McKINNEY, Texas (Court TV) — A Texas jury deliberated for approximately three hours before finding a teenager guilty of murder for stabbing another student to death at a track meet.
Sketch shows Karmelo Anthony in court during closing arguments. (Sketch by Pat Lopez)
Karmelo Anthony, 19, never denied stabbing 17-year-old Austin Metcalf, but argued that he had acted in self-defense.
Anthony’s defense attorney, Mike Howard, urged the jury to find his client not guilty, emphasizing that Metcalf had put his hands on Anthony and pushed him before the attack. “The government wants to make this case about, ‘Melo could have just left,'” Howard said in his closing argument on Tuesday. “And he could have. He didn’t have to. I’m sure he wishes he did. We all do.”
But prosecutors said that Anthony was the person who instigated the entire attack; witnesses who were students at the track meet on April 2, 2025, testified during the course of the trial that the defendant had violated an unwritten rule of “tent culture” at the track meet by going to another school’s tent. Anthony attended Centennial High School, while Metcalf attended Memorial High School. Centennial High School had no tent at the event.
Witnesses to the deadly incident all agreed in their testimony that Anthony had wandered over to the opposing school’s tent and appeared to be talking to someone there. But the longer he was there, the more students came up and asked him to leave, saying he was not allowed to be in the area and was not welcome under their tent. “You don’t get to provoke the altercation, and when someone touches you, you use deadly force,” prosecutors said in their closing argument. “You don’t get to meet a shove with a stab…especially if you provoke the shove.”
Some witnesses who testified for the prosecution had suggested that Anthony invited Metcalf to hit him, while others said that he said things like, “Move me. Make me.”
The unexpected violence at a school event garnered nationwide attention, which prompted Judge John Roach Jr. to limit media coverage of the trial. No video, photography or audio recording was allowed inside the courtroom during the trial. Reporters were only able to share their notes.
Outside the courthouse, protesters gathered; many of those protesters carried signs indicating they supported the defendant. As news of the verdict reached the crowd outside, some people began to scream and cry.
The penalty phase to determine Anthony’s punishment began immediately after the verdict was read. The same jury that convicted the defendant will decide his punishment. Because of his age, Anthony cannot be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole; he faces a possible sentence of five to 99 years.
Court TV’s Cody Thomas contributed to this report.
