The Collin County Courthouse on the day of closing arguments in Karmelo Anthony’s murder trial in McKinney on Tuesday. Anthony was convicted of killing 17-year-old Austin Metcalf in April 2025 at a Frisco track meet at David Kuykendall Stadium.
Juan Figueroa/The Dallas Morning News
The guilty verdict in the murder trial against Karmelo Anthony for the stabbing death of Austin Metcalf in April 2025 is the right outcome, but it doesn’t free two families and a community from unspeakable grief over a senseless act.
Hunter Metcalf will forever miss his twin brother, and his parents will mourn a son for the rest of their lives. It’s grief that they can learn to live with but never escape.
Anthony’s parents will have to endure the devastation of seeing a son sent to prison. And Anthony will have to live with the knowledge that he condemned himself and others to a lifetime of suffering and regret — all over a snap decision that cost Austin Metcalf his life.
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From what we could see as outsiders, Judge John Roach Jr. conducted a fair and orderly trial. Early on, the judge imposed a gag rule on the people involved in the high-profile case, which we think was the right choice. Roach, a veteran of the Collin County courthouse, has a reputation for being a straightforward judge and a disciplined manager of his courtroom.
That was on display during the Anthony trial. Anthony is Black and Metcalf white, a fact that has turned the trial into a magnet for far-right influencers and other bad-faith actors who have come to Frisco to sow racial division. The case has drawn national attention, with spectators lining up hours before the trial to score a seat in the courtroom.
As our newsroom reported, Roach set strict rules on apportioning the limited 75 seats in his courtroom, allotting 15 seats for the families and nine for the press, with room for court staff and the public. The judge also appropriately ordered reporters not to publish the names of juvenile witnesses, a wise call given the sensitivity of the case and the potential for underage witnesses to be harassed online.
The case that prosecutors presented was clear and direct. At a track meet, Anthony, a student athlete, went under the tent of an opposing high school team. Anthony and Metcalf traded words, and Metcalf shoved Anthony. Prosecutors said Anthony then stabbed Metcalf in the chest with a knife he was carrying in his gym bag. Anthony’s lawyers argued that he was acting in self-defense against a much larger teen, but prosecutors say that Anthony provoked Metcalf and disproportionately met his push with a stab.
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Jurors reached a decision quickly, within a few hours of starting deliberations. The facts of the case were never really in dispute. The question was how to interpret what Anthony had done.
The reality was this. One teen had a deadly weapon and used it to kill another. Anthony could have made a thousand other choices. The choice he made cost Metcalf his life. That is murder, and the verdict represents justice.
Nothing about this case, however, should have brought us to the terrible way it has been used by racists, social media warriors and all of those who would exploit it.
As we see it, this trial was about the horrific outcome of an impulsive decision by a teenage boy in a confrontation with another teen, from a rival school during a track meet. It should have never ended with one boy dying in his brother’s arms, another one in tears confessing to a coach and a group of young people traumatized.
What this case should have never been is a Rorschach test of America’s racial prejudices. So many people have turned the pain of the Metcalf and Anthony families into a platform to stir racist animus against Black people. Many of these provocateurs don’t even live here, but Frisco will be left to pick up the pieces.
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They shouldn’t be allowed to hijack this tragedy for their own despicable motives. The good people of Frisco should keep the peace and help carry the families that will forever live with this heartbreak.
Our prayers for all of them are the only decent response.
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