MCKINNEY, Texas (AP) \u2014 The fatal stabbing of a high school athlete at a Texas track competition was \u201cmurder plain and simple,\u201d a prosecutor declared Tuesday before a jury began deliberations in a high-profile trial centered on youth and tragedy at a community sports event.<\/p>\n
Karmelo Anthony, now 19, did not testify<\/a> in his own defense about the killing of Austin Metcalf<\/a>, 17, whose death in April 2025 stunned Frisco, a booming Dallas suburb where the two students attended different schools. <\/p>\n Jurors heard dueling narratives from prosecutor Bill Wirskye and defense attorney Michael Howard, who repeatedly emphasized during his closing argument that Anthony was defending himself after Metcalf wanted him to exit a tent that belonged to the track team from Frisco Memorial High School.<\/p>\n The courtroom at the Collin County courthouse was packed again as the public passed through an extra security checkpoint to get inside and watch before jurors began their deliberations. <\/p>\n Howard told jurors that Metcalf had \u201cno legal right to put his hands on Karmelo.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTexas law does not require that you wait until you get hit,\u201d Howard said. \u201cIn that split second of chaos, you must put yourself in his shoes.\u201d<\/p>\n Wirskye suggested it was strange that a teen would bring a knife to a school sports competition. He said deadly force has to be \u201cimmediately necessary\u201d to be legal, and he also noted that Anthony was told roughly a dozen times to leave the rival school\u2019s tent, which was perched in the stadium bleachers.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is not self-defense, folks. It\u2019s murder plain and simple,\u201d the prosecutor said.<\/p>\n Wirskye also made a broader pitch to the jury: \u201cUltimately, this case is about accountability. What kind of community do you want to live in.\u201d<\/p>\n Anthony, who was a student at Centennial High School, could face up to life in prison if convicted of murder. Judge John Roach Jr. said the jury also could consider a lesser charge of manslaughter, which carries a maximum sentence of up to 20 years in prison. <\/p>\n If jurors don\u2019t reach a verdict Tuesday, they\u2019ll be sequestered without phones in a hotel.<\/p>\n