wasn't angry," she explained.

She said she set the alarm but mentioned that it wasn't always reliable. Kayra Armstrong said she went to bed before Armstrong Jr. woke her up in the middle of the night saying they had to leave.

"And then I just saw a bunch of cops," Kayra Armstrong testified.

She said she saw officers put Armstrong Jr. in the back of a cop car.

Friday's testimony comes a day after prosecutors called Dr. Ian Lamoureux, a Phoenix-based forensic psychiatrist, to the stand to review case records, including text messages from Armstrong Jr. and Josh Armstrong.

If convicted this time around, Armstrong, now 23, would face a sentence of life in prison and would be eligible for parole after 40 years.

Below is the background of the case and reports from the first two mistrials.