{"id":330361,"date":"2026-06-10T08:21:22","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T08:21:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/330361\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T08:21:22","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T08:21:22","slug":"karmelo-anthony-convicted-of-fatally-stabbing-austin-metcalf-at-texas-track-meet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/330361\/","title":{"rendered":"Karmelo Anthony convicted of fatally stabbing Austin Metcalf at Texas track meet"},"content":{"rendered":"

MCKINNEY, Texas \u2014 Karmelo Anthony sobbed Tuesday as he was swiftly convicted of murder in the fatal stabbing of fellow high-school jock Austin Metcalf <\/a>at a track meet \u2014 and his furious supporters raged, \u201cThis whole thing\u2019s been racist!\u201d<\/p>\n

The jury in Collin County deliberated about three hours\u00a0before finding\u00a0Anthony,\u00a019, guilty of first-degree murder in the\u00a0death of the 17-year-old and must now decide whether to put him away for life \u2014 prompting the killer\u2019s weeping mom to later take the witness stand and beg for mercy for her son, according to a report by NBC DFW<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s my oldest. He\u2019ll always be my baby. I love him very much,\u201d Anthony\u2019s mom Kala Hayes sobbed to jurors <\/a>before they headed into further deliberations to decide his sentence.<\/p>\n

Karmelo Anthony, now 19, was convicted of fatally stabbing fellow high-school teen Austin Metcalf. Frisco Police Department<\/p>\n

Metcalf was knifed over a dispute involving seating at a track and field meet April 2, 2025. x\/AMetcal<\/p>\n

As she spoke, Anthony also cried.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u00a0know my son, and he\u2019s very sorry for what he did,\u201d Hayes told the jury.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlease have mercy on my son.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anthony killed Metcalf during a\u00a0April 2, 2025, run-in prompted by a dispute over seating at the track and field event in Frisco.<\/p>\n

Anthony previously appeared glum, looking down and not immediately speaking with his lawyers, as he entered the courtroom to hear the verdict \u2014 then broke into sobs as it was announced, several outlets in court reported.<\/p>\n

A person announcing the guilty verdict in front of a crowd of Anthony supporters at Collin County courthouse. AP Photo\/Tony Gutierrez<\/p>\n

People reacting to Anthony\u2019s guilty verdict. AP Photo\/Tony Gutierrez<\/p>\n

Law enforcement officers standing in front of the courthouse after the verdict was announced. AP Photo\/Tony Gutierrez<\/p>\n

Metcalf\u2019s twin, Hunter,\u00a0sat next to his parents in court for the verdict.<\/p>\n

Metcalf\u2019s stricken mom wept as emotional photos were later shown to jurors deliberating sentencing for her son\u2019s killer.<\/p>\n

The snapshots captured coaches performing CPR on her mortally wounded son at the track meet after Anthony stabbed him.<\/p>\n

Outside the courthouse,\u00a0about\u00a0200 protesters for and against Anthony clashed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis whole thing\u2019s\u00a0been racist. We didn\u2019t make it racist!\u201d\u00a0a\u00a0protester\u00a0screamed.<\/p>\n

Supporters of Anthony demonstrating outside of Collin County courthouse. AP Photo\/Tony Gutierrez<\/p>\n

Anthony supporters speaking to a reporter after the guilty verdict was announced. AP Photo\/Tony Gutierrez<\/p>\n

Another\u00a0person\u00a0yelled: \u201cY\u2019all used to locking up n\u2014as any goddamn way!\u201d<\/p>\n

A\u00a0demonstrator was outraged at the fact\u00a0that\u00a0Anthony didn\u2019t have a single black juror at trial.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTell those white folks, why is a black boy in front of an all white jury?\u00a0When has a white boy been in front of an all black jury? Never!\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the latest on Karmelo Anthony\u2019s murder trial following the fatal stabbing of Austin Metcalf<\/p>\n

The jury consisted of white, Asian and Hispanic members.<\/p>\n

It was set to deliberate again Tuesday \u2014 this time over Anthony\u2019s sentencing.<\/p>\n

Jurors are sitting through a second \u201cmini-trial\u201d featuring a single witness Anthony\u2019s mom, instructions from the judge about sentencing and \u201cclosing arguments\u201d from both sides.<\/p>\n

A demonstrator holding a \u201cJusice 4 Austin\u201d sign outside ofthe courtroom in McKinney, Texas on June 9, 2026. AP Photo\/Tony Gutierrez<\/p>\n

Demonstrators clashing outside of the courthouse over the Karmelo Anthony trial. FOX 4 Dallas-Fort Worth<\/p>\n

They will watch a video explaining a potential extenuating circumstance \u2014 \u201csudden passion\u201d \u2014 which is considered in the sentencing phase of such cases and could massively lower his prison term.<\/p>\n

Defense lawyers have described the term as when you commit an act because you didn\u2019t take the time to \u201ccool off.\u201d<\/p>\n

It could drop Anthony\u2019s prison time of five to 99 years, or life, for first-degree murder without the circumstance to between two to 20 years in prison if the crime is deemed one of \u201csudden passion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some supporters of Anthony have claimed the trial was racist due to there being no black jurors. FOX 4 Dallas-Fort Worth<\/p>\n

Prosecutor Dewey Mitchell told jurors during the sentencing phase, \u201cThis is not about vengeance.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not about leniency, either,\u2019\u2019 the government lawyer said, according to NBC.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Collin County, what\u2019s the price of taking a life?\u201d Mitchell said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are going to be bleachers at stadiums in Collin County where parents are going to watch their kids play. One of the reasons we\u2019re in the community we live in is because we feel safe.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Supporters of Anthony holding a sign claiming the teen killed Metcalf in self defesne. FOX 4 Dallas-Fort Worth<\/p>\n

One of Anthony\u2019s lawyers, Mike Howard, tried to sway the jury to consider the possible extenuating circumstance on the table \u2014 with Anthony crying at times as he spoke.<\/p>\n

\u201cSudden passion doesn\u2019t mean blaming Austin or Hunter or any of those Memorial kids under that tent,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is not about blaming a victim.<\/p>\n

\u201cDecisions made in the heat of the moment are different than decisions that come after reflection.<\/p>\n

Two women consoling each other outside of the courthouse after the verdict was read. FOX 4 Dallas-Fort Worth<\/p>\n

\u201cSo when something happens \u2026 and you believe that Karmelo felt terror in that moment such that it rendered his mind incapable that he didn\u2019t have time for cool reflection, then sudden passion applies,\u201d the lawyer said.<\/p>\n

The verdict came after four days of sometimes excruciating testimony that was so graphic it visibly shocked jurors and drove Metcalf\u2019s family from the courtroom.<\/p>\n

Sympathizers of the killer tried to make the sensational case about race, suggesting Metcalf was nothing more than a white bully targeting Anthony, who is black \u2014 and whose legal defense raised more than $625,000.<\/p>\n

A courtroom sketch of Karmelo Anthony at his murder trial on June 4, 2026. AP<\/p>\n

The jury, which\u00a0didn\u2019t include a single black person<\/a>, heard from students and coaches who were at the Kuykendall Stadium where the fatal altercation took place, as well as from medics, officials and law-enforcement officers who responded after.<\/p>\n

Anthony primarily relied on the argument that he committed the slaying in self-defense, although he did not take the witness stand <\/a>to personally give jurors his point of view.<\/p>\n

Experts said the move may have helped doom his chance\u00a0at an acquittal.<\/p>\n

Anthony\u2019s mother Kayla Hayes begged jurors to have mercy on her son. Family handout<\/p>\n

Anthony also could have been found guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter, but jurors nailed him on the top rap.<\/p>\n

Sam Bassett, a partner at the firm Minton, Bassett, Flores & Carsey in Austin, Texas, said such a strong verdict shouldn\u2019t have come as a surprise.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvidence that is gory, such as a large knife wound, can trigger the emotions of some jurors deeply,\u201d he told The Post. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis often leaves them with a sense that they need to do something about what happened and almost always fans the flames of a guilty verdict.\u201d<\/p>\n

Teammates of Metcalf told the jury that the fight began when the victim, a student at Frisco Memorial High School, asked Anthony, then a 17-year-old from Frisco Centennial High School, to move out from under the Memorial team\u2019s tent.<\/p>\n

Anthony refused to vacate the bleacher area where the rival teammates set up their tent despite being\u00a0asked roughly 15 times by Metcalf and others.<\/a><\/p>\n

At one point during the escalating dispute, Anthony\u00a0warned Metcalf<\/a>, \u201cTouch me and find out,\u201d while his hand was in his backpack ready to grab something, witnesses said.<\/p>\n

Metcalf eventually shoved Anthony, and the killer teen whipped out a semi-serrated folding knife from his bag, plunging it once into the victim\u2019s chest, according to testimony.<\/p>\n

Metcalf\u2019s twin brother Hunter and others rushed to try to save the mortally wounded student, while Anthony ditched his knife and made for the exit before coaches stopped him, jurors heard.<\/p>\n

Anthony told the coaches he warned Metcalf not to touch him and admitted to the stabbing but contended it was in self-defense.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A fellow classmate of Anthony\u00a0testified Monday\u00a0<\/a>that the killer appeared \u201cdistraught,\u201d crying and hugging a coach in the moments after the attack.<\/p>\n

The trial featured graphic testimony and photos that shook jurors, including autopsy photos of Metcalf\u2019s 2-inch wound and his pierced heart.<\/p>\n

Metcalf\u2019s family stepped out of the courtroom for the disturbing evidence and became emotional at various points of the trial, including when one coach\u00a0broke down on the witness stand<\/a>\u00a0recalling Austin\u2019s death.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MCKINNEY, Texas \u2014 Karmelo Anthony sobbed Tuesday as he was swiftly convicted of murder in the fatal stabbing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":330362,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[14551,27,29,28,9929,734,117859],"class_list":["post-330361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-murders","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-trials","tag-us-news","tag-verdicts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330361","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=330361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330361\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/330362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=330361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=330361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=330361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}