A Texas jury delivered a major ruling in the case against Karmelo Anthony for the killing of Austin Metcalf. The decision came after jurors threw out a self-defense claim and refused to find that the killing happened under what Texas law refers to as ‘sudden passion.’
Was Karmelo Anthony defending himself, or did prosecutors successfully show that his use of deadly force had no legal justification? That question was at the heart of a trial held at the Collin County Courthouse, where jurors ultimately found him guilty of murder, turned down a request for a lighter sentence, and handed down a 35-year prison term.
Jurors took fewer than three hours to reach their decision after hearing sharply conflicting accounts of the confrontation that unfolded during a high school track meet on April 2, 2025.
According to NBC DFW, Karmelo admitted to fatally stabbing Frisco student Austin Metcalf during the encounter. Both Karmelo and Austin were 17 years old at the time. Karmelo is now 19.
Before deliberations began, prosecutors and defense attorneys spent the trial’s final hours laying out competing versions of what happened and whether Karmelo’s actions were legally justified.
The final day of the trial got underway shortly after 9:15 a.m. on Tuesday, June 9, 2026, with a dispute over what the jury would be permitted to weigh.
Judge John Roach took up proposed jury instructions, including a legal doctrine known as ‘provoking the difficulty.’ That doctrine can limit a self-defense claim if jurors decide a defendant deliberately provoked a confrontation.
Defense attorney Mike Howard objected to including that instruction, but Judge Roach denied the challenge and kept it in the jury charge.
The judge also declined to include criminally negligent homicide as a potential verdict. He did, however, approve manslaughter as a lesser included offense.
Shortly before 9:30 a.m., Judge Roach explained that jurors would choose between three possible outcomes: murder, manslaughter, or not guilty.
Karmelo had entered a not guilty plea to the murder charge, and the judge reminded jurors that he was presumed innocent unless prosecutors proved the charge beyond a reasonable doubt.
Judge Roach also instructed jurors to weigh Karmelo’s self-defense claim and whether he had forfeited that defense by provoking the encounter.
The gap between possible verdicts was significant. A murder conviction carried a sentencing range of five to 99 years in prison, while manslaughter carried a possible sentence of two to 20 years.
At 9:56 a.m., Howard opened his closing argument by urging jurors to focus on what Karmelo believed in the moments leading up to the stabbing.
Howard argued that Austin had every right to ask Karmelo to leave the Memorial High School tent, but did not have the legal right to use physical force against him.
‘The government wants this case to be about, Melo could have just left,’ Howard told jurors. ‘Sure, he could have. I’m sure he wishes he did.’
From there, Howard framed the confrontation as a rapidly unfolding situation in which Karmelo felt cornered. He pointed to testimony that Karmelo remained seated while Austin and others stood over him inside the tent.
Howard also highlighted testimony that Karmelo repeatedly warned those around him not to touch him.
‘If I look at you and repeatedly tell you, Don’t touch me, I have something in my bag, that is the ultimate warning to back off,’ Howard argued.
Howard contended that Karmelo genuinely believed he was acting in self-defense. ‘There is no evidence Karmelo did anything but really think he was defending himself in that split second of chaos,’ Howard told jurors.
He also drew attention to Karmelo’s behavior after the stabbing, including testimony that he appeared distressed and asked whether Austin would be okay.
At 10:18 a.m., prosecutor Bill Wirskye stepped up with the state’s response and urged jurors to reject the defense’s framing. ‘Do not let them turn a threat into a warning,’ Wirskye told jurors.
Wirskye argued that Karmelo brought a concealed knife to the track meet and unleashed deadly force in a situation that did not call for it.
‘He took a knife to a track meet,’ Wirskye said. ‘He had a secret, he kept it hidden… He was the only one with a knife that day. He was always going to come out on top that day.’
According to FOX 4 News, Wirskye described the case as a ‘provoked, unjustified murder.’ He argued that Karmelo walked into a closed team tent and carried out what he called a ‘sneak attack’ before running away.
Wirskye also challenged why Karmelo never left the tent before things escalated. ‘You don’t get to meet a shove with a stab, especially if you provoke the shove,’ he argued.
The prosecutor told jurors the case had nothing to do with race and did not involve lawful self-defense. He argued the evidence backed the state’s version of events and concluded, ‘Ultimately, this case is about accountability,’ Wirskye said.
At 10:50 a.m., jurors left the courtroom and began deliberating. They had to decide whether prosecutors had proven murder, whether the lesser charge of manslaughter fit, or whether Karmelo should walk free.
By early afternoon, the courtroom began filling up again as both sides prepared for the jury’s return.
At approximately 2:14 p.m., Karmelo and his attorneys re-entered the courtroom.
According to NBC DFW, Karmelo’s mother appeared to have been crying while waiting in an adjoining room. Karmelo sat beside his legal team as the court readied itself for the verdict.
Shortly after, Austin’s twin brother, Hunter Metcalf, walked into the courtroom and sat down with his parents, Jeff and Meagan Metcalf.
Just before 2:30 p.m., the jury came back with its answer. After fewer than three hours of deliberations, jurors found Karmelo guilty of murder.
Karmelo reportedly showed little outward reaction as the verdict was read aloud. His mother wept in the gallery, while supporters also appeared visibly shaken.
Across the courtroom, Hunter leaned forward in his seat as the verdict was announced. The proceedings moved straight into sentencing.
Both sides waived opening statements during the sentencing phase, and the state immediately rested. The defense then called Karmelo’s mother, Kala Hayes, to the stand. Kala became emotional while speaking about her son.
‘He’s my oldest,’ she told jurors. ‘He’ll always be my baby. I love him very much.’ When Howard asked whether Karmelo had any regrets about what happened, Kala answered plainly.
‘Yes, I know my son, and he’s very sorry for what he did,’ she testified. Howard then asked if she had anything more to say to the jury. ‘Please have mercy on my son,’ Kala said.
Although Karmelo had been found guilty of murder, his sentence still hinged on one more legal question.
The defense argued that the offense was carried out under what Texas law calls ‘sudden passion.’ If jurors agreed, the punishment range would drop from five to 99 years down to two to 20 years.
Prosecutors argued that standard did not apply. During sentencing arguments, Wirskye told jurors that sudden passion must arise directly from provocation by the person who was killed.
The state maintained that Karmelo, not Austin, had provoked the confrontation. At 4:40 p.m., jurors left the courtroom once more to deliberate over Karmelo’s sentence.
Before the day’s proceedings wrapped up, Austin’s twin brother delivered one of the most emotionally charged victim impact statements of the entire trial.
Hunter asked Karmelo to look up and meet his eyes. Karmelo, who had been looking down during the statements, did so.
‘You took a son, a brother, a friend, and my best friend, from this world,’ Hunter told him. ‘You took someone from me who was supposed to be an uncle, godfather to my kids. Now I want everything taken from you.’
Hunter said he had spent the past year trying to find a way to forgive and make sense of why his brother had to die. He also said he wakes up every single day knowing he can no longer talk to Austin.
Hunter told Karmelo that his mother still cries herself to sleep. After finishing his statement, he stepped down from the witness stand and embraced friends nearby.
At 7:30 p.m., jurors returned to the courtroom for the final ruling of the day.
Judge Roach announced that the jury had rejected Karmelo’s sudden-passion claim. Jurors found that Austin’s death did not occur under the immediate influence of sudden passion arising from adequate cause.
They then sentenced Karmelo to 35 years in state prison. Under Texas law, Karmelo must serve at least half of that sentence before he can be considered for parole.
Just before the sentence was read, Karmelo appeared to be sobbing as members of his defense team tried to comfort him.
According to courtroom sketch artist Pat Lopez, Karmelo later glanced toward his parents and mouthed the words ‘I’m sorry’ before being led out of the courtroom. Judge Roach then ordered that Karmelo be taken into custody.
With the courtroom proceedings now complete, attention returns to the confrontation at a Frisco track meet that prosecutors and defense attorneys spent months picking apart before a jury.
On Wednesday, April 2, 2025, the bleachers at Kuykendall Stadium in Frisco, Texas, were packed with students competing in the 11-5A district track meet. The event brought together more than a hundred student-athletes from eight Frisco Independent School District high schools, including Memorial High School and Centennial High School.
Under the tent set aside for Memorial High athletes, a confrontation began between Austin, a junior at Memorial, and Karmelo, a student from Centennial. Witnesses told police that Karmelo, wearing a Centennial tracksuit, had sat in the wrong tent, and Austin told him to get out.
According to the police report, Karmelo opened his bag and said, ‘Touch me and see what happens.’ Statements from multiple students indicated that Austin either touched or tried to move Karmelo. In the next moment, Karmelo allegedly pulled a knife from his bag and stabbed Austin once in the chest.
Witnesses said he then fled from the tent area. A black knife with blood on it was later recovered by officers in the bleachers. Coaches and certified athletic trainers responded immediately, performing CPR and applying pressure while waiting for emergency services to arrive.
Austin was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 10:53 a.m. According to the official arrest report, the entire altercation, from the verbal exchange to the stabbing, lasted under 30 seconds.
Police noted that more than 30 students and half a dozen coaches from five schools were listed as witnesses, many of whom gave statements on the spot.
Minutes after the stabbing, a Frisco school resource officer found Karmelo near the stadium. He matched the descriptions given by multiple student witnesses. According to the police report, officers noticed blood on his left middle finger and ordered him to raise his hands. He complied.
Before officers asked him a single question, Karmelo began making unprompted statements. ‘I was protecting myself,’ he said. When one officer radioed that he had the suspected individual, Karmelo reportedly responded, ‘I’m not alleged, I did it.’
As he was walked to a patrol car, he added, ‘He put his hands on me. I told him not to.’ Witnesses at the scene described him as ‘crying hysterically.’ Officers described him as visibly shaken throughout the arrest. Once seated in the back of the squad car, Karmelo asked if the victim was ‘going to be OK.’
He then asked officers whether the stabbing could be considered ‘self-defense.’ Another officer reported that Karmelo seemed emotional the entire time and repeated several of those statements without being prompted. He was transported to the Frisco City Jail and later moved to the Collin County Jail.
Austin’s mother, Meagan, was at work in Grapevine when she received a phone call from Hunter. ‘He was screaming that Austin had been stabbed,’ she said in a televised interview. She drove straight to the hospital and arrived before the ambulance did.
‘I saw them have him come out,’ she recalled. ‘He was on a lot of machines, and it didn’t take long for them to come in to say that he had passed.’ Her husband, Jeff, said Hunter had witnessed the stabbing and tried desperately to save his brother’s life.
‘He was holding his hands on the hole trying to save his life,’ Jeff told CBS News Texas. ‘He told me, I looked at him, his eyes, he was gone, he wasn’t breathing.’ According to Meagan, CPR was performed after Austin was unresponsive for about five minutes.
‘They were able to revive him a little, but I think it was just, too little too late,’ she said. In a separate interview, Hunter also described what he witnessed.
‘I whipped my head around, and then all of a sudden I see him running down the bleachers just grabbing his chest. I put my hand on there, tried to make the bleeding stop, and I grabbed his head and I looked in his eyes. I just saw his soul leave, and it took my soul, too,’ he stated.
The family released a written statement two days later, through a friend, thanking the community for their prayers and support. ‘We will entrust the detectives handling the investigation to determine the circumstances surrounding Austin’s passing,’ the statement read.
‘While our family, Hunter, and I prioritize commemorating and honoring Austin, we extend our gratitude to everyone who has supported us in numerous ways and helped sustain our family during this difficult time,’ it concluded.
More than a year after the deadly confrontation at a Frisco track meet, jurors answered the central questions of the case. Their verdict and sentencing decision brought the trial of Karmelo Anthony to its close.
