AUSTIN, Texas — Kaitlin Armstrong's murder trial lasted three weeks in the courtroom, but it only took the jury three hours to decide her fate.
Armstrong was sentenced to 90 years in prison for killing 25-year-old Anna Moriah “Mo” Wilson in East Austin in May 2022.
After Armstrong was sentenced on Friday, Moriah Wilson’s loved ones were able to direct statements to Armstrong and express how losing their daughter and friend has caused them unimaginable grief.
Caitlin Cash’s statement to Armstrong
Caitlin Cash, Moriah Wilson’s friend and the one to discover her body, was first to take the stand. She started off by addressing Armstrong directly about the night Moriah Wilson died.
“Kaitlin, I want you to know that I fought for Mo with everything I had that night,” Cash said. “From the moment I got home and started doing chest compressions, which was the longest 10 minutes of my life.”
Cash said she was relieved when the police arrived, but she didn’t want to go to the police station because she didn’t want to leave Moriah Wilson alone. She didn’t understand why they weren’t bringing her down to the ambulance, and when she asked one of the officers, they told her that her friend didn’t make it.
“That was the first moment that night when I realized that there was no coming back from this,” Cash said.
Cash said she thought everything would be fine when Moriah Wilson was taken to a hospital, but it didn’t cross her mind, in the chaos of that night, that she wouldn’t be alive and that she was already dead when Cash arrived home.
Cash remembered being questioned by police for three hours that night before she was finally able to wash the blood off her hands.
“I’ll never forget that moment in the bathroom,” Cash said. “Watching the sink turn red and wanting to put it back on my hands because it was the only thing I had left of her.”
Cash told Armstrong her actions caused that pain.
Cash also remembered asking the detective how they were going to notify Moriah Wilson’s family. She said the next morning, Karen Wilson called her and it was the hardest phone call of her life.
“She was wailing, screaming, she wasn’t speaking words at first,” Cash said of the phone call with Moriah Wilson's mother. “It was raw and guttural. It was the vocalization of grief.”
Cash said during the call, Karen Wilson kept asking, “Who would ever want to hurt my baby?” She also asked Cash if she thought her daughter had a quick death, and Cash said yes.
“At no point in my life did I think I would ever have to tell someone’s mother that I thought their daughter’s death was quick,” Cash said.
Cash recalled the times she has had to watch Karen Wilson deal with the grief since then, including the time Karen Wilson visited Cash's home after Moriah Wilson's murder.
“I sat with her as she visited my house for the first time and laid on the floor of the bathroom in a fetal position, stroking the ground, sobbing and crying out loud about how much she missed her,” Cash said. “She turned on to her back and laid right where Mo had laid and taken her final breath.”
Cash said she’s witnessed Karen Wilson’s strength through all of this and has been inspired by her daily. But she said going through this trial has been difficult on all of them.
“It has been exhausting showing up every day here in court,” Cash said. “Listening, watching, reliving every moment from so many different angles. It feels so real all over again.”
Cash said she keeps Moriah Wilson's ashes on her bedside table and sees them when she goes home every night. She continued to state her surprise at all the people who have been affected by the incident, like Moriah Wilson's dad, who struggled to watch the videos in court.
“So many people in this room have lost so much,” Cash said.
Cash said she is honored to hold “Mo” as a close friend in life and death, and she will continue seeking out ways to honor her legacy. Cash said she still feels a lot of emotions: guilt for not protecting her friend and coming home sooner; anger at Armstrong and the utter tragic nature, the senselessness and not being able to hear her friend's voice again; and deep sadness for the road ahead for Moriah Wilson’s family as well as for Armstrong and her family.
Cash's last words to Armstrong were, “I hope I can live of life she would be proud of, and I carry her with me each day. I choose light, I choose joy and I choose love. And Kaitlin, I really hope you can find that too.”
Karen Wilson’s statement to Armstrong
Karen Wilson, Moriah Wilson’s mother, took the stand next. She also started by addressing Armstrong directly.
“Kaitlin Armstrong, I’m not sure if my words can penetrate your heart, but I’m going to try,” Wilson said. “I hate what you did to my beautiful daughter. It was very selfish and cowardly.”
Karen Wilson said it was cowardly because Armstrong never chose to face Moriah Wilson woman-to-woman, in a civil conversation, because she said her daughter would have listened. She said that Moriah Wilson was a caring, empathetic person who would have cared about Armstrong’s feelings.
“If you allowed yourself to actually know her, you never ever would have wanted to hurt her,” Karen Wilson said.
Karen Wilson said if she had this conversation with her daughter, this never would have happened and Armstrong and Colin Strickland would have had a great life together.
“You ruined your life, your family’s lives, our lives and crushed the hearts of many more,” Karen Wilson said. "When you shot Moriah in the heart, you shot me in my heart. You shot Eric and Matt in their hearts. You shot Moriah's cousins and aunts and uncles and all the people who loved her."
Wilson said Armstrong will now have to live with her choices and the consequences because she is a human being, created in the image of God. She said that she would pray for Armstrong’s healing.
“The only way that [Armstrong’s healing] can begin is to admit your guilt, own your actions and seek forgiveness, not just from us, but most importantly from your Creator,” Wilson said.
Karen Wilson told Armstrong that only she can cry out to Jesus and be redeemed, so He can melt her heart of stone with His unconditional love, mercy and grace.
“There’s no winner in this story,” Karen Wilson said. “Your actions have caused all sides to suffer.”
Karen Wilson said that her daughter is now free of the sorrow and is more alive than anyone who was present in the courtroom. She continued to emphasize the religious connotations by saying that Moriah Wilson was in the presence of God’s pure light and love, and nothing can ever hurt her again.
“You killed her earthly body, but her spirit is so very much alive and you can never change that,” Karen Wilson said.
Her last words on the stand to Armstrong were, “I’m so confident in that hope of spending eternity with her [Moriah Wilson] and our loving Creator, who made this vast and beautiful universe.”
Eric Wilson's public statement
After the statements delivered on the stand, Moriah Wilson’s father, Eric Wilson, delivered remarks outside the courtroom. He thanked the prosecution and everyone who worked on the trial. He said their family is glad to see some justice served, but nothing in court will heal the grief both families feel.
"There really are no winners here,” Eric Wilson said. “This is not a time for celebration, but a time for prayer. Time to pray for our family, our friends and the Armstrong family and their friends."
Eric Wilson said his family’s lives are changed forever, but now that this trial is over, they are ready to move forward and continue their healing.
Moriah Wilson’s desire to give back inspired her family to create The Moriah Wilson Foundation in her honor.