Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg joined with law-enforcement officials and families of murder victims Wednesday to acknowledge a new state law taking effect Friday prioritizing murder trials in Texas.

Ogg said she hoped the law, sponsored by state Sen. John Whitmire, would help reduce the backlog of murder cases that has climbed to more than 1,800 in recent years. But she warned that continued delays in testing evidence at area crime labs – specifically at the Houston Forensic Science Center – may counter that progress.

“We at the District Attorney’s Office are ready. Our friends in law enforcement are ready,” Ogg said. “Now we need the City of Houston to ensure that our evidence is ready.”

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A Houston jury on Wednesday found 23-year-old Antonio Armstrong Jr. guilty of capital murder for fatally shooting his parents as they slept in their bedroom in 2016, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg announced. Because he was convicted of capital murder, Armstrong was automatically sentenced to life in prison.

“Antonio Sr. and Dawn died because they were trying to be good parents. Because they wanted their children to do right, not to lie, to work, to be law-abiding contributing adults,” Ogg said. “And for that, they paid with their lives.”

Armstrong Jr. was 16 when he shot his parents as they slept in the master bedroom of their Bellaire-area home on July 29, 2016. He shot both in the head. The teenager had recently been expelled from school and was angry at his parents for disciplining him for misbehaving.

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District Attorney Kim Ogg thanked Crime Stoppers and members of two southwest Houston management districts Wednesday for joining forces to offer a $15,000 reward for information leading to the capture of fugitive human trafficker Thaddeus Allen.

Allen, 34, fled in April, just one day before a Harris County jury found him guilty of human trafficking and handed down a 75-year prison sentence for the habitual felon. Allen had been present for the previous five days of trial but absconded the day before closing arguments. He had been free on $200,000 bond.

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A Harris County grand jury on Thursday issued six no-bills related to the deaths of 10 spectators, two of whom were younger than 15, at the 2021 Astroworld concert, which means that no criminal charges will be filed in the incident, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg announced.

“It is tragic that 10 innocent people were killed while trying to enjoy an evening of music and entertainment, something many of us do routinely and without a second thought to our safety. But a tragedy isn’t always a crime, and not every death is a homicide,” Ogg said. “This grand jury’s determination has no impact on the many civil lawsuits pending.”

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Harris County jurors issued a stern rejection this week of claims by a Washington, D.C.-based law firm that challenged the way Harris County seizes assets from drug dealers and money launderers.

Jurors in the 281st District Civil Court rejected arguments by the Institute for Justice – a Libertarian law firm that challenges such established governmental programs as eminent domain and asset forfeiture – that law-enforcement officers here were seizing drug proceeds based on “suspicion,” rather than the required “probable cause.” After a weeklong trial, jurors took only four hours to overwhelmingly reject the baseless claims. Jurors specifically found that officers had probable cause to seize $41,680 that was intended to purchase illegal narcotics in Harris County in 2019.

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