Kaitlin Armstrong’s best friend has told the accused killer’s murder trial that she said she would “kill” another woman if her boyfriend went out with them.
Nicole Mertz testified at Armstrong’s trial this afternoon and said the two met at a coffee shop in Austin when Armstrong made the remark.
Mertz told the court that Armstrong recently broke up with her boyfriend, Colin Strickland, and that Moriah Wilson visited him in town in November 2021.
After Wilson showed up at the cafe, Mertz told the trial that Armstrong was “pretty angry, visibly angry.”
Mertz then asked her what she would do if Strickland ever dated someone, to which the defendant replied, “I would kill her.”
Armstrong is accused of shooting Wilson three times in May 2022 after he discovered she continued to have contact with her boyfriend, Colin Strickland.
Armstrong denies the allegations but has not yet provided an alibi. Her Jeep was filmed by neighborhood Ring cameras driving in and out of the crime scene at the time of the murder.
Kaitlin Armstrong enters the courtroom on the first day of her trial at the Blackwell-Thurman Criminal Justice Center, Wednesday, November 1, 2023
Moriah “Mo” Wilson was shot and killed in Austin on May 11th. She had just returned home from an evening swim with Strickland, with whom she had once been romantically involved
Mertz told the court that she did not take the comment seriously because it was not directed at anyone in particular.
When she learned of Wilson’s death, she also told the court, “My first thought was that Kaitlin might have had something to do with it.”
Mertz later called the police, told them what she knew and tried to contact Armstrong, who had gone silent on the radio.
She said: “I just had a feeling. I remember the comment she made and I knew she wasn’t happy about Colin and Moriah spending time together. I just felt and thought it was the right thing to do.”
Earlier in the day, Detective Richard Spitler testified that Armstrong investigated whether the fruit could be used to remove your fingerprint after the death of his love rival Moriah “Mo” Wilson in May 2022.
The Austin Police Department detective also said Armstrong had looked into plastic surgery, but did not elaborate on her search.
Spitler also told the trial that they found the note with Wilson’s home address on Armstrong’s cell phone.
He said he found this particularly interesting because it does not exist in official property records.
Detective Spitler said he went to the Travis County Central Appraisal District to search the address but no records were found.
It wasn’t until they googled it that they found it, as the property was actually a garage that had been converted into an apartment – where Wilson was murdered.
The detective also told the court that Armstrong sold her black Jeep Grand Cherokee less than 48 hours after Wilson was killed.
Police said they used GPS tracking to track Armstrong’s black Jeep and figure out where he might have been after the shooting.
The detective said the Jeep ended up in a dumpster behind a residence about a mile from Strickland and Armstrong’s home.
He said at trial: “I have no witness who will actually say that Ms. Armstrong drove that vehicle because the only witness who knows that is deceased.”
Austin Police Detective Richard Spitler appears in the State of Texas trial of Kaitlin Armstrong
Wilson was killed after a secret date with Armstrong’s friend Colin Strickland (pictured). He went into hiding after her death while Armstrong was on the run
Armstrong’s 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee was seen driving in front of Wilson’s friend’s house in Austin, where the bicyclist was murdered
Less than 48 hours after the murder, Kaitlin Armstrong sold her black Jeep Grand Cherokee at Carmax in Austin, police said.
She created a brand new email account and received a $12,200 offer from Carmax for the vehicle
Three days after the murder, Armstrong took an Uber to Austin Airport, where she took Southwest Airlines from Austin to New York’s LaGuardia Airport.
In her Google search history, police also said they found that Armstrong was searching for news about Wilson’s murder.
The local news article was titled “Moriah Wilson Murder: Colin Strickland Hiding Until Suspect Kaitlin Armstrong Is Found.”
During questioning by the defense, Detective Spitler became concerned about whether he was even qualified to investigate the murder, this case being his first.
Spitler fired back, saying he had received the additional training necessary for murder investigations.
He also told the defense in the case that all the evidence he collected pointed to Armstrong committing the murder.
According to the detective, he never had enough evidence to issue arrest warrants for a former boyfriend of Wilson’s and a male friend.
Kaitlin Armstrong in her booking photo after being brought back to the US from Costa Rica
He told Armstrong’s lawyer, “What would be the point of charging someone who didn’t commit the crime?”
Spitler added that he doesn’t want Wilson’s loved ones to suffer or the department to suffer if he falsely accuses someone of murder.
The defense also revealed that Wilson was tested for sexual assault, called a secure kit, at the time of her autopsy.
Still, the safe kit was not produced because Spitler said there was no evidence she had been sexually abused.
Austin police also never applied for a search warrant for Colin Strickland’s laptop, with Spitler saying they didn’t have enough probable cause to request the laptop.
He added: “I can’t necessarily think of something to get into his (Strickland’s) laptop.”
The defense then requested a mistrial after the prosecutor failed to provide a report about vandalism at Strickland’s home on the night of the murder.
Armstrong’s lawyers said the vandalism was “at the heart” of the case, but Spitler countered that the vandalism had nothing to do with the murder.
The court had previously heard Strickland testify that some rocks were knocked over and flowers were stepped on. The judge ultimately denied the motion for a mistrial and the state submitted the report to the court.
Spitler then testified that he only applied for an arrest warrant after officers received confirmation that the murder weapon’s ballistic ammunition matched the gun in Armstrong’s possession.
Last week, Strickland told the court he had concerns about entering into a long-term relationship with Armstrong.
He said Armstrong routinely blocked other women’s phone numbers on his phone behind his back. Wilson was one of them, he said.
On the day of the murder, while swimming with Wilson, Strickland told Armstrong that he had gone to drop off flowers at a friend’s house.
Colin Strickland storms out of the Travis County Courthouse after testifying against his ex Kaitlin Armstrong
On May 13, two days after the murder, Strickland sent a text message to Armstrong’s iCloud email asking if she had a phone.
Last week, jurors were played Ring security camera footage from a neighbor in which Wilson could be heard screaming. Three shots were heard.
Prosecutors say Armstrong shot Wilson twice in the head and once in the heart with a gun Strickland bought for her.
She then allegedly fled the apartment on Wilson’s bicycle, which was found in the bushes behind her apartment.
Armstrong fled Texas after an initial police interview. She then flew to Costa Rica, where she says she only taught yoga.
She was eventually arrested in July and brought back to Austin. A few weeks before the trial began, she tried to run away again during a doctor’s visit.