A Texas activist, known for her outspoken nature, recently made controversial comments about Austin Metcalf’s family, labeling them as “pigs” and encouraging people to offer prayers for his convicted killer, Karmelo Anthony.
Thelma Anderson, previously a Dallas attorney, voiced her opinions about Anthony’s conviction during a recent episode of the “Roland Martin Unfiltered” podcast. Earlier this year, Anderson faced a suspension of her law license in March.
Speaking to Martin, Anderson, 39, stated, “The first thing I urge everyone to do is to pray for Anthony’s family, who have endured what I consider a legal lynching over the past year.”
She further criticized the judicial process, describing it as a “slaughterhouse of a courthouse,” and accused the Metcalf family of embodying “white supremacy” and acting with hate, likening them to “pigs.”
Anderson, the author of the legal memoir “Shut Up and Prosecute,” went on to accuse the Metcalf family of celebrating both the loss of life and the loss of freedom.
Having followed the trial closely, Anderson herself faced a temporary suspension from practicing law after being convicted of wire fraud, as per court records. However, she has not been permanently disbarred.
The case that gripped America came to a close on Tuesday after Anthony, 19, was found guilty of murder of murdering Metcalf in April 2025 at a track meet in Frisco.
Anthony, who broke down in tears as he was sentenced to 35 years behind bars for the crime, claimed he stabbed Metcalf in the heart in an act of self-defense that day.
Thelma Anderson, a former Dallas attorney, called Austin Metcalf’s family pigs and urged the public to pray for his killer, Karmelo Anthony, in an interview following Anthony’s conviction on Tuesday
Metcalf was fatally stabbed by Anthony in April 2025 at a track meet in Frisco. His family was present during the trial
Despite Anderson’s claim that Metcalf’s family is now ‘celebrating’ the verdict of his killer, the late football star’s parents and twin brother shared a very different reaction when the final decision came in.
His father, Jeff Metcalf, stared Anthony down and demanded that he look him in the eyes as he described his son’s death in heart-wrenching detail during a victim impact statement.
‘You’re going to prison,’ Jeff Metcalf told Anthony. ‘You can’t even look me in the eyes right now, but you can stab my f***ing son in the heart.’
His grieving father further described the ‘unfiltered rage’ he feels over his son’s death.
‘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,’ Jeff told the court.
He said he forgave Anthony ‘the day it happened’ but did not forgive ‘what you did.’
Jeff said his family was ‘robbed’ of seeing Austin grow up and regretted he wasn’t there to defend his son at the sporting event in April 2025.
‘People think that grief is sadness but it’s not. IT’S RAGE!!! Pure unfiltered rage,’ Jeff shouted as he slammed his fist down.
‘My son’s death didn’t just break my heart,’ he continued, claiming it also destroyed ‘my sense of safety, my faith in people.’
Anthony, who broke down in tears as he was sentenced to 35 years behind bars for the crime, claimed he stabbed Metcalf in the heart in an act of self-defense that day
Jeff also struck down arguments that the case was about race – as Anthony is a black teenager and Metcalf was white.
Instead, he argued, the case was about ‘right and wrong.’
‘We’re all humans. We all bleed the same color,’ Jeff noted, before addressing Anthony himself.
Metcalf’s mother, Meghan, and his twin brother, Hunter, also delivered emotional statements.
Hunter, who held his brother in his arms while he bled out that day, started off by telling Anthony: ‘If you could just look me in the eye while I speak, I would really respect that.’
But Anthony kept looking down as Hunter said he wanted ‘everything to be taken’ from him.
Metcalf’s mother, Meghan, and his twin brother, Hunter, also delivered emotional statements on Tuesday
‘You took a son, a brother, a friend, and my best friend, from this world,’ Hunter said, getting emotional. ‘You took someone from me who was supposed to be an uncle, godfather to my kids. Now I want everything taken from you.’
Meghan said she was left ‘crushed’ by Austin’s death and seeing the effect it had on Hunter.
‘Seeing my loving son, his identical twin, lose the most important person in his life, it crushes you as a mother,’ she said.
She went on to describe Austin as a ‘hugger’ who ‘always had a way of bringing people together.’
Anthony had originally faced between five to 99 years in prison for knifing Metcalf, but after the verdict was passed at the Collin County courthouse on Tuesday, prosecutors agreed to consider ‘sudden passion’ as a factor when determining his sentence.
Anthony will now have to serve at least half of the sentence before he is eligible for parole
‘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 murder to a second-degree felony, for which he could have served as little as two years behind bars.
It was then left up to the jury to decide whether to apply the ‘sudden passion’ argument to the case and reduce Anthony’s murder charge or stick to their original verdict.
The jury then spent less than three hours passing its guilty verdict, and another roughly two and a half hours before they handed down their sentence.
Anthony will now have to serve at least half of the sentence before he is eligible for parole.
