Hours before Austin Metcalf was fatally stabbed, Karmelo Anthony’s former girlfriend had told school officials he was stalking her, a prosecutor said Thursday during Anthony’s appeal hearing. Authorities also found threatening and violent messages on Anthony’s phone, according to the prosecution.
Jurors were never presented with details about Anthony’s alleged troubling behavior, nor were they told about Metcalf’s juvenile record, Collin County Assistant District Attorney Bill Wirskye said. The information was kept out under what he described as a “gentleman’s agreement” reached with the 19-year-old defendant’s legal team before the murder trial.
According to local media reports from the hearing, Wirskye told the court that Anthony’s high school girlfriend had gone to an assistant principal after their breakup and said Anthony was stalking her. She also reportedly described him as fixated on fights, firearms and knives.
Wirskye said Anthony had also sent his ex-girlfriend a photo of a knife along with the message, “I’m low key on the verge.”
“He was spiraling,” the prosecutor told the court.
Only hours later, Anthony fatally stabbed Metcalf beneath a tent during a high school track meet, prosecutors said.
Wirskye explained that prosecutors agreed not to introduce the evidence about Anthony’s past conduct in exchange for the defense not raising Metcalf’s juvenile criminal history, which he said included graffiti containing “vile racist stuff.”
Here’s the latest on Karmelo Anthony’s murder conviction:
“I offered the agreement,” Wirskye said, according to WFAA-TV. “Let’s stay away from historical character and stick to the facts — what happened under the tent.”
The agreement was meant to keep the publicly fraught trial from becoming an even more volatile racial tinderbox, he said.
Anthony was convicted of murder and sentenced to 35 years in prison — but he is appealing the conviction.
