A Texas jury sentenced 19-year-old Karmelo Anthony to 35 years in prison Tuesday for the murder of 17-year-old Austin Metcalf at a high school track meet last April.
The two teenagers clashed during a competition north of Dallas after Anthony took shelter under the Memorial High School team tent belonging to Metcalf’s squad.
Witnesses testified during the eight-day trial that Metcalf and others repeatedly told Anthony to leave the tent, which was positioned in the stadium bleachers.
Anthony at one point reached inside a bag and replied, “Touch me and see what happens,” according to a police report cited during the trial.
Metcalf then pushed Anthony, according to witnesses, who testified that Anthony pulled out a knife and stabbed Metcalf in the chest.
The jury deliberated for less than three hours and rejected Anthony’s self-defense claims, also declining to return the lesser charge of manslaughter.
Although the murder charge carried a sentence of five years to life, the state agreed to allow jurors to consider “sudden passion,” which would have capped the sentence between two and 20 years.
Anthony did not testify at trial, and only his mother took the stand during the sentencing phase, asking jurors for mercy on behalf of her son.
Following sentencing, Metcalf’s parents and his twin brother delivered emotional victim impact statements, with Metcalf’s father telling Anthony directly, “You failed your parents, you failed yourself and you failed society.”
Prosecutor Bill Wirskye asked jurors for a lengthy prison term, stating, “Mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent,” and also argued, “You don’t get to meet a shove with a stab, especially if you provoke the shove.”
Wirskye further told the jury, “Ultimately, this case is about accountability,” framing the sentencing as a moment of reckoning for a killing that shocked the local community.
Defense attorney Mike Howard argued that Metcalf had “no legal right to put his hands on Karmelo,” maintaining the self-defense position throughout the proceedings.
The trial drew heavy security at the Collin County courthouse and lines of spectators seeking seats in the gallery each day.
The case became a flash point for white supremacist groups who focused on the racial differences between Metcalf, who was White, and Anthony, who is Black, though Metcalf’s father disavowed their involvement early in the proceedings.
Anthony, who was a juvenile at the time of the stabbing, faced up to life in prison but was not eligible for the death penalty due to his age.
