one, two, three, four, five. clap, we're one, two, three, four, five. clap, we're good? >> i was making my way down the stairs, and that's when i heard the gunshots. >> we start to hear it's two people shot. we believe it's the mother and father. >> dawn had been shot in the head. what? >> your mom has passed away, and your dad is fighting for his life. >> this is a family that is so respected in this community. a family that appeared to be perfect wasn't. >> suddenly you realize they suspect you. >> there's four people in the house. the house is completely secured with locks and with an alarm system. no one else got in that house tonight. >> he's mourning the loss of his parents while being accused of murdering them.

>> no way would hurt his parents. >> and i saw the guy. like i feel like i should have done something. >> did you physically see somebody? >> i saw him running. >> don't you think that would be one of the first things you would tell officers at the scene? hey, i saw an intruder. >> police don't know what they have on their hands. >> this is something stranger. >> there was a pistol and a note with a message scribbled on it, and it said, i have been watching for a long time. >> oh, my god. ♪ ♪ >> the armstrongs are a perfect example of who texas is. they are a family that's all about faith and football. >> let's get it in, guys. >> this is a family that is so resprespected in this community.

a family that appeared to be perfect and wasn't. >> do you need medical, police, or fire? >> this is your parents house? >> yes. >> and your name? >> a.j. >> any medical attention needed? >> i heard gunshots so i don't really -- >> in your parents' bedroom? >> yes. >> on july 29, 2016, at approximately 1:40 a.m., houston police receive a 911 call from a police receive a 911 call from a 16-year-old male who states that he's in a closet and he heard shots fired coming from his parents' bedroom. >> oh, my god. >> he was whispering. he was very quiet, concerned somebody may still in the house.

constantly asking on the condition of his sister. >> i need to get my sister. >> your sister is downstairs? on the first floor? >> no, she's on the second floor. >> how old is she? >> 12. >> i remember a.j. coming into my room, waking me up. >> kayra, you need to get up. come on. i need to you get up. i need you to get up. >> i was halfway asleep. i didn't ask any questions. i just got up and walked. >> just grab my hand and stay behind me. >> police are on their way. >> i see lights outside of my house. what do i do? >> when they knock on the door you can go down there. >> is there anyone on the first level? >> no, it's just our living room and kitchen. >> just listen for the police and listen for instructions. >> when police arrive at the

home, the alarm system is on. a.j. had to deactivate the house alarm to let them in the door. >> i'm the one that called. >> a.j. opens the door and he and his 12-year-old sister kayra walk outside to find a line of officers. >> there were maybe seven police officers standing outside the door. >> stand by. there is going to be people walking. >> i'm courtney fisher and i'm a reporter of ktrk in houston, texas. >> now breaking news from southwest houston. >> courtney fisher is life at the scene. good morning to you. >> i have covered this case from the beginning. it was 3:00 a.m. police tape is already up. >> this just happened a couple hours ago, so it's very busy here. >> you've got family members gathering at the scene outside the home. >> the first person i saw was my older brother josh. >> dawn and antonio armstrong have a third child, josh.

he recently moved into an apartment with his girl friend, and it's just a few blocks away from the home. >> i just remember being yelled, babe, get up. somebody's in the house. i was startled. i woke up out of my sleep. he's yelling this. i see him running out the door. >> my daughter olivia got the phone call. she said we had to go up to antonio and dawn's home, that there was shots. >> when a.j. called i could hear it in his voice. he was afraid, he was hysterical. >> he said, there's been gunshots and somebody was here. they were in the house. >> i didn't know what to think. i saw yellow tape. i knew what that meant. >> the police immediately go through the house to secure the house and make sure there's no one else in the house. >> the doors are all locked. there does not appear to be any type of forced entry that they can find from the outside.

they search the entire house. there's nobody hiding in a closet. >> dawn and antonio are upstairs in their bed, and when the police went in there and the paramedics, they believe dawn had been shot twice in the head and was deceased, and antonio had been shot once in the head, and he was alive but in critical condition. >> strangely, they had pillows over their heads, almost as if someone didn't want to see what had happened. >> we start to hear, it's two people shot. we believe it's the mother, father. we immediately start to think, is this a murder suicide? >> we know one woman shot, her husband also shot. the couple's children also in the home, a boy and girl. >> i remember seeing police cars and ambulance, and somebody was rolled out on a stretcher. they were saying that antonio

>> i remember being escorted to a police car, and an officer came by and i asked them, what's going on? and they were like, your mom has passed away, and your dad is fighting for his life, and he might not make it. and someone brought me these bags around my hand and told me to put it on, that i couldn't take them off. >> police officers put bags over people's hands to preserve evidence, possible gunshot residue. >> it's not that they think the person is responsible at that point. it's just they don't exactly know what happened. >> i did not know what was being told to me. i still had the bags on my hand, so as i was crying i just

couldn't wipe my face or anything. i just sat there alone. >> she was so traumatized, and i was so concerned about her. i wanted those bags off her hands. >> a.j. was also alone. police had bagged his hands and had him sit in the back of a squad car. >> after they secured the house and took the victim out of the house, they looked around for any evidence they could find. they come in the kitchen. the drawers were open like it had been ransacked. there was a pistol and a note with a message scribbled on it laying on the counter. it appears to be a staged crime scene to them. when the police found the note, it was really hard to read, and it said, i have been watching for a long time. up in the corner it was scribbled, come get me.sendorth to be a burn on the carpet. >> it was odd.

investigators didn't really know how that had come about. >> you know certain officers and you start to get tips -- hey, this isn't a murder suicide, this is something straner. >> i find out that somebody else in the house shot this husband and wife, and it's like, wait a second, over there. and you see this kid, he's really young, he has handcuffs on. >> i did see them put cuffs on him and put him in the backseat of the car and drive him off. i didn't understand why. >> there is someone in the back of that squad car. he is handcuffed. we don't know the relationship to the victims. >> when you got that call, what specifically did chris tell you? told me mom was dead, dad was struggling and kid was in custody. >> houston police say he shot >> that kid remains custody this morning. >> houston police say he shot both of his parents. >> killing his mother, his dad fighting for his life. >> didn't make sense. no way a.j. could have done this. >> just not a.j.

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dawn armstrong has just been murdered in her bed. her husband antonio has a gunshot wound to the head and is clinging to life. and their 16-year-old son a.j. has just been cuffed and is being taken in for questioning. i have been following this case for years now. we travelled to houston in early 2019 for the first of what would become many interviews with a.j. armstrong and his legal team. >> hi, matt. >> a.j., nice to meet you. >> one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. one, two, three. and you clap? good? all right that night, the police come in and you're looking for help, and suddenly you realize they suspect you. >> i was in complete shock.

i can't put into words how i felt. it was a mix of shock, it was a mix of anger. it was a lot of different things, like, why me? >> first time you ever had handcuffs. >> first time i had handcuffs on my hands. for me, it was no way possible. i couldn't fathom the idea of killing my parents. >> i immediately went to the hospital. and it still didn't cross my mind that they took a.j. to the police station and maybe you need to get an attorney there or something.>> i found out, you k had been killed and antonio had been transporten killed and ant been transported to a hospital and was on life support. >> chris was at the hospital. he was the family attorney and also antonio's friend.

>> i remember getting off the elevator and the entire waiting room was packed with people from everywhere. >> you saw antonio -- >> he was on a ventilator. i told him good-bye. >> it's clear he wasn't going to make it. >> no, we knew it. i told him to fight. you know, that he's a fighter. but we knew -- we knew what the situation was. >> we're waiting for police to come talk to all the media who's standing outside. >> mic check, one, two, three. everyone ready? >> and one of the first things sargent says to me was, this is the all-american family. family. was an outstanding - the male in the family was an absolute hard working breadwinner. he's a great guy. and the family, the mother was a great mother.

>> we realized, this isn't just any family. this is the armstrong family. this family is so well respected. >> everybody just loved them. loved their personality and just them as a couple. >> tell me about antonio sr. >> monster of a man. dedicated to his family. >> antonio was my big brother. proud of him. just to watch the things we accomplished. >> his father he never knew. his mother was 15 when she gave birth to him. >> i raised him here in cashmere garden in houston. it's a mix. come working, come welfare, and a lot of areas are drug infested. when antonio graduated from high school, he went to texas a&m university, played football there. >> this is a guy who got a full ride to texas a and m where he

played line backer. to texas, football is not just a big deal. it's life. >> he applied from 1991 to 1994. >> in the cotton bowl in 1996 -- 1994 against noter named defensive player. eight tackles, three sacks. he went off. >> no doubt he was going to be picked in the nfl draft. >> he was drafted sixth round to the san francisco 49ers. and went to the miami dolphins. >> like, is this really happening? are we getting out the hood? >> how good of a football player was your father? >> he was amazing. i've never seen an outside linebacker good as my dad. >> dawn came to visit the church that i pastored. they met then. >> my daughter, she was a charmer. she was one of a kind. if you met her, you would love her. >> when antonio met dawn, she had a baby boy, and joshua became antonio's son.

he adopted him basically as his own. >> josh didn't learn antonio wasn't his birth father until he was 16, but according to the family, antonio always treated josh like his biological son. they did have two kids together, a.j. and kayra. >> dawn was involved with her kids, took the pictures every moment. she didn't want to miss anything. >> dawn was interviewed when she was buying a special blanket for her son josh when he was going to college. >> because he's not going to school locally or anywhere close to home, this is a way he could take a piece of us with him, especially during the tough times of getting adjusted to being away from home. >> she was the perfect mom for me. i don't think, like, another mother could have come in and handled me better than she did. she knew how to always talk to me. >> how was your relationship with your dad growing up? >> he was there for everything

from football to basketball, when i wanted to play soccer, he was there. that was my go-to best friend. >> a.j. wanted to follow in his father's steps and play football, and once he started playing he was good at every position he played. >> hello, everyone, my name is antonio armstrong, owner of first class training. >> once antonio's professional football career was over, he began to open up gyms. >> antonio armstrong knows what it takes to get in shape and stay there. >> and ten, good. >> they had three gyms. >> antonio worked day and night to provide and do for his family. ♪ ♪ >> a.j. grew up in the bel air area, southeast houston. bellaire is family area. there are a lot of bigger homes. >> for antonio to come from cashmere garden and end up in bellaire owning a gym in bellaire, it was day versus night, and it was a major accomplishment.

>> tell me about life in your household previous to 2016. >> it was amazing. i was attending a great school. >> the kids went to kincaid, a very prestigious private school. >> he just finished up his sophomore year. he has a lot of friends. he has a girlfriend. he loves his parents. they appear to be this perfect family. >> but that picture-perfect family is now shattered with both of the armstrongs shot in their bed, and a.j. is in handcuffs. >> people are saying to me, you need to get a.j. an attorney. i said, for what? >> you have a 16-year-old in a room with two experienced police officers. >> does your dad own a gun? >> yes, he does. >> police say, are you sure you've never touched that gun? and the story changes. >> i can explain the gun.

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in honor of men's national health, we encourage to you take steps towards better mental and physical health. >> antonio armstrong was a houston hometown hero, well-loved in this community. >> we could not have done it without each and every one of you. thank you for your support. thank you for accepting us. thank you for your friendship. >> it's been five hours since a.j. armstrong made that 911 call. most of his family is at the hospital where his father is still fighting for his life. at what point did you hear that a.j. was now the number one police suspect? >> it was one of the family members that told me that a.j. had been arrested and taken downtown, so i just had simply asked, is anybody taking care of a.j.? >> chris wanted to do something for his friend's 16-year-old son, but he knew he was going to need help.

>> i know rick had handled a similar case, and so i called him. >> rick, when you got that call from chris, what did he tell you? >> he was pretty upset, and he was asking me what i would do as far as dealing with a.j. being in police custody. >> i didn't know what was going on. i was like, can someone tell me something? and i got no answers. >> because of his age, age 16, and obviously the parents were unable to give consent, a magistrate was called in where he was read his rights, and everything was explained to him. >> it is friday, july 29th. by my watch it is approximately 6:53 in the morning. antonio, because they're going to question you in a short while regarding the murder of dawn armstrong. i'm going go over your rights with you. >> she wants to make sure he understands his rights, and she has to read the warnings to a.j.

so he understands he doesn't have to talk to police. she makes a.j. repeat it back to her. >> you may remain silent and not speak at all. any statement you make may be t? >> that if i don't want to say anything, i don't have to. >> that's correct. >> they want to make sure a.j. has no question about what's -- what he's about to >> a.j. did agree to speak to detectives without an attorney present. >> he agreed to without legal counsel. he said, nanny, what did i need counsel for? i just wanted to tell them what they want to know so they can find out who did this. >> how is your relationship with your parents? >> really close. me and my mom, like we -- like me, my brother, and my sister had my little issues with my mom, but it was never anything serious.

it was, like, family stuff. >> he talks about his relationship is great with his parents. he has no problems with his parents. >> and what about dad? >> dad was like the go-to for everything. >> any recent problems? any issues between you or him? >> no. like, my dad's, like, a pretty chill guy. >> the detectives during their interview of a.j. basically wanted to complete a timeline some they basically asked his whereabouts and what had had been doing from that day all the way through this time of the 911 call. >> my mom, she came back around 5:00, and it was me, my dad, and her, and then my mom and dad got dressed and went to one of my dad's friend's events that he had, and they were gone until like 8:00, and then when they got back i went to pick up my little sister from my grandma's house. >> a.j. came and picked me up. and took me home. he seemed happy like always.

just in a good mood. >> we got back to the house at like 9:00 or 10:00. >> we locked the doors. i set the alarm and went >> my parents were upstairs. i don't know what this were doing. i was laying in bed, watch ing netflix, and i -- it was like probably 1:00 or 2:00, getting ready to go to bed, i went to the restroom, and when i came out i heard the door open. i hadn't been feeling well that whole day, so i was staying home. i thought it was my parents. i was going to asking for medicine. i was making my way down the stairs, and that's when i i got down, and i like looked -- >> do you know how many you heard? >> i think i heard, two but may have been three. i'm not 100% positive. i feel personally bad. i saw the guy. i feel like i should have done something. >> when a.j.'s being questioned by police, he makes a huge revelation.

he says he saw a masked intruder. >> did you physically see somebody? >> i saw him running. like, i saw him running. >> what did he look like? >> they had a -- it was like a mask and you could only see the eyes and the mouth, but he looked like a black guy. i'd say like 6 feet maybe. >> this story becomes very interesting to police, because nowhere on the 911 call does he say, there was a masked intruder in our house! why now? why now does a masked man enter the picture? >> don't you think that would be one of the first things you would tell officers at the scene? hey, i saw an intruder. >> i understand, and it makes sense, but this is a 16-year-old. you cannot put yourself in his shoes and imagine what's going on if he just heard gunshots. >> and remember, on that 911 call, a.j. does seem to briefly elude to someone being in the house. >> how did you get in the house? >> police say they didn't find

any evidence of an intruder in the house that night, and now say the gun used belongs to antonio sr. they want to see what a.j. knows about it. >> does your dad own a gun? >> yeah, he does. >> do you know what kind of gun it is? >> i think it's a pistol. i think it's a .22. the only time i used it is when we went to the gun range and i was like 8 years old. >> then detectives confront with a puzzling -- he was not involved in this investigation but she reviewed to evidence and spoke to sources close to the case. >> they first noticed that in the master bedroom, that's parts of the ceiling from a bullet that has come through the ceiling and is down on the ground, and so when they look and they follow the trajectory of it, they realize that the bullet was fired from a.j.'s bedroom.

and guess what? he had covered it up with a big pile of dirty socks. >> police say, well, wait a second, are you sure you never touched that gun? and the story changes. >> i can explain the gun from the room upstairs. it was two -- i think it was two, maybe three weeks ago. me and one of my friends was just, like, playing around. i was like, hey, have you ever shot a gun before. and they were like, no, i've never done it. and i was like, you want me to show you how to. the gun was under my dad's bed. >> a.j. tells officers in the interview he never touched his dad's gun. that wasn't true. >> not a lot of ways to describe it except he's a 16-year-old knucklehead and he might have been scared to get in trouble for touching his dad's gun. >> they were playing around with the gun. stupid, sure. but it doesn't make him a bad guy.

it makes him a stupid teenager. >> i think any time you're talking to police and your story starts to change, that could be a bit of a problem. >> the investigators seem to be finding more problems for a.j. back at the house. more suspicious evidence that just isn't adding up. >> i understand this situation does not look good at all for me. postmenopausal women with hr+ her2- metastatic breast cancer are living longer with kisqali. so, long live family time. long live dreams. and long live you. to help women live longer when taken with an aromatase inhibitor. and kisqali helps preserve quality of life. so you're not just living, you're living well. kisqali can cause lung problems or an abnormal heartbeat which can lead to death. it can cause serious skin reactions, liver problems, and low white blood cell counts that may result in severe infections. avoid grapefruit during treatment. tell your doctor right away

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any moves you like, kiddo! >> this is an abc news special report. >> good evening, i'm juju chang at abc news headquarters here in new york. we're interrupting your regular programming with breaking news from capitol hill. after four chaotic days, 14 failed ballots, and very public arm-twisting spilling out on the floor of the house, republicans finally elected kevin mccarthy as speaker of the house. it's the longest protracted battle for speakership in 165 years. tonight the california congressman prevailing on the

15th attempt, wrangling the ballots needed to win the gavel after making broad concessions to a group of hardline conservatives. mccarthy's leadership puts him third in line to the presidency. we return now to regular programming, but coverage continues on "abc news live" and abcnews.com and on "nightline." >> thisas been a special report from abc news. investigators have been questioning a.j. for more than half an hour and asked him about evidence found at the house. there's that bizarre note that says i have been watching. and the bullet hole in the ceiling. but it's not just those things that investigators have questions about. they've also noticed a suspicious burn mark on the carpet at the top of the stairs on the floor where a.j.'s parent's bedroom is. >> i know you saw the black

little thing on the carpet when you catch up the stairs. i was playing with matches and i dropped it and walked away and the carpet set on fire. and then my dad came and confronted me about it, and i was like, i don't know. >> he tells investigators he lied to his dad and he got upset. >> he waslike, don lieitd ta a andt it. >> the very shape that is burn on the carpet is not consistent with a.j.'s story, so this wasn't just a, oops, i'm playing with matches and i dropped one. >> at this point detectives also started to talk with other family members, and they're telling investigators a.j. started having issues with his dad recently. >> they said you recently had trouble with your dad. >> that was the carpet. >> they said you got caught with drugs. >> that was a really long time ago, like, three, six months ago. >> whenever a.j. would come over

to the apartment, had him and josh would smoke weed together. i remember a few times josh's mom calling about a.j. and his grades are falling and all he wants to do is party now. talk to him. can you try to steer him on the right path? >> what a.j. doesn't know at this point is that he is the main suspect, and investigators are trying to appeal to him to just fess up. >> there's a time in your life, even at 16, when you have to man up and accept responsibility for doing something wrong, losing your cool, whatever it is, okay? >> throughout the interview, a.j. sticks to his story.idot shoot his parents while they were sleeping. >> detectives are telling him, we bagged your hands so we could run gunshot residue test. it's going to tell us if you fired the gun or not. >> in layman's terms, gunshot residue is the blowback that comes after a weapon is fired and residue comes flying out of the gun. you can't avoid it.

it's going to be somewhere on your clothing. it's going to be on the gun. it's possibly going to be on your hand. >> the gunshot residue is talked about so much during the interrogation, and a.j. keeps saying, you'll see, there will be no evidence on me. >> i can tell you now, there's nothing that will come back that it's on me. there will be no gun powder. my fingerprints, nothing like that will come back on me. i had nothing to do with this. >> even as a.j. maintains his innocence, detectives continue to ratchet up the pressure, trying to get him to admit he know more than he's saying. >> just man to man, there's four people in the house. the house is completely secure with locks and an alarm system. >> i honestly don't buy that someone was able to rush out the house, place a gun, write a note. no one else got in the house tonight, antonio. no one else got in the house. did casper come in and do it?

>> detectives also have another card to play. they claim the 911 call points directly to a.j.'s guilt. >> they still haven't knocked on the door. >> i'm in my closet. >> your parents had both been shot, and you're very calm on the phone. that's not normal. that's not a normal scenario. >> like, you can ask the police, like, i was crying, but my brother calmed me down. i was bawling crying coming out of the house. >> i understand. when you called 911 when this incident happened. i'm not talking afterwards several minutes after your brother showed up. >> i didn't know what happened. i didn't know if they were actually dead. i didn't know if i just didn't know what happened. >> now, that 911 call is 16 minutes long, and there's soething that a.j. whispers about seven minutes in that would raise the eyebrow of any detective.

>> it's all my fault. >> under his breath, a.j. says, it's all my fault. >> you said, it's all my fau it's all my fault. have done sothg. >> two sides take this very differently. a.j.'s attorneys believe he was saying it's all my fault because i couldn't protect my parents. but i've talked to that sargent and people at the d.a.'s office who believe, that's just him admitting it to himself, he shot his parents. >> i understand the situation does not look good at all for me. >> well, it's not that it doesn't -- it doesn't make sense. >> it doesn't make sense. i understand that. but i didn't do it. maybe my dad was talking to him. because it has nothing to do with me. >> but at the hospital his dad is on life support, and ultimately antonio never wakes up. >> you know how you watch movies and you see the doctors that

come in and say to you, to the family, i'm so sorry, but the person isn't going make it? that is exactly how it happened. it was -- w itas hd. >> mom said let him go. he wouldn't want to be here. and we told my brother i love him. don't know to this day if he could hear me or not, but i did, and i appreciate his life. >> after his interview, a.j.'s booked as a juvenile on charges of capital murder. >> i thought somebody lost their mind, trying to charge my grandson with killing his mom and dad. >> but then with a.j. sitting in juvenile detention, something happens that his defense team says could be related to the murders. a break-in at one of the

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>> that night was just a blur. >> so why do you think the police focused on you so

quickly? >> your guess is as good as mine. >> and the idea is there are four people in the house, two of them severely shot in a house locked with the alarm on, so only the occupants inside the house could have conceivably committed this murder. >> and there were no signed of forced entry. >> this sweet little girl couldn't have done it. has to be a.j. >> i'm kate ober, and i am a.j.'s girlfriend. we met when i was in the 7th grade, so long time. >> that's my girl. we have been through everything together. not only her, but her family has been supportive of me the entire time. >> you couldn't ask for nicer. he treated kate with such respect. you could just look at him and tell that he really cared about her. you know, i felt like she was safe with him. >> that night i was on the phone with him, and his parents were in the background.

they were all laughing and joking, just being goofy together. after the phone call, we continued to text and talk like normal. i wake up the next morning and i'm texting a.j., and my texts aren't sending. >> kate kept saying, a.j.'s not answering his phone. we just happened to walk into the room, and then it was on the tv. you could see the police cars and this baby's hair. you could see it was him standing there. >> at this point in time it's an ongoing investigation. we're following up on leads trying to narrow down things to gather a suspect. >> it was really hard.>> he's s.

i can't even begin to understand, like, the pain he went through. >> i was taken to the juvenile detention center downtown. for me being in there on a capital murder charge, that's scary. >> a 16-year-old boy is expected to be in court tomorrow charged with killing his parents. >> went to see him in juvenile detention. >> what was that like? >> unbeknownst to me, i may have been the first person to tell him his dad passed. i could see everything drained out of him. >> that's when everything hit. it was real. they were gone. and -- it's just, it's not -- it's not easy.

at all. it's just not right. and to be accused makes it so keeverhich . dawn and antonio sr. were loved you just had go to the funeral. it cldt en be athe ho crc ihad to b to a bigger facility. >> if you don't mind doing that, can you touch someone next to you and say, this is a celebration of life. >> that was powerful to see all the lives that he touched, all the people that they knew. dawn and antonio are still living. they're just living in a heavenly place. >> thousands of people, and i was among the crowd, and i was touched by the ceremony. >> were you allowed to attend their funeral services? >> yes. that was a blessing. >> he was on the very front row,

and they had him handcuffed. and so he had a jacket over his arms. >> just staring, just looking at two caskets with the people that, like, i love more than anybody, and knowing that i would never get to have a conversation with them, i would never get to see them. >> after the funeral, a.j.'s taken back to juvenile detention. miss kay said she would visit him twice a week. >> it was the most difficult thing, seeing him and having to leave him there. there were some visits he cried the whole visit. >> how often were you allowed outside? >> there wasn't outside. >> you never saw the light of day? >> we saw light through a window, but there was no going outside, fresh air. there was none of that. i knew what i was doing was emotionally, so i can only imagine what a 12-year-old is dealing with. >> it was really hard on kayra. it was. no 12-year-old should have to

wake up and find out that both your parents are no longer here. >> when i went back to school, i just kind of felt out of my body, really. they would talk about stuff, and i couldn't tell you what was being said, because my mind was just gone. i would think about my parents. i would think about a.j. >> did she ever ask you point blank if you killed your parents? >> no. she doesn't need to. she knows me. >> not a single doubt in my mind. he couldn't have. >> the truth is this is an amazing kid who in no way would those tests iesgator have been wtioming back, e vy surpr. >> and investigators believe that the perpetrator had to have intimate knowledge of the home to commit this crime. but could there be someone else

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enjoy the go with charmin. a.j. prepares for the fight of his life. >> did this 16-year-old kill his parents? >> it's impossible, just totally impossible for a.j. to have done something like that. >> his grades had dropped. he's using drugs. he's fighting with his parents. this is a 16-year-old out of control. >> but there are so many pieces to this puzzle. that bizarre note -- i have been watching? like something straight out of "the watcher"? plus a break-in at one of the armstrong gyms caught on tape. >> they're very specifically looking for something, so we didn't know if the armstrongs were involved in something we didn't know about and it was revenge or debts. >> this other bombshell. >> maxine adams went to police

and said, i think antonio sr. was part of a prostitution ring, and i think he was targeted. >> that whole thing is just shady. >> you think this is related to the homicide, or do you think it's -- >> who could have done this? >> someone who has severe mental health issues, someone who has access to the house, someone who knows where the gun is. >> i had no sense that this was coming. >> houston 911. do you need medical, police, or fire? >> i just heard gunshots from my parents' room. >> in your parents' bedroom? >> yes. >> and your name? >> a.j. >> antonio and dawn armstrong were gunned down at point blank range while they slept at their home in the houston suburb of bellaire. now their 16-year-old son a.j., who called 911 that night,

stands accused of the unthinkable, being the person who pulled the trigger. >> police charged a.j. with capital murder as a juvenile and moved him to a juvenile detention facility. >> the armstrong family, they are struggling. this family is grieving. meanwhile, houston police, their work is just getting started. >> the prosecutor had a meeting with family members very early in this case. they said, look, the evidence is going to come back with gunshot residue on his hands. it's going to come back and there's going to be evidence. >> i remember hearing the d.a. say, if these results come back and they have no circumstantial evidence, hey, i'll be free to drop the case, charges dismissed. that didn't happen. >> so you're 16? >> yes, sir. >> are you a junior or anything? >> yes, sir, i'm a junior. >> you are a junior? okay. >> a.j. gave his statement because he felt like, i didn't have anything to hide. >> i told you guys everything.

like, all the tests you guys run will come back with -- it has nothing to do with me. >> that's an innocent person saying, i didn't commit this crime and you're not going to find evidence of it in my house. >> so, all those tests that police told a.j. they were going run come back, but they seem to confirm what a.j. had been telling the detectives all along. >> a.j. didn't have gunshot residue on his hands. >> kayra armstrong's hands, which were also tested for gunshot residue came back clean, and detectives are surprised there's no gunshot residue found anywhere on a.j., but there could be a simple explanation. >> a person could have been wearing gloves. could have washed themselves thoroughly. there's a lot of explanations. >> it's a lucky find when you cr tre but it doehe isn't gsr. >> everybody they had access to was tested.

there's no water in the sinks. there's no soap. can't claim he didn't wash his hands. i specifically asked about that. >> the gun was found on the kitchen counter next to a note. the note was on a piece of paper clearly torn out of a pad that was in the kitchen drawer. and when police test everything, there are no fingerprints of his on the gun. a.j.'s fingerprints are not on the notepad. they're not on the pen. they're not on the note that was left there. his fingerprints are nowhere. >> then there's the question of blood spatter. rick actually said if a.j. shot his parents at point blank range, you would expect there to be blood on his clothing. >> it's not always something you expect to find. sometimes you find it, sometimes you don't. sometimes things are cleaned up. sometimes it just depends on the

location, the positioning of the body. >> we didn't find any gloves with any evidence, no bloody clothes in the washer or drier. absolutely nothing that links him to any physical evidence in the case. >> where on earth did it go? >> in order to try someone for murder to put these charges to them and take away my nephew's life, then you have to put the gun in his hand, and they haven't done that. >> police say at this point they are not sure of a motive in the shooting. >> and there's also the question of why a.j. who seems to be living a pretty typical teenage life would want to murder his parents. >> it's all part of the downward spiral of what's happening in a.j.'s life. >> prosecutors have a few theories. a.j. was really struggling at kincaid. he was basically failing. and that's not acceptable for dawn and antonio.

>> what was going on? why the you let your grades go south? >> i was a 16-year-old kid. i had just gotten a car. school kind of took a backseat. all i was worried about was football. i had a car. kind of the freedom got to me. >> because you were struggling at school at kincaid sophomore year, your parents decided to pull you out. >> yes, sir. >> were you upset? >> i wasn't upset, because i knew it was my fault, so i couldn't blame anyone, and i was ready to take that next step in my life and go to lamar. >> lamar is a public school with a much more competitive football program, so authorities were wondering, maybe being pull ed out of his fancy high school where he's the star of the private football team maybe is motive for murder. >> turns out a.j. was faltering in my ways. he was smoking pot. he was missing curfew. >> he's having his privileges taken away by his parents. paints a far different picture than what he explained to the police in his interview. >> could teenage drug use have something to do with this?

according to the authority, a.j.'s own grandmother miss kay brought that up the night of the murders, telling investigators unprompted that if a.j. did it it's because of the drugs. >> let's talk about drugs. it's marijuana. i don't think that makes you a murder. >> should we discount what his grandmother said about that? >> she was told, before she made that comment, a.j.'s a suspect. so that was her state of mind going into that question. when you talk to miss kay, she never believed he did it. she stands by him 100%. >> what makes me so sure? one, because i know my grandson. i know my family. we were close. it's impossible. just totally impossible for a.j. to have done something like that. >> but if authorities had begun to think a picture of an out-of-control teenager willing to murder his parents was finally coming into focus, something was about to happen that would raise questions about that theory.

>> a few weeks after the murders, one of the gyms that the armstrongs owned was broken into. it was captured on surveillance video. >> at this point a.j. was in custody in juvenile. >> two masked intruders bust into the windows, coming inside. going through, looking for something specific. there was big screen tvs in there. there was a lot of other equipment and things they could have taken, but they left with just the computer. >> and the person who did that, this defense attorney claiming, could be a person of interest in the murders. >> it's suspicious. we have a double homicide, where you're accusing a 16-year-old of doing this. >> that opened up a whole other can of worms. immediately i started thinking, why are they coming for my family?

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a few weeks after dawn and antonio armstrong were murdered, surveillance footage captured masked men breaking into one of their gyms. and remember, the night of the murders, a.j. said he saw a masked man in his house, so for the defense team, this was just too close to be a coincidence. >> they're very specifically

looking for something. we didn't know if the armstrongs were involved in something we didn't know about, revenge, debts. but it further led me to believe that a.j. was not involved with what happened. >> this is an urban area. there are break-ins. it's not an unusual occurrence, so i think it is farfetched that the two are connected. >> those perpetrators were never caugt, and a.j.'s defense team sees this as that they describe as investigators with tunnel vision, refusing to adequately pursue leads outside of a.j. >> my understanding is it was thoroughly investigated, and there were no connections and no links whatsoever to this crime. >> it's april 2017, and a.j. has been in juvenile jail for 20 -- for eight months. he spent christmas there. it's basically his junior year of high school. >> it was definitely -- it was tough, just not being around family.

at this time it was just -- itl. transferred to adult court, where he was able to post bail. >> can you talk to us about how you're feeling? >> a.j. enters a plea of not guilty. >> this is my ankle monitor. it's part of my bond condition. i was bonded out. they placed me on house arrest, and it's just been on since then. >> we visited a.j. in 2019, and he told us what life on house arrest is like. >> it's frustrating. i look down. it just reminds you of everything i have to deal with and the case and all that stuff. >> he can go out into the backyard. he can go out into the street, but he can't go past, like, the mailbox and stuff like that. >> i'm missing out on so much and seeing my friends go on and do stuff with their life.

i'm just stuck here. i try to stay away from social media as much as possible, because it shows me everything everyone else is doing. it's hard. >> as both sides are preparing to go to trial, a.j.'s defense attorneys come up with what they describe as a huge bombshell. >> while they're preparing for trial, prosecutors send them a ton of electronic files, and a.j.'s attorneys are going through them. and they hear this recording. and they say, wait a second. >> we click on it, it's an interview with maxine adams at the houston police department. >> maxine adams and her husband were friends of the armstrong family. >> her husband at the time was good friends with antonio. they, like, grew up together. that was like a brother. >> maxine adams went to police after the murders, and she says, i think antonio sr. was part of a prostitution ring, and i think

that he was targeted. >> there is a prostitution ring that my husband, antonio, and another individual were all involved in during this time. i'm nervous that the more i push or the more i share, it could end up the way antonio was. >> she also made an allegation that mr. armstrong increased his life insurance policy. >> she gives very specific names, very specific phone numbers. >> the name i'm giving you, i know for a fact based on the call records and based on what i've seen. so i don't know, is there a prostitution police? i don't know. i know his son is obviously the suspect right now, but that whole thing is just shady. >> do you think this is related to the homicide? >> i do. >> or do you think it's too many things? >> i think it's related. >> at that point, i've never been that upset with a

prosecutor probably in my career, because 18 months since the interview until they disclosed it to us. >> when they came and said that my son was involved in a prostitution ring, i was like, you can't be serious. that's not true. that's a lie. what got me all worked up is the fact that they had this information december 2016. >> it could have been the explanation that we were looking for, but we didn't get that opportunity. >> because of the delay, this young man continues to be on house arrest. every time they come down here, they have to relive this. every time they talk to the media, they have to relive this. >> we filed legally to them not hiding evidence. we filed a motion to dismiss. i knew that there was a 5% chance that the judge would grant that motion. but i wanted the judge to know.

>> in their response to the motion to dismiss, the state admitted that they had been aware of the maxine adams interview, and it was in fact not turned over for 18 months. but they argued that the remedy should be just more time for the defense to investigate. >> judge kelly johnson says, i want to hear more about this. she decides there needs to be a hearing. maxine adams comes to court, testifies. >> for the first time we're hearing from maxine adams who claims antonio armstrong sr. was in a prostitution ring. >> everything was looked into, and ultimately, it was determined nothing is relevant in this case. >> judge johnson says, nope, this isn't credible. she decides this trial will move forward and a.j. prepares for the fight of his life. >> as the trial finally gets under way, defense attorneys have something up their sleeve that shocks the entire courtroom. >> if the prosecution asks, if not the defendant, whom?

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two years and nine months since the murder, and here we are in court. >> the big question everyone has had is motive. >> 19-year-old a.j. armstrong sips on coffee before making his way inside court for his capital murder trial. >> on july 28th, the alarm was set in the home of dawn and antonio armstrong. the alarm never went off. the killer didn't come from outside of the house. >> within minutes, the houston police department decided he was the suspect in this case. and then they shaped this case to fit their opinion. >> we don't have dna.

we don't have fingerprints. we don't have blood splatter, and so the real smoking gun for the prosecution shifts to the alarm system. >> the alarm records show there had been no disruptions up until the time when a.j. disarmed it to let law enforcement in. >> that is virtually the end of the story for them. there's no ghost. there's no burglar. there's no nobody. >> for the prosecutors, the alarm records are what's going to tell the jury what happened in the house that night. >> there are sensors almost on every floor of the armstrong house, and those sensors are important, because prosecutors say it tracks the movement of the killer. >> prosecutors say that about 1:09 a.m., the motion detector on the second floor of the house where dawn and antonio's room was goes off. investigators say that's a.j. coming downstairs to kill his parents.

>> what happened between 1:09 when the upstairs detectors went off and 1:40 when the defendant said he heard shots? that's a long time to be able to, i don't know, put a gun downstairs, change clothes, whatever you need to do. >> the defense obviously knew how important this star witness, the alarm system, was going to be, so it had to create reasonable doubt about its ability to work and work well. >> the defense has their own expert come and testify and study the alarm system. put together a video of how it worked. >> this is the actual key pad that was used to arm the alarm system. >> and he says the armstrong alarm system is completely unreliable. >> you notice the door is slightly ajar. this did not stop the system from being armed. >> the front door and door on the garage was on the same loop.

if one of those was open, you could open the front door, and . >> the front door could be open and closed without anything happening. >> the other piece of evidence for the prosecution that really stuck with me was the shot in the middle of a.j.'s bedroom floor. >> this defendant is up in his bedroom with the gun, and he fires it through the comforter. >> the prosecutors believe that was in fact premeditation. it was a test fire. he needed to make sure he knew what he was doing. >> how loud will it be? will it make my sister up? >> regarding the bullet hole in the floor, he tells police officers he was showing his cousin how to shoot the weapon and he was just playing with it. got to remember this is a 16-year-old. >> next up for prosecutors, something they think will show what was really going on with a.j. in the months and weeks before the murders, his text messages with his parents. >> we start in, what, october

2015. son, you can do this. we believe in you. you got to bring up your grades. you can do this. then we get into january. you're lying to us. february, you're starting to lie us to. march, april, may -- it gets more somber. >> the text messages really paint the picture that this is a 16-year-old out of control. >> out of a gazillion pages of text messages, they picked and presented to a jury only the things that if you put it all together would make a.j. look like a liar or he had trouble with his parents. >> what was going on between a.j. and his parents were typical teenage stuff. >> so, if a.j. armstrong didn't kill his parents, who did? the defense believes there is an alternative suspect. >> a.j.'s defense team pointed the finger at his brother, josh.

>> remember, josh armstrong, a.j.'s older brother, lived with his girlfriend just a block from around the family home. >> josh had access to the house just like a.j. did. in fact, josh showed up at the scene the night this happened. >> the alarm was activated. the house was secured. there was no forced entry anywhere, so how could josh have gotten in and done this and left? >> josh's hands were also tested for gunshot residue the night of the murder, but they came back clean. houston police ultimately ruled out josh as a suspect. >> what they didn't know was josh's psychiatric history that was coming. >> the defense puts forth the fact that josh armstrong has been suffering from mental illness. >> the defense tried but was unable to submit josh's medical records as evidence, so they call younger sister kayra to testify about what they say was

really going on in the armstrong home. >> nothing could ever be said that would make me believe that a.j. killed our parents. >> she was in the house every day, day-to-day. she saw a.j. and she saw josh. >> kayra said when josh came back from college, he had changed. he lost a lot of weight. he started talking to himself. >> i think when joshua found out that antonio wasn't his biological father, things changed. >> i lived with josh. i was with him every day. i know 120% in my mind josh could never have done this. >> hannah was with him that night. she says it was a normal night. he was playing video games. >> i really wanted to just be an alibi to josh, but it kind of didn't work, because in court they were like, well, you were asleep. he could have left. and you just have to really kind of answer yes or no, and i mean, yes, i was asleep, but --

i'm not a heavy sleeper. i would have woken up. >> neither the prosecution nor the defense calls josh to testify, and prosecutors insist that he is not a viable suspect. >> closing arguments begin today in the a.j. armstrong murder trial. >> you want to know the answer? here's the answer -- the people in the house that took away his car, his money, that restricted his freedom to go see his girlfriend, they were killed. and do you know what they took away from him that mattered the most to him? his status. >> he's not a perfect kid. never said he was an angel. but they're asking to you take that and jump over to killing two people. not just two people, his parents. >> after four weeks, it's in the hands of 12 strangers. did this teenager murder his parents?

>> ladies and gentlemen, you now have all the evidence before you. >> and no one knew what the jurors were going to decide. who's on it with jardiance? ♪ ♪ we're the ones getting it done. we're managing type 2 diabetes and heart risk. weon iwiarging type 2 diabetes join the growing number of people who are on it jardiance. jardiance not only lowers a1c, it goes beyond to reduce the risk of cardiovascular death for adults thabes and known heart disease. and jardiance may help you lose some weight. jardiance may cause serious side effects including ketoacidosis that may be fatal, dehydration, (that can lead to sudden worsening of kidney function), and genital yeast or urinary tract infections. a rare, life-threatening bacterial infection in the skin of the perineum could occur. stop taking jardiance and call your doctor right away if you have symptoms of this infection, ketoacidosis or an allergic reaction, and don't take it if you're on dialysis. taking jardiance with a sulfonylurea or insulin may cause low blood sugar. a once-daily pill that goes beyond lowering a1c?

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the jurors in the a.j. armstrong murder trial are still deliberating. >> as we waited and waited that final day, the emotions and the pressure were overwhelming. >> you know someone's life is hanging in the balance. >> all rise for the jury. >> we watched the jurors come in. they look exhausted and beat up. a.j. stands and immediately it's the judge who starts talking. >> the court finds it is improbable the jury can reach a verdict and accordingly because of that, the court declares a mistrial.

>> a.j. just sits next to his grandmother and breaks down. >> the jury was split, 8-4. eight felt he did do it. four felt he didn't, and that's the beauty of our system. it's a hung jury. it's frustrating to prosecutors, but the defense did its job in creating reasonable doubt. >> we now know that there are people who did not believe the state's theory of the case, so we are going to keep fighting for this young man as long as we have to. >> are we disappointed we didn't get an acquittal? absolutely. but the fact that he's getting to go home is huge. >> prosecutors released a statement, and it was short and it was direct, and they say, antonio armstrong jr., a.j., murdered two residents of harris county, and he will be tried again. >> we ready. i wanted to know how fast could we get it done. if they said we could go next month i'd be ready.

my grandson needs to live his life. >> 2020 turns into 2021, and at this point so much has changed in a.j.'s life. >> i have been on house arrest for -- today will make 1,603 days. >> has he been walking? >> no. >> the biggest change is becoming a dad. >> you got to let go. there we go. >> yay! >> i love being a dad. it is a joy and happiness that i really have never felt before. it's just once you have a kid of your own, you really do understand how much a child changes your life. >> and kate, the girlfriend who has stood by a.j.'s side since him. ery beginning is still wit- >> come here. >> we decided to do hendricks antonio to keep his dad's name going.

>> i would love for hendricks to have been able to meet my parents. they would have loved seeing me grow and becoming a father. but i know they're up in heaven and happy for me. it's something i try not to think on for too long. >> i thank god for amen. he is a blessing to the family. at first i wasn't happy, and my family will tell you. only because i was concerned about the outcome with a.j. i just didn't want a child to be born with all of this going on the way it was not knowing the outcome. >> after three years of waiting, a.j.'s retrial is now officially scheduled to start in the fall of 2022. the stakes are higher this time. a life sentence. it weighs differently for a

father. >> he's grown up, become a man without his own father. now he's facing the real possibility that his son will suffer that same future. >> so, how to you prepare for a second trial? >> we're going to have to start figuring out what we think the state is going to improve on and how we can counter that. >> do you think it's possible to get 12 jurors to acquit. >> absolutely. we do believe that. >> a.j.'s brother josh was presented as an alternate suspect in that 2019 trial, and many are wondering if anything has changed in those family dynamics over the past three years. >> josh is josh. not really much to say about it. he does his thing. we don't see him much. >> i don't know how josh is really doing. i know they have been getting him medical help. in his right mind.

he's sweet, loving, good person. >> it becomes clear that josh armstrong will once again be a major part of the defenses after strategy. when they file pretrial notions claiming they have more evidence that demonstrates josh's mental health. >> josh's medical records were not allowed in the first trial them time the defense says, you have to allow these in. here's why. we believe this proves why he could be the killer. >> the prosecution remains steadfast that josh has nothing to do with this case. >> now to a case we have been following for six years now. a.j. armstrong is preparing to go on trial for the murder of his parents in 2016. >> i'm not scared. i'm trusting god and believing that a.j.'s going to be free after this. >> the jury has been seated in the highly anticipated murder retrial for a.j. armstrong. >> it's time for you to really get to know josh armstrong. >> but this time around,

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six years after his parents were shot and killed in their home, a.j. armstrong is back on trial for their murder. >> for the second trial, the defense is the same. but for the prosecution, the

team is completely different. >> this case is a parent's worst nightmare, to come to the realization that the person you brought into this world would end your life. >> and for prosecutors, the alarm system is once again the star witness. but the defense continues to attack that evidence. >> we know what this is. this is a garbage can. the alarm records are that. garbage. they are garbage. >> at the end of the day, although the defense is trying to say that there's all these glitches, a.j. had to disarm it as aived andorking >> the alarm system is so important for prosecutors, but they don't just rely on that. now they have software where they're able to extract more information because of new technology from a.j.'s cell

phone. it's not just who he's texting, what phone calls he's making, but now they're able to tell when his cell phone is plugged in, when it's unplugged, and when the home screen is lit up. that's a big deal. >> you know he is on his phone constantly. at 1:02, he stops all cell phone activity. >> then at 1:08, the phone is taken off of the charger. this is very important information. >> there's only one reason why you unplug your phone. it's because you're on the move. why else would you unplug your phone, right? >> one minute later, we know the sensor on the second floor goes off. then we know there's no other activity on that phone until a.j. calls 911 at 1:40 a.m. >> but there's more. because during that time, his

phone is still locked, but the display is going on and off. there's two possibilities -- one, some push notifications could be coming through. or two, you're walking through a dark house and you're using the ambient lighting to go through the house. >> this time around the defense presents a case that goes all in on josh armstrong. they show jurors pages of his medical records, and a.j.'s attorney reads jurors direct quotes from those medical records. >> josh is extremely psychotic with command voices to hurt self and others. brought to hospital by police with psychotic symptoms. patient experienced watching the murder of both parents

>> i feel they feel josh's life has gone so downhill there's no way for him to save himself, so let's just put it on him, when it's not fair at all. this is going to stick with him the rest of his life. >> once again, josh armstrong does not take the stand. >> go through those records and look at it. he says he witnessed his parents being murdered. that's what it means. >> prosecutors don't deny that josh told doctors he was there when his parents were killed. but they say josh was there because he saw them being carried out on stretchers, wheeled into ambulances. >> the prosecution is careful and deliberate pointing out all of these records happen after the murder. >> the prosecution argues his parents' murders acted as a catalyst, bringing on the symptom of schizophrenia. >> josh definitely got super paranoid after. i've never experienced anybody being that paranoid.

>> they want you to believe mental illness means murder. are you offended? are you offended? >> i'm picking on josh because he has mental illness. i'm picking on josh because he said to multiple people, i witnesse murdereden portrawe wanted to spk th josh armsong, but he decledt for an . insist he is not a suspect in this case. >> joshua armstrong has been in and out of the psychiatric centers trying to get his life on track, and for six years, the person who is truly responsible for this crime has not yet been brought to justice. >> all right, happening today, we expect closing argument in the murder retrial of a.j. armstrong. >> before the prosecution rests, john jordan goes back to the

text messages between a.j. and his parents. he wants jurors to hear from one final voice, dawn armstrong herself. >> that's what made my jaw drop. she says, i know you left. the alarm doesn't lie. you lied. >> i think in that courtroom you could have heard a pen drop when jon jordan put up that text message. >> there are no words i can say that are more powerful, more appropriate, and more damning than that text message. >> all right, ladies and gentlemen, you now have all the evidence in this case. please retire the jury. >> all rise for the jury. >> we thought we had done the best job we possibly could have.

we were just confident in putting our faith in the jury. >> after 17 hours of jurors deliberating, everyone gets called into the courtroom. >> today jurors were once again unable to decide whether a.j. armstrong is in fact guilty in the 2016 murders of his parents. >> it was deemed a mistrial. there was just this heavy sigh, like, you've got to be kidding me. again? >> at the first trial, it was 8-4 in favor of guilt. this time around the vote is 8-4 again, but the majority voting not guilty. >> it's been probably millions of dollar of expenses by the district attorney's office. it's time to let this young man go. >> with another mistrial in the books, everybody's wondering what happened inside that jury room? >> tonight we're also hearing

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after jurors are unable to reach a verdict in a.j. armstrong's retrial, one of them who thought he was guilty decided to speak out, although she ask we not show her face. >> i feel everyone was more so focused on the defense's distractions, how i want to put it as far as josh being a factor and everyone wasn't focusing on actual facts. because at one point everyone said, we know he did it. we know he's not innocent, but

we still have doubt. >> just a month after the retrial, a stunning announcement from the district attorney's office. >> big developments in the a.j. armstrong case. the district attorney's office confirms it will try a.j. for a third time. >> this means a.j. armstrong and his family will face a third trial. >> i've just grown a lot closer to that family based on the period of years. we have been through so much together. it would break my heart to have a.j. taken behind those doors and go to prison. >> you never imagine when you show up to a scene that you'll still be talking about the story six years later. we still don't really know what happened inside this house. we may never know. but somebody knows.

>> i have thought about how we're going to have to explain this to our son. this is his life, and this is - his father. >> i think about my parents every single day. there's not a moment, a second that goes by that they're not on my mind. mgrandson, he lov momd d. d dad vehi you love will always overpower evil, and love will always win, and the truth will come out at the end. >> there is no statute of limitations on justice. and it's my hope that the prosecutors will continue to try to seek justice for dawn and for antonio sr., because they deserve that. >> even if we never find out who really killed my parents, i will still always remember them as my mom being my best friend and my dad just being the strong role

model that he's always been. i will always keep that image in my head of them. >> we should point out tonight that a.j. armstrong's third trial is now set to take place this year. that's our program for tonight. thanks so much for watching. i'm david muir. from all of us here at "20/20" and abc news, good night. ama: confrontation and chaos in

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