DALLAS — A Texas teen found guilty in the fatal stabbing of a 17-year-old athlete during a high school track meet is now challenging the outcome, claiming the judge handled the closely watched trial unfairly and asking the court to grant him a new one.
Karmelo Anthony, who is now 19, was convicted of murder and given a 35-year prison sentence after a Collin County jury in June rejected his argument that he acted in self-defense during a confrontation with Austin Metcalf in the stadium bleachers last year.
A hearing on Anthony’s bid for a new trial, as well as his request to have a different judge assigned to the case, was scheduled to begin Wednesday in the Dallas suburbs.
Defense attorneys for Anthony contend that a retrial is justified, arguing in part that state District Judge John Roach imposed courtroom restrictions they believe were too rigid and provided jurors with incomplete instructions before they began deliberating. The jury reached its guilty verdict in under three hours after a trial that lasted nearly a week.
The Texas high school stabbing case drew widespread attention, fueled by a wave of social media posts that framed the killing through a racial lens. Anthony is Black, while Metcalf was white. Attorneys for both the prosecution and defense told jurors, however, that race was not a factor in the fatal encounter.
Anthony chose not to take the witness stand during his trial.
Testimony from students described a tense dispute on a rainy spring day, after Anthony refused to leave a tent used by Metcalf’s team. The two teenagers attended different high schools.
Witnesses said multiple schools were taking part in the meet when Anthony sat beneath the Memorial High School tent set up in the bleachers. Metcalf and others repeatedly asked him to move, according to testimony, and the exchange grew increasingly heated before turning deadly.
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.
Copyright © 2026 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
