Judge John Roach Jr., the presiding judge of the 296th District Court, poses for a photo with his Boykin Spaniel named Justice in his courtroom in the Collin County Courthouse in McKinney, TX, Friday, June 12, 2026. Roach presided over the Karmelo Anthony murder trial.
Juan Figueroa/The Dallas Morning News
A supporter of Karmelo Anthony, holding a sign that reads “Self Defense is not A Crime”, reacts outside of the Collin County Courthouse after a Collin County jury found Anthony guilty of murder in McKinney, TX, Tuesday, June 9, 2026. Anthony is accused of killing 17-year-old Austin Metcalf last April at a Frisco track meet at David Kuykendall Stadium.
Juan Figueroa/The Dallas Morning News
Karmelo Anthony’s legal team will return to court next week to attempt to remove the judge who presided over the Frisco teen’s murder trial from overseeing the next steps in his case.
State legal experts who spoke with The Dallas Morning News said while they believe a recusal is unlikely, they still expect a complicated hearing.
Anthony, 19, was convicted of murder in June and sentenced to 35 years in prison for fatally stabbing 17-year-old Austin Metcalf at a high school track meet. The teen’s legal team filed a motion for a new trial and recusal just weeks after the conviction, looking to give Anthony a new chance to plead his case.
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Related: Could Frisco’s Karmelo Anthony get a new trial after his murder conviction? Here’s what to know
The recusal hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, Aug. 19, at the Collin County courthouse in McKinney.
Why would Roach be recused?
A recusal motion is a formal request to discharge a judge from a legal case because of personal bias, a conflict of interest, or lack of fairness. In Anthony’s case, appellate attorneys argued Roach’s impartiality was compromised after he made several public statements about the trial after its conclusion.
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Attempts to reach Roach by phone and email Wednesday and Thursday were not returned. Roach’s wife, Laura, previously told The News he can’t comment on the efforts to recuse him.
Roach first publicly commented on the case on June 11 — two days after Anthony’s sentencing — in an interview with WFAA-TV (Channel 8). In the outlet’s nearly three-minute story, Roach said he “followed the law” and believed Anthony received a fair trial.
Related: ‘Efficient and consistent with justice’: Judge offers inside look at Karmelo Anthony trial
The motion lists three other occasions appellate attorneys argue raise concerns about Roach’s impartiality: a written statement to Fox News; a gag order he instated to prevent parties from making extrajudicial statements in the trial; and a June 17 letter addressed to “members of the Collin County family.”
In the letter, Roach, who is retiring at the end of the year, wrote that presiding over the trial was “one of the great honors of [his] judicial career” and that he believed it was handled fairly.
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Brett Ordiway, a criminal-appellate attorney in Dallas not connected to the case, said he thought Roach’s decision to speak so publicly about the case was “strange,” even with the high media interest in the case.
“Even in high-profile cases, it’s rare to see a judge making any extensive comments and interviews to the media so immediately after the trial,” he said.
Judge John Roach Jr., the presiding judge of the 296th District Court, poses for a photo in his courtroom in the Collin County Courthouse in McKinney, TX, Friday, June 12, 2026. Roach presided over the Karmelo Anthony murder trial.
Juan Figueroa/The Dallas Morning News
Who will decide the outcome?
Judge Sid Harle will preside over the motion for recusal in Collin County’s 494th District courtroom.
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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott first appointed Harle to the Fourth Administrative Judicial Region in 2017 and reappointed him last September. Before his stint as an administrative judge, Harle served as a judge in Bexar County for 29 years.
Related: Karmelo Anthony trial: Jury hands down 35-year sentence
Both Roach and Harle attended U.T. Austin, as well as St. Mary’s School of Law — although at different times.
Harle is no stranger to high-profile cases. Earlier this year, he presided over the criminal trial of Adrian Gonzales — a former Uvalde school district police officer charged with child abandonment and endangerment during the 2022 Robb Elementary School shooting. He was found not guilty on all counts.
What are the rules for a recusal hearing?
The recusal hearing will be open to the public — with some caveats.
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Members of the public in attendance must remain silent, and aren’t allowed to bring signs, banners, or any clothing with distracting messages or symbols. Attendees also aren’t allowed to gesture or visibly react to court proceedings.
News cameras are still banned from the courthouse, but unlike the trial, there will be an overflow room with a livestream.
How likely is a recusal?
Recusals are uncommon in Texas courts, according to Ordiway — and he doesn’t think this case will be an exception.
“As a general matter, these motions are very, very difficult to win — it’s tough to persuade another judge that one of their colleagues on the bench has done something so outrageous as to require a recusal,” Ordiway said.
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David Finn, a Dallas defense attorney and former criminal trial judge, said he didn’t believe Roach’s public statements rose to a level of concern to require a recusal. He said the comments were “acceptable” and “understandable,” but not “advisable,” given the intense scrutiny around the case.
“Unlike some judges, Roach did not crave publicity for himself,” Finn wrote in an email to The News. “He is retiring. He wanted to go out believing that the defendant/victim family/jurors/witnesses got a fair trial, particularly the Defendant.”
Related: Five things to know about the Karmelo Anthony verdict and sentencing
What happens next?
If Roach is recused, Harle will need to move quickly to organize Anthony’s next hearing, scheduled for the following day, Aug. 20, when Anthony will make his case for a new trial.
The clock is already ticking: Texas law imposes a 75-day deadline to rule on a motion for a new trial after a defendant is sentenced. If the court does not act by then, the motion is automatically denied.
For Anthony, that deadline falls on Aug. 24.
“All of this,” Ordiway said, “is going to ramp up very quickly here in the next couple weeks.”