HOUSTON – A hearing lasting less than an hour is reigniting questions in one of Houston’s most high-profile murder cases, the conviction of Antonio “A.J.” Armstrong Jr. for the 2016 shooting deaths of his parents, Dawn and Antonio Sr.
Armstrong’s appellate attorney argued before a three-judge panel this week that prosecutors failed to disclose a complaint filed years ago against their blood splatter expert, Celestina Rossi. They say the complaint, made to the Texas Forensic Science Commission, accused Rossi of planting evidence in another case and should have been turned over before Armstrong’s third trial, where he was ultimately convicted.
“I can’t explain to you as a trial lawyer who’s invested so much time in this case, how devastating that is, to learn in a huge decision that we made that may have impacted that trial, that there was something else out there, sorry, that we should have known, that may affected our decision,” said Rick DeToto, Armstrong’s defense attorney. “It is devastating.”…