{"id":414165,"date":"2026-08-22T22:56:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T22:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/414165\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T22:56:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T22:56:10","slug":"texas-judge-denies-karmelo-anthonys-request-for-new-trial-in-deadly-stabbing-at-track-meet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/414165\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas judge denies Karmelo Anthony’s request for new trial in deadly stabbing at track meet"},"content":{"rendered":"

DALLAS \u2013 A Texas judge denied a new trial for Karmelo Anthony<\/a> on Saturday in the stabbing death of a 17-year-old athlete at a high school track meet<\/a>, a killing that drew national attention and led to harassment of the families.<\/p>\n

Anthony, 19, was convicted of murder in June and sentenced to 35 years in prison for the April 2025 killing of Austin Metcalf, 17. <\/p>\n

Judge Michael Chitty denied the retrial motion in a half-page order following a two-day hearing this week near Dallas, citing a review of the evidence and arguments. He did not elaborate. <\/p>\n

Russell Wilson, Anthony’s attorney, said the defense would appeal. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur commitment to our client has not changed,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cWe will continue to advocate vigorously on his behalf through every lawful avenue available.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prosecutor Bill Wirskye defended the trial as fair this week. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe respect, and expected, the court\u2019s decision denying the motion for a new trial,\u201d Collin County District Attorney Greg Willis said after the denial was announced. \u201cThe jury\u2019s guilty verdict stands, and we remain confident in the process. Every defendant has the right to appeal, and our thoughts and prayers remain with the Metcalf family in the painful wake of last week\u2019s hearing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anthony\u2019s attorneys also demanded a retrial because they said trial judge John Roach\u2019s courtroom rules were so strict that they limited the public\u2019s access to the proceedings. And in asking for Roach’s recusal, they noted that he gave a posttrial interview with a Dallas TV station in which he said the jury \u201cgot it right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roach said his rules were necessary for a fair trial, and prosecutors insisted he did nothing wrong.<\/p>\n

The case attracted widespread attention in part because of a flood of social media posts that amplified the killing in racial terms. Anthony is Black; Metcalf was white. Lawyers on both sides, however, told jurors that the case had nothing to do with race.<\/p>\n

Jurors rejected Anthony\u2019s claims that he was defending himself during a confrontation<\/a> with Metcalf in the bleachers of the track meet<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DALLAS \u2013 A Texas judge denied a new trial for Karmelo Anthony on Saturday in the stabbing death…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":414166,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[115271,144124,115269,114713,143671,10066,27,29,28,1499],"class_list":["post-414165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-austin-metcalf","tag-bill-wirskye","tag-greg-willis","tag-john-roach","tag-michael-chitty","tag-russell-wilson","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-u-s-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414165","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=414165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/414166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=414165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=414165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=414165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}