Jury finds Karmelo Anthony guilty of murder in Texas track meet stabbing trial
A jury in Collin County on Tuesday rejected the defense assessment that a killing at a high school track meet was justified by self-defense and found Karmelo Anthony guilty of murder in the stabbing death of Austin Metcalf.
The panel began about 4:35 p.m. Tuesday to deliberate on punishment after a one-witness second phase of the trial in the case in which the defendant and victim were 17 at the time of the killing.
Judge John Roach directed the jury to consider a prison sentence of between five and 99 years, or life, or, if it finds that Anthony was under the influence of sudden passion, two to 20 years. Anthony, who is 19, must serve half of the term or 30 years, whichever is less, before becoming eligible for parole.
“You are about to hear a lot about the age of this defendant,” Assistant District Attorney Dewey Mitchell told the jury in the state’s punishment closing argument, according to WFAA-TV. “Absolutely, talk about his age. I’m also going to ask you to consider the age of Austin Metcalf.”
Mitchell showed the jury an April 2, 2025, photo taken at Kuykendall Stadium in Frisco in which coaches are gathered around Metcalf, performing chest compressions, while at least four people prayed nearby.
First Assistant District Attorney Bill Wirskye argued that sudden passion does not apply in the Anthony case. It requires a finding that the stabbing was “directly caused by and arising out of provocation by the individual killed,” Wirskye said.
While Wirskye did not ask the jury to assess a precise number of years, he argued that it should “hand out a sentence that is meaningful.”
“Everyone in the nation will know how you reacted to senseless loss and murder,” he told the jury, according to WFAA.
“Mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent,” Wirskye said.
In his closing argument, defense attorney Mike Howard said, “Anyone who stands up here and tells you ... a number clearly doesn’t understand how hard your job is. I can only ask you to consider both sides, follow your heart, and follow the law.”
Speaking on sudden passion, Howard said that it is a finding that emotion caused by provocation led to an act made in the heat of the moment, KXAS-TV reported. “Sudden passion doesn’t mean blaming Austin or Hunter or any of those Memorial kids under that tent,” he said. “This is not about blaming a victim.”
Surveillance video shows that the altercation between the two students happened in “mere seconds,” Howard said. If the jury believes that “Karmelo felt terror in that moment such that it rendered his mind incapable that he didn’t have time for cool reflection, then sudden passion applies,” he said.
“I ask you to consider both sides,” Howard said. “Yes, the Metcalfs have been irrevocably changed by this, and all of our hearts go out to them. The Anthonys, too. There are innocent people on both sides who have lost significantly.”
The jury deliberated for about three hours before it reached its guilty verdict shortly before 2 p.m.
A crowd of supporters on both sides grew outside the Collin County Courthouse in McKinney to await the verdict.
A punishment phase can include evidence of other crimes or bad acts and witness testimony on character and the effect on the families.
The prosecution called no witnesses in the punishment phase. The defense called Anthony’s mother, Kala Hayes, as its only witness and asked few questions, KXAS-TV reported.
“He’s my oldest,” said Hayes, who began crying, according to KXAS. “He’ll always be my baby. I love him very much.”
Karmelo also appeared to be crying as his mother spoke, KXAS reported.
“Do you believe Melo regrets what he did?” defense attorney Howard asked.
“Yes, I know my son, and he’s very sorry for what he did,” Hayes said.
“Is there anything you want to tell the jury?” Howard asked.
“Please have mercy on my son,” Hayes said.
On cross examination, prosecutor Wirskye asked Hayes if Anthony “still gets to be a part of your life,” and she said yes, WFAA-TV reported.
In closing arguments in trial’s guilt-innocence phase on Tuesday morning, Howard said that Metcalf did not have the legal authority to “put his hands on” Anthony, according to The Dallas Morning News.
“A hit, a shove, a push,” Howard told the jury, “’Melo had an absolute right to defend himself from that.”
Anger flared in the altercation between the two students under a Memorial High School tent at the track meet, witnesses said.
Metcalf was a Memorial High School student. Anthony was a student at Centennial High School.
Prosecutors argued Anthony could have left the tent when he was confronted by Metcalf, Howard said.
“I am sure he wishes he did,” the defense attorney said, according to WFAA.
The Collin County Criminal District Attorney’s Office described Metcalf’s killing in Frisco as an unjustified, provoked murder.
Anthony “had a secret — he had a knife that day,” Wirskye said in the state’s closing argument. “He was always gonna come out on top that day. That is a mindset.”
“You don’t get to meet a shove with a stab — especially if you provoke a shove,” Wirskye told the jury.
Judge Roach included a legal advisory on self-defense justification in the jury’s instructions. The judge, who is presiding at the trial in the 296th District Court in Collin County, denied a defense request for the jury to be permitted to consider criminally negligent homicide, but jurors were instructed to consider manslaughter, a reckless killing.
The defense argued that Anthony sought shelter from rain under the Memorial tent because his school did not have a tent. The defense attorney said Anthony was sitting down and talking to someone he knew when Austin Metcalf and Metcalf’s twin brother confronted him.
Witnesses told police that the two 17-year-old students fought after Metcalf asked Anthony to move from under the Memorial High School tent at Kuykendall Stadium, and that Metcalf either pushed or grabbed Anthony before Anthony pulled a knife from his bag and stabbed Metcalf in the chest.
Anthony cried and told officers that he acted in self-defense and that Metcalf had “put his hands on me. I told him not to,” according to a police report.
Anthony elected not testify in either phase of the trial.
This story was originally published June 9, 2026 at 9:51 AM with the headline "Jury finds Karmelo Anthony guilty of murder in Texas track meet stabbing trial."
