Woman is cleared of Henrico charges

A person of interest in the brutal New Year's Eve slaying of a Henrico County woman last year was released from jail yesterday.

Kayla C. Armstrong, 25, wrapped herself in her mother's arms and smiled as well-wishers walked her from the Henrico jail yesterday evening, two hours after a judge found her not guilty of multiple charges linked to an attack on Keiona Cecilia Tiree Braxton.

"It was the support of my mother, my daughter and all these friends," she said when asked about remaining behind bars with no bond since her arrest in January on assault, burglary and vandalism charges.

She declined to comment about the slaying of Braxton, 26, a longtime rival.

No charges have been brought in Braxton's death at her apartment, a fiery, bloody scene littered with burned Christmas wrapping paper and shell casings.

Braxton, who was three months pregnant and living with the father of Armstrong's 4-year-old daughter, apparently was shot, stabbed and left to die in a fire.

The apartment in the 5700 block of Crenshaw Road off Chamberlayne Avenue was the same place where authorities said Armstrong -- four days before the slaying -- broke into, assaulted Braxton and damaged her former boyfriend's car.

But defense attorney Dennis Martin won acquittals of all charges yesterday in a bench trial before Circuit Judge Burnett Miller III.

He argued that there was conflicting evidence about whether Armstrong entered the apartment the night of Dec. 27 or had damaged former boyfriend Kenneth Lee's car.

Armstong's mother, Jackie Advani, testified that it was she who entered the apartment to retrieve her visiting granddaughter only to find Armstrong and Braxton fighting outside the home as she left the apartment with the baby.

Lee, the young girl's father and apparently the father of Braxton's unborn child, testified that Armstrong entered the home, coming through a closed front door, after her mother had entered the apartment first. A fight quickly ensued, he said.

Lee said he saw Armstrong twice kick his car outside the apartment, but Advani testified she heard someone else admit to the damage.

Lee and Braxton took out protective orders against Armstrong after the Dec. 27 incident, but court records indicate that they weren't served until after Braxton's death.

Armstrong was arrested on the assault, breaking and entering, and vandalism charges three days before Braxton's funeral.

The two had engaged in a long-running feud, apparently over Lee, and Armstrong was convicted of unlawful wounding in 2006 after she stabbed Braxton. In November 2007, Braxton wrote in a complaint filed in court documents that Armstrong "was going to kill me."

Prosecutors have declined to comment on the status of the murder investigation, but Martin, until yesterday, had repeatedly pleaded for Armstrong's release.

The defense attorney has said that Armstrong has denied being at the apartment the day of the slaying.

Contact Bill McKelway at (804) 649-6601 or .