HOUSTON, Texas — A flurry of court filings on Friday may end up delaying AJ Armstrong’s third capital murder trial, but at last check, jury selection was set to begin on Monday.
First came a motion from Armstrong’s defense team seeking more time to question a juror from the second trial regarding a "dating relationship with a Harris County prosecutor."
It's a person the Harris County District Attorney's Office said was an alternate juror and that the prosecutor she dated had no connection to the Armstrong case.
The DA’s office then filed a motion asking for a continuance due, in part, to media coverage.
Armstrong was 16 at the time of the alleged crime.
The now-23-year-old is accused of fatally shooting his parents, Antonio Armstrong, Sr. and his wife Dawn as they slept in their southwest Houston home.
Investigators have testified that no one else had the motive or opportunity to commit the murders. But Armstrong’s family has rallied around him rather than support his prosecution.
"He just wants his life back," Armstrong's uncle, Harvey Armstrong, said during a previous interview. "He wants to have his life with his newborn baby son, with his new wife.”
Prospective jurors this time are expected to be questioned individually rather than in a large group. It's a unique process the DA’s office previously discussed.
"Instead of having a big panel of people that have to talk in front of everybody, you can do it individually, so you can really tell how you feel,” Vivian King with the Harris County District Attorney's Office said.
We’re told jury selection alone could last a month or more.