FRISCO, Texas — Karmelo Anthony has added a new attorney as he moves forward with an appeal of his murder conviction.
Earlier this month, Anthony was found guilty and sentenced to 35 years in prison for the fatal stabbing of 17-year-old Austin Metcalf during a high school track meet in Frisco, Texas. He has since filed a notice of appeal.
Collin County court records show that criminal defense lawyer Lara Bracamonte Davila is now serving as his court-appointed attorney.
Anthony was recently transferred into the custody of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and taken to the Pack Unit near Navasota, Texas, according to the agency.
Before Bracamonte Davila’s appointment, News Agency reported that criminal defense attorney Donny Perales had briefly been assigned to the case. He is no longer representing Anthony.
Although Bracamonte Davila is currently handling the appeal on a court-appointed basis, Perales told News Agency in an email that “it is expected that the Anthony family will be retaining an attorney for the appeal.”
Court records indicate days after his June 9 murder conviction, Anthony applied for what is known as a TDFA Indigent Packet in his appeal, which, according to the Texas Fair Defense Act, is where a defendant can apply for a court-appointed attorney if he or she is eligible.
A court sketch shows Karmelo Anthony in a courtroom shortly before jurors began deliberations in Collin County, Texas, on June 9, 2026. (Pat Lopez)
To qualify, a defendant must prove he or she cannot afford legal representation. Anthony said he was “penniless, destitute, and indigent person, too poor to employ counsel to represent me on the appeal,” in a court document he filed on his own.
WATCH: Austin Metcalf’s father remembers his son’s childhood
News Agency previously reported that records indicate the Anthony family was tied to several businesses in Louisiana and Texas, and even opened a business weeks after their son murdered Metcalf.
Despite the appeals process, the Anthonys have yet to speak to the Metcalf family following the verdict, according to Austin’s father, Jeff Metcalf.
Meghan Metcalf and her son Hunter speak out after 17-year-old Austin Metcalf was killed in a deadly altercation in Frisco, Texas. (Jeff Metcalf/Meghan Metcalf/Fox news)
Metcalf said in a sit-down interview with News Agency, “I don’t forget what he did to my son.” He went on to say, “I don’t have sympathy, but I gave him forgiveness, and the forgiveness was for me, of course, so I don’t carry the rage and the hate.“
News Agency has reached out to Bracamonte Davila and the Anthony family for comment.
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