HOUSTON — A Texas appeals court has ordered a new hearing after attorneys for Antonio "AJ" Armstrong appealed his capital murder conviction for the shooting deaths of his parents.

Then 16, AJ Armstrong was accused of killing Antonio Sr. and Dawn Armstrong in the bedroom of their Bellaire home on July 29, 2016. His first two trials ended in mistrials because jurors couldn't agree on a verdict.

In August 2023, a third jury found AJ guilty of capital murder and sentenced him to life in prison. While they were deliberating, a federal lawsuit was filed claiming that Celestina Rossi, an expert witness who t estified about blood spatter evidence on behalf of the state, had been accused of planting evidence in a separate capital murder trial in Montgomery County.

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