DALLAS – A Texas judge denied a new trial for Karmelo Anthony on Saturday in the stabbing death of a 17-year-old athlete at a high school track meet, a killing that drew national attention and led to harassment of the families.
Anthony, 19, was convicted of murder in June and sentenced to 35 years in prison for the April 2025 killing of Austin Metcalf, 17.
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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.
Russell Wilson, Anthony's attorney, said the defense would appeal.
“Our commitment to our client has not changed,” Wilson said. “We will continue to advocate vigorously on his behalf through every lawful avenue available.”
At the center of Anthony’s retrial request was an off-the-record agreement between prosecutors and his trial defense team to keep damaging character evidence about both teenagers out of the proceeding. Both sides agreed to hold back evidence that risked further inflaming a case already boiling with racial tensions and death threats.
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.
But worries that prosecutors would renege on the agreement as Anthony prepared to testify, his attorneys say, came after a heated argument between lawyers on both sides and changed their defense strategy at the eleventh hour. Anthony ultimately decided not to testify.
Prosecutor Bill Wirskye defended the trial as fair this week.
“We respect, and expected, the court’s decision denying the motion for a new trial,” Collin County District Attorney Greg Willis said after the denial was announced. “The jury’s 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’s hearing.”
Anthony’s attorneys also demanded a retrial because they said trial judge John Roach’s courtroom rules were so strict that they limited the public’s 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 expressed agreement with the jury's decision.
“Whatever they say, they got it right,” Roach said.
Roach said his rules were necessary for a fair trial, and prosecutors insisted he did nothing wrong.
Jurors rejected Anthony’s claims that he was defending himself during a confrontation with Metcalf in the bleachers of the track meet.
Anthony and Metcalf were athletes for different high schools in the Dallas suburb of Frisco, where several teams were competing on the rainy spring day when the meet took place.
Anthony sat under the tent that belonged to Metcalf's team, and Metcalf and others repeatedly told him to leave, witnesses testified. That led to an escalating confrontation.
Prosecutors said Anthony provoked Metcalf, and witnesses identified Anthony as the aggressor.
At one point Anthony reached inside a bag and said: “Touch me and see what happens,” according to a police report.
Witnesses said Metcalf pushed Anthony, who pulled out a knife and stabbed him in the chest.