A Texas court has sentenced a black teenager to 35 years in prison for the murder of a white student athlete at a track meet last year. The incident has drawn significant attention and sparked discussions on racial tensions in the United States.
Seventeen-year-old Karmelo Anthony was convicted for the April 2025 stabbing of fellow student Austin Metcalf. Anthony claimed he acted in self-defense during a confrontation under a tent at the sporting event.
The case stirred nationwide controversy, as it involved a black teenager killing a white peer, prompting widespread debate around race in America.
However, the jury dismissed Anthony’s self-defense argument, determining he was guilty of murder after the altercation that occurred in the stadium bleachers.
Testimonies from students who witnessed the event painted a picture of a tense situation. The argument reportedly began because Anthony refused to leave a tent belonging to Metcalf’s team on a rainy day.
Witnesses testified that Anthony appeared to be the aggressor, with accounts stating he challenged Metcalf by saying, “Touch me and see what happens.” When Metcalf pushed him, Anthony responded by pulling out a folding knife and fatally stabbing Metcalf in the chest.
Jurors gasped in horror after being shown never-before-seen photos of Metcalf’s punctured heart during the trial.
Metcalf was stabbed once in the chest. The knife pierced through his bone in the center of his chest and punctured the right side of his heart, a medical examiner testified.
Karmelo Anthony (above) was found guilty on Tuesday of murdering Austin Metcalf at a high school track meet in Texas last year
Austin Metcalf, 17, died after Anthony stabbed him with a folding knife last April
Metcalf (pictured) was stabbed once in the chest. The knife pierced through his bone in the center of his chest and punctured the right side of his heart
Prosecutors said Metcalf’s twin brother, Hunter, rushed to his aid as Anthony ran from the scene and later tried to blend into groups of kids who were fleeing the stadium.
During closing arguments at the June 9 trial, prosecutors eviscerated Anthony’s self-defense claim that Metcalf attacked him first and encouraged jurors to find him guilty of murder.
‘What is important is not motive. It’s mindset. Mindset. He took a knife to a track meet,’ Collin County First Assistant District Attorney Bill Wirskye said.
‘[Anthony] of course, felt empowered that he was going to come out on top of any encounter. You don’t get to meet a shove with a stab, especially if you provoke the shove.’
Wirskye added, ‘Why didn’t he just walk away. He could have left the tent at any time. He didn’t. He didn’t abandon the encounter.’
Anthony’s defense attorney, Mike Howard, claimed Metcalf had ‘no legal right to put his hands on Karmelo.’
‘Texas law does not require that you wait until you get hit,’ Howard said. ‘In that split second of chaos, you must put yourself in his shoes.’
He also argued that Anthony, who was a student at Centennial High School, was invited to the Memorial High School tent by a fellow student, despite there being no evidence of that.
‘Why would he pick a fight with a kid that’s bigger than him?’ Howard said. ‘Austin and Anthony had never met before. There’s no background.’
He continued, ‘It’s not about race. As much as people on the outside want to make it about that, one or the other. It’s not.’
While cross-examining the medical examiner, Anthony’s lawyers also implied that Metcalf impaled himself on the knife.
The jury deliberated for less than three hours on Tuesday before passing its guilty verdict after the defense and prosecution delivered closing arguments.
There was an audible gasp in the courtroom when Anthony’s 35-year sentence was passed down on Tuesday evening. He will be eligible for parole after serving half of the time.
When the decades-long sentence was announced two women were escorted out of the courtroom after they said ‘We love you Karmelo!’ following the sentencing.
It came after the judge had already informed those in the public gallery that anyone having an emotional outburst would be removed from the courtroom.
Anthony, 19, sobbed and his family burst into tears as the judge read the guilty verdict. His mother had begged a jury to show him ‘mercy’ ahead of sentencing.
Earlier in the day, Anthony was warned he faced between five and 99 years behind bars for knifing Metcalf, 17, at the track event in Frisco, Texas, last year.
But after the verdict was passed at the Collin County courthouse on Tuesday, prosecutors agreed to consider ‘sudden passion’ as a factor when determining Anthony’s sentence.
This is a legal term that allows a criminal to argue they were in an intense emotional state when they committed wrongdoing. It would have reduced Anthony’s murder to a second-degree felony.
Roach ultimately decided to rule against the sudden passion application and gave jurors the power to put Anthony behind bars for the rest of his life.
Following Anthony’s sentencing, victim impact statements were read aloud by members of Metcalf’s devastated family.
Austin’s father Jeff Metcalf told the court how his family was ‘robbed’ of seeing Austin grow up, and expressed his grief that he couldn’t defend his son.
Anthony’s defense attorneys argued that he had been invited over to the tent where the altercation happened, despite there being no evidence of that
A person walks around announcing the guilty verdict in the Karmelo Anthony trial in front of the Collin County courthouse on Tuesday
He went on to express the ‘unfiltered rage’ he has experienced since his son was murdered, saying Austin’s death ‘didn’t just break my heart’ but also destroyed his ‘sense of safety’ and ‘faith in people.’
‘Since the first day he grabbed my finger, he had my heart,’ Jeff Metcalf began as he shared the hopes and dreams he had for his son.
‘To watch both my sons on the field at the same time was such a blessing. I truly believed you had a great career ahead of you. All of your teammates looked up to you. We were robbed, don’t look down, on all of these things,’ Jeff said before addressing Anthony directly.
‘I said from day one, this was never about race, please don’t politicize it. But what did you choose to do? Both. It’s about right and wrong. We’re all humans. We all bleed the same color. You’re free to make choices all you want, but you’re not free from those consequences. You will face those consequences starting today,’ Jeff Metcalf said.
‘To watch both my sons on the field at the same time was such a blessing. I truly believed you had a great career ahead of you. All of your teammates looked up to you. We were robbed, don’t look down, on all of these things,’ Jeff said before addressing Anthony directly.
‘If you ask me what my son’s death did to me, I would tell you it destroyed the person I used to be. Not changed me, destroyed me. My son’s death didn’t just break my heart, my sense of safety, my faith in people,’
‘People think that grief is sadness but it’s not. It’s rage! Pure unfiltered rage,’ he shouted.
‘You failed your parents, you failed yourself and you failed society, You don’t belong in this community,’ Metcalf said to Anthony.
‘You’re going to prison, You can’t even look me in the eyes right now but you can stab my f***ing son in the heart!’
Hunter Metcalf, Austin’s twin, was next to speak. He made a personal plea to Anthony before making his statement.
‘If you could just look me in the eye while I speak, I would really respect that,’ he asked of his brother’s murderer.
But Anthony kept looking down.
‘Now, I want everyone taken from you. I know deep down, you really forget what you did,’ Hunter said.
‘I always say an eye for an eye but you still have air to breathe while my brother is six feet under,’ the twin lamented.
Metcalf’s mother, Meghan Metcalf, also spoke to give her impact statement while Anthony could be seen in tears.
‘Seeing my loving son, his identical twin, lose the most important person in his life, it crushes you as a mother.
‘Austin was a hugger, and a good one at that. Austin always had a way of bringing people together. He was the peacemaker, the protector,’ Meghan Metcalf recalled.
Both Jeff and Austin’s twin brother, Hunter, delivered victim impact statements in court
An Austin Metcalf supporter held a sign outside the Collin County courthouse after the verdict was reached
At a brief press conference, Collin County District Attorney Greg Willis said justice was served in Karmelo Anthony’s murder trial. He was joined by Metcalf’s family
‘There is a part of him you can never take away from me or anyone who loves Austin. What it meant to be loved by him. It’s the love that I can continue to have in my heart.
‘He was taken from us just as he was starting to really live,’ the slain teen’s mom said as she addressed Anthony directly.
‘You may have just been given a sentence of 35 years behind bars but you can consider yourself lucky because I’ve been sentenced to a lifetime without my son,’ Meghan said.
Anthony’s supporters have claimed he had been treated unfairly because he is black, while critics said those allegations were used to try and distract from the crime.
Twelve jurors and six alternates, who are mostly white, with the exception of three Hispanics, two Asians, and two from the Middle East and India, were selected to decide Anthony’s fate.
During jury selection, defense attorneys raised a Batson challenge: a legal objection used when it is believed potential jurors were struck off because of race.
The challenge and jury selection may come into question for possible appeals later in the trial.
