Karmelo Anthony, the teenager convicted in the fatal stabbing of Austin Metcalf, has secured an early win in his effort to challenge the verdict and seek a new trial.
Anthony, 19, was found guilty in June and ordered to serve 35 years in prison for the murder of Metcalf, a 17-year-old student-athlete, during a high school track meet in April last year.
On Wednesday, the judge who oversaw Anthony’s trial was taken off the case as the appeal process moves forward.
Defense attorneys have argued that Anthony deserves another trial, pointing in part to what they described as unusually restrictive courtroom procedures imposed by state District Judge John Roach, as well as an interview Roach gave after the proceedings had concluded.
A different judge is now expected to handle Thursday’s hearing, where Anthony’s request for a retrial will be considered.
Anthony appeared in a Collin County courtroom wearing a green jumpsuit, with both his parents and Metcalf’s parents present for the hearing.
Following the decision to remove Roach from the case, supporters of Anthony erupted in cheers in the courthouse corridors and outside the building.
The deadly encounter began at a football stadium in Frisco, Texas, where both teens were attending a track meet before a verbal dispute beneath a high school team tent escalated.
Anthony is currently serving a 35 year sentence after being convicted of murder in the summer
Austin Metcalf was attending a track meet inside Kuykendall Stadium when he was fatally attacked
Supporters of Anthony are seen here cheering on the steps of the courthouse on Wednesday
Prosecutors said Anthony provoked Metcalf, and witnesses testified that Anthony was the aggressor.
Anthony at one point reached inside a bag and replied: ‘Touch me and see what happens,’ according to a police report.
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As Metcalf leaned in to shove the teen, Anthony stabbed Metcalf through the heart with a folding knife hidden in his backpack.
The knife pierced through his bone in the center of his chest and punctured the right side of his heart, a medical examiner testified.
Jurors in Dallas, Texas, took less than three hours to convict Anthony of murder – rejecting a lesser option for manslaughter.
Judge Roach appeared for an interview with WFAA in the aftermath and said he believed the jury made the right decision.
He told the outlet: ‘Yes, they did, because they were picked based upon the law, they listened to the facts,’ he said. ‘It happened in this courtroom, and they got a verdict.’
The judge then went on to say he believed Anthony came off as a nice person during their brief interactions, but will have to live with the consequences of his actions.
Judge John Roach defended the jury’s verdict in an interview with WFAA
The tent where the stabbing occurred is seen here inside Kuykendall Stadium in Frisco in April of last year
‘He seems like a nice young man who committed a crime, and he understands today more than any day before the consequences of committing a crime like he did,’ Roach told the network.
He added that court officials began preparing for the trial eight months in advance, anticipating the extraordinary public interest in the case, and he is satisfied with how the proceedings turned out.
‘As long as I follow the law, I sleep well at night,’ he said.
Anthony had originally faced between five to 99 years in prison for the murder, but prosecutors agreed to allow the jury to consider ‘sudden passion’ as a factor when determining his sentence.
‘Sudden passion’ is a legal term in Texas that allows a criminal to argue they were in an intense emotional state when they committed wrongdoing.
It would have reduced Anthony’s sentence to that of a second-degree felony for which he could have served as little as two years behind bars.
However, the jury rejected the argument and spent less than three hours passing its guilty verdict, and another roughly two and a half hours before they handed down their sentence.
