Prosecutors said Friday that Karmelo Anthony had previously discussed carrying out a school shooting in a cache of alarming text messages that never reached jurors during his June murder trial because of an informal agreement between the two sides.
“imma shoot the school up tmr,” Anthony wrote in a 2023 message disclosed by prosecutors in Collin County, Texas, during a hearing over whether he should receive a new trial in the killing of Austin Metcalf, according to WFAA.
Authorities also pointed to additional threatening messages, allegations that Anthony stalked an ex-girlfriend, and evidence of violent behavior that prosecutors said had been kept from the jury. They said the same “gentleman’s agreement” also prevented potentially damaging information about Metcalf from being introduced, including a juvenile criminal history tied to racist graffiti.
The understanding was to “keep things clean,” prosecutor Bill Wirskye testified, as Anthony’s new lawyer, Russell Wilson, pressed him about what Wilson described as a “shadow docket” that he argued tainted the June proceedings.
That arrangement, prosecutors said, meant jurors never heard a large volume of troubling evidence, including messages in which Anthony allegedly threatened violence and a photo of a knife he sent to his ex-girlfriend. The girl had told a vice principal that Anthony was stalking her just hours before the fatal stabbing, WFAA and other local outlets reported prosecutors saying.
None of the material was presented to the jury during the June trial, where Anthony was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to 35 years in prison.
Anthony has appealed his conviction and is seeking a new trial. At Friday’s hearing, Wilson questioned Wirskye and Anthony’s former defense attorneys about their 30-year professional relationship and the off-the-record arrangements Wirskye said were intended to “keep things clean.”
According to prosecutors, that approach also kept jurors from hearing about Anthony’s alleged history of violent and threatening conduct, which they said had prompted his parents to send him to a special LSU program for children with behavioral issues.
In exchange for prosecutors not using certain evidence against Anthony in court, the defense lawyers agreed not to bring up victim Austin Metcalf’s juvenile criminal history, which included spray-painted graffiti of an upside down cross, the N-word, “KKK,” “Kill all Black people,” and “Heil Hitler,” Houston Public Media reported.
Metcalf and his twin brother were sentenced to 12 months probation for that incident, and photos and video from Metcalf’s phone showed the use of more slurs and a “pervasive picture of a racist outlook,” HPM reported Howard as saying.
“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 deal kept Anthony from taking the stand himself, argued Wilson.
Wirskye had accused defense attorney Mike Howard of breaking their deal when he brought up Anthony’s grades and chess hobby in opening arguments — which opened the door to questions about his personal life, should Anthony testify, Howard wrote in an affidavit obtained last month by the Dallas Morning News.
In a legal victory for Anthony, the judge who presided over his trial was removed from the appeal on Wednesday. Retired District Court Judge Michael Chitty was then assigned to consider the motion from Anthony’s attorneys asking for a retrial.
Anthony’s attorneys had asked for Judge John Roach to be removed in part because of a TV interview in which Roach said jurors “got it right” when they delivered a guilty verdict.
Wilson also argued that the June proceedings were marred by strict courtroom rules and improper jury instructions.
Several schools were competing at a track event when Anthony sat under the Memorial High School tent that was perched in the bleachers. Metcalf and others had repeatedly told Anthony to leave, witnesses testified, leading to an escalating confrontation.
