Karmelo Anthony received a 35-year prison sentence after being convicted of fatally stabbing Austin Metcalf, a fellow student, during a high school track meet.
MCKINNEY, Texas — A Texas judge is set to weigh Thursday whether teenager Karmelo Anthony should receive a new trial after his murder conviction earlier this summer in the stabbing death of 17-year-old athlete Austin Metcalf at a high school track meet.
Anthony’s defense team scored a procedural win Wednesday when the judge who oversaw his trial was removed from the case. Judge Michael Chitty was subsequently appointed to review the defense motion seeking a retrial in Metcalf’s killing.
Anthony, now 19, was sentenced to 35 years in prison. He appeared at Wednesday’s hearing in a green prison jumpsuit. His parents were present in the courtroom, as were Metcalf’s parents.
Anthony’s lawyers had sought the removal of state District Judge John Roach, citing in part a television interview in which Roach said jurors “got it right” when they returned a guilty verdict.
In their push for a new trial, Anthony’s attorneys contend that the June proceedings were affected by restrictive courtroom rules and flawed jury instructions. They also argue that Anthony’s decision not to testify followed a disagreement with prosecutors over an agreement to keep the trial focused on the moments leading up to the stabbing.
Jurors rejected Anthony’s claim that he acted in self-defense during a confrontation with Metcalf in the stadium bleachers last year. Student witnesses described a tense exchange that began on a rainy spring day after Anthony refused to leave a tent belonging to Metcalf’s team.
The case drew national attention, fueled in part by a wave of social media posts that framed the killing through a racial lens. Anthony is Black, and Metcalf was white. Attorneys for both sides, however, told jurors the tragedy was not about race.
During the recusal hearing Wednesday, Anthony’s legal team focused on comments Roach made to a Dallas TV station after the trial had ended. In the interview, which was played as the hearing began, Roach was asked if the jury got “it right.”
“Yeah, they did,” Roach said, adding: “Whatever they say, they got it right.”
During the interview, Roach also defended his courtroom rules and spoke about the onslaught of online postings about the case.
As national attention on the killing intensified last year, the families of both Metcalf and Anthony said they had been targets of harassment.
Several schools were competing at the 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.
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.
Metcalf pushed Anthony, according to witnesses, who said Anthony then pulled out a knife and stabbed him in the chest.
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