A Texas woman allegedly made an escape attempt while being escorted from a medical appointment by two corrections officers in Austin on Wednesday.
Kaitlin Armstrong, 34, has been in police custody awaiting trial for the alleged murder of professional gravel and mountain cyclist Anna Moriah Wilson in 2022.
As recounted by Travis County Sheriff spokeswoman Kristen Dark, Armstrong took off running but only made it for just short of two blocks before being apprehended. No further details were disclosed, but both officers were checked out at the hospital following the incident.
A video taken by a passerby appears to show Armstrong trying to outrun the officers off while sporting a black and white striped jail-issue jumpsuit.
The alleged flee attempt was actually Armstrong’s second, reportedly.
She apparently led law enforcement on a 43-day chase after leaving the country shortly after being interviewed by police in connection with Wilson’s death. She was found by the U.S. Marshals in Costa Rica, where she had been looking for work as a yoga instructor and had allegedly skipped out on a $6,350 bill for cosmetic surgery in an attempt to change her appearance.
Upon her extradition to Austin, she pleaded not guilty in her first court appearance in July 2022, as previously reported in The Dallas Express.
However, her trial has been subject to heavy delay, in part due to Armstrong’s defense team filing a number of motions, including one to suppress evidence from her May 12 interview with police. They argued the police did not properly question her or read her rights.
Armstrong stands accused of murder in the first degree and could face up to 99 years in prison if found guilty in her trial that starts on October 30. She will likely face additional charges after this alleged escape attempt, according to Dark.
Prosecutors maintain that Armstrong shot and killed Wilson when she was in Austin for a race.
As previously covered in The Dallas Express, the 25-year-old victim from Vermont had been staying with a friend living on Maple Avenue in East Austin. Yet she was discovered fatally shot on May 11, with investigators placing Armstrong at the scene at the time of the murder using video footage of her 2012 Jeep Cherokee parked outside the home.
Investigators discovered that Wilson had had a romantic relationship with Colin Strickland, a fellow cyclist who had been dating Armstrong for three years. The two had gone swimming together earlier on the day of the murder.
Allegedly, Armstrong found out about this relationship and was enraged, as an anonymous tipster recounted to police at the time.
As of October 7, 52 homicides had been reported in the city of Austin in 2023, according to KXAN. This total falls well short of those logged in Dallas, with the Dallas Police Department’s crime analytics dashboard showing that 198 homicides had been reported as of October 12.
Both cities have grappled with officer shortages, with Dallas PD asking the public in June to report theft, vandalism, and property damage online and Austin PD asking robbery victims to call 311 instead of 911 in September, as previously covered in The Dallas Express. Troopers from the Texas Department of Public Safety have previously been deployed in both cities to help keep public order.
As for Dallas, the city is policed by a force of only about 3,100 sworn personnel despite a city report recommending about three officers for every 1,000 residents, putting an effective staffing level at around 4,000 officers.