The son of former NFL player Antonio Armstrong has been sentenced to life in prison for the murder o

May 2024 · 3 minute read

Antonio “AJ” Armstrong Jr. was found guilty by a Texas grand jury on Wednesday, August 16, of killing his parents when he was a teenager in 2016.

Armstrong, now 23, has been sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 40 years for the shooting deaths of his retired NFL linebacker father, Antonio Armstrong Sr., and his mother, Dawn Armstrong, in their southwest Houston home, as reported by the local station KHOU.

Jurors deliberated for approximately 10-and-a-half hours before reaching the guilty verdict in the third trial Armstrong has faced in the seven years since the deaths of his parents.

Two previous trials had resulted in hung juries, and Armstrong, now a married father himself, had been out of jail with an ankle monitor since bonding out in 2017.

The guilty verdict came after more than 40 hours of testimony from 31 witnesses over an 11-day span.

While the verdict was read out loud, Armstrong showed no emotion, while his long-time partner and wife Kate Armstrong openly cried in the courtroom.

At the age of 16, Armstrong shot both his parents as they slept in their bed on July 29, 2016, and then called 911 to report hearing gunshots, prosecutors alleged.

Dawn, who was shot twice in the head, was pronounced dead at the scene, while Antonio Sr. was rushed to a hospital where he later died. Both were 42 years old.

The murder weapon, a .22-caliber pistol belonging to Antonio Sr., was left along with an ominous note on the kitchen counter, which read: “I have been watching you for a long time. Come get me.”

Prosecutors presented evidence that Armstrong had previously shot the same gun into a pillow and blanket, through the floor of his bedroom, about a week before the killings, and also lit a fire outside his parents’ bedroom two days before.

They also stated that he had searched on his iPad how to craft a car bomb, and his claim of seeing a masked intruder fleeing his home did not align with the home’s security alarm system, which showed no records of anyone entering the home on the night of the murders.

According to the report, Armstrong had faced criticism from his parents after being expelled from high school, receiving failing grades, and using marijuana.

On the other hand, the defense sought to cast doubt on the prosecutor’s theory and suggested that Armstrong’s older brother, Josh, who had severe mental health issues including paranoia and schizophrenia, was a more likely suspect.

The defense referred to doctors’ reports that Josh had delusions about being both a god and the devil during his stays at psychiatric hospitals following his parents’ deaths, and once told a doctor that he “witnessed” his parents’ murders.

Prosecutors countered the defense’s argument, stating that Josh developed mental health problems after the murders of his parents, likely as a result of their killings, citing his medical records and testimony from Josh’s girlfriend at the time.

Josh’s then-girlfriend testified that she and his cousin were both with him at his apartment around the corner from his parents’ home on the night they were killed.


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