McKINNEY, Texas \u2014 A Texas jury found Karmelo Anthony guilty Tuesday of the 2025 murder of Austin Metcalf, a fellow high school student at a Dallas-area track meet.<\/p>\n
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The verdict, read by Texas District Court Judge John Roach Jr., carries with it a sentence of five years to life in prison. Anthony was 17 at the time, but Texas law allowed him to be charged as an adult. He is now 19. <\/p>\n
Some in the courtroom reacted with cries and Metcalf\u2019s twin brother, who made his first appearance in the courtroom, leaned forward. Anthony\u2019s mother wept. Roach had warned people in the courtroom to control their emotions when the verdict was read. Anthony\u2019s attorney kept an arm wrapped around him.<\/p>\n
Metcalf, 17, was fatally stabbed on April 2, 2025, as the track teams of Anthony\u2019s Centennial High School and Metcalf\u2019s Memorial High School participated in a district-wide meet in Frisco, a Dallas suburb. <\/p>\n
Anthony\u2019s legal team argued he acted in self-defense after he\u2019d sat in the bleachers under the tent of rival high school Memorial and was confronted by members of its track team and told to leave, under the pressure of physical intimidation.<\/p>\n
Metcalf died in his twin brother\u2019s arms that rainy day, their father said.<\/p>\n
In closing arguments, Anthony\u2019s attorney Mike Howard told jurors that prosecutors failed to prove his client did \u201canything but defend himself\u201d after Metcalf and others became enraged that Anthony was in their high school\u2019s tent.<\/p>\n
Howard had sought to establish<\/a> during the trial that going to rival teams\u2019 tents and socializing is customary at meets, that Anthony was invited to the tent and that Metcalf and his twin brother, standing nearby, were physically intimidating. <\/p>\n \u201cIs it reasonable to worry these kids might jump in, that (Metcalf\u2019s brother) might pop in to defend (Metcalf) … because the split second of chaos is you can\u2019t know what\u2019s about to happen,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n Prosecuting attorney Bill Wirskye rebutted that depiction of events, saying it was Anthony who threatened Metcalf when he warned, \u201ctouch me and find out,\u201d quoting a trial witness.<\/p>\n The stabbing \u201cis murder, murder, murder,\u201d Wirskye said. <\/p>\n Wirskye maintained that the encounter was one-on-one and that others under the tent had not turned on him. Video shown during the trial supported that argument, he said. <\/p>\n He said while some are saying the events were a tragedy for everyone involved, it\u2019s not a tragedy for Anthony. \u201cIt\u2019s the decisions he made and that he has to come to terms with,\u201d Wirskye said.<\/p>\n During the trial several witnesses, many of them friends or teammates of Metcalf, said Metcalf at one point pushed Anthony to get him to move. There was some disagreement among them over how hard the push was. But several maintained Anthony bore primary responsibility, including Anthony\u2019s former friend who invited him to the tent and was close to Metcalf. <\/p>\n Some of the key witnesses were under 18, and Judge Roach issued an order preventing the publication of their names.<\/p>\n A school resource officer testified that, after the stabbing, Anthony said he\u2019d warned Metcalf not to touch him, but he also said Anthony said he had committed the stabbing and asked if Metcalf was going to be ok . <\/p>\n Metcalf was the MVP of his football team and had a 4.0 GPA, father Jeff Metcalf has said. <\/a>\u201cHe was loved by many. He was a leader,\u201d the elder Metcalf said.<\/p>\n Anthony had a 3.7 GPA going into the last weeks of the school year in 2025, NBC Dallas-Fort Worth reported.<\/a> He posted $250,000 bond and was placed on house arrest. He was permitted to graduate under an agreement between advocates and the Frisco Independent School District, according to the station.<\/p>\n The case\u2019s racial components \u2014 Metcalf was white and Anthony is Black \u2014 were debated online. A couple of weeks after Metcalf\u2019s death, a participant in the Jan. 6 attack on the capital, pardoned by President Donald Trump, led a small protest<\/a> at the stadium as leader of the group \u201cProtect White America.\u201d It drew counter protestors and was denounced by Metcalf\u2019s father<\/a>. <\/p>\n Last week, civil rights organization Next Generation Action Network, which advocated in favor of Anthony, denounced the racial composition of the jury, noting that not one juror is Black. <\/p>\n Metcalf\u2019s attorneys have downplayed race as an issue in the case. <\/p>\n Suzanne Gamboa reported from Austin, Texas, Maria Guerrero reported from McKinney, Texas and Dennis Romero reported from Los Angeles. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"McKINNEY, Texas \u2014 A Texas jury found Karmelo Anthony guilty Tuesday of the 2025 murder of Austin Metcalf,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":322658,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-329570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=329570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329570\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}