during a meet<\/a> was convicted of murder Tuesday in a trial that drew national attention far beyond the booming Dallas suburb where the two students attended different high schools.<\/p>\nA jury rejected Karmelo Anthony\u2019s claims of self-defense during a confrontation with Austin Metcalf in stadium bleachers last year. Most people who testified were students who described a heated exchange over Anthony\u2019s refusal to leave a tent that belonged to the team from Memorial High School in Frisco.<\/p>\n
Anthony, now 19, faces up to life in prison after a brief sentencing hearing in which his mother was the only witness. His lawyer had an arm around him when the guilty verdict was announced.<\/p>\n
As police officers watched, dozens of people stood outside the courthouse in 90 degree heat to await the verdict. There were wails of grief from one woman \u2014 \u201cThis isn\u2019t real!\u201d \u2014 when the result began to spread.<\/p>\n
Earlier Tuesday, jurors heard dueling narratives from prosecutor Bill Wirskye and defense attorney Mike Howard.<\/p>\n
Several schools were competing on a rainy April day when Anthony sat under the Memorial High tent that was perched in the bleachers. Metcalf and others had repeatedly told Anthony to leave, witnesses testified, leading to an escalating confrontation.<\/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
During the nearly weeklong trial, prosecutors said that Anthony provoked Metcalf, and witnesses have testified that Anthony was the aggressor.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not self-defense, folks. It\u2019s murder plain and simple,\u201d Wirskye told jurors during his closing argument.<\/p>\n
Anthony at one point reached inside a bag and replied: \u201cTouch me and see what happens,\u201d according to a police report.<\/p>\n
Metcalf pushed Anthony, according to witnesses, who said Anthony reacted by pulling out a knife and stabbing him in the chest.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t get to meet a shove with a stab, especially if you provoke the shove,\u201d Wirskye said.<\/p>\n
The prosecutor 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
Howard noted that Metcalf and Anthony did not know each other. He said Anthony \u201chad absolutely no motive, other than that he felt he was in danger.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anthony did not testify and explain his version of what happened that day.<\/p>\n
The trial drew lines of spectators hoping to find seats in the gallery and unfolded amid heavy security at the Collin County courthouse. Frisco is one of Texas\u2019 fastest-growing cities that is dotted with dozens of modern school campuses and gleaming athletic facilities.<\/p>\n
Several students testified that Metcalf, after ordering Anthony to leave his team\u2019s tent, scoffed before Anthony reached into a bag and pulled out a knife.<\/p>\n
One teen recalled Metcalf telling Anthony,<\/a> \u201cYou don\u2019t have anything in that backpack. It\u2019s Frisco.\u201d<\/p>\nOutside attention on the case spread, in part, over social media posts that amplified the killing in racial terms. Anthony is Black; Metcalf was white. Prosecutors and defense attorneys told jurors that the case had nothing to do with race.<\/p>\n
The parents of both Anthony and Metcalf have said they were good students who planned to go to college.<\/p>\n
The-CNN-Wire
\u2122 & \u00a9 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CNN McKinney, Texas (AP) \u2014 A Texas teenager who fatally stabbed a 17-year-old track athlete from a rival…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":329647,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-329646","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\/329646","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=329646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329646\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/329647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}