Jury deliberating in Karmelo Anthony Texas track meet stabbing murder trial
In a Collin County murder case in which a jury’s assessment of whether a killing at a high school track meet was justified by self-defense is at its core, the panel’s deliberation is underway.
Austin Metcalf, whom defendant Karmelo Anthony is accused of stabbing to death in April 2025, did not have the legal authority to “put his hands on” Anthony, defense attorney Mike Howard said his closing argument on Tuesday morning, according to The Dallas Morning News.
“A hit, a shove, a push,” Howard told the jury, “’Melo had an absolute right to defend himself from that.”
Anger flared under a Memorial High School tent at the track meet.
Prosecutors argue Anthony could have left when he was confronted by Metcalf, Howard said.
“I am sure he wishes he did,” the defense attorney said, according to WFAA-TV.
The Collin County Criminal District Attorney’s Office described Metcalf’s killing in Frisco as an unjustified, provoked murder.
“This is ludicrous,” First Assistant District Attorney Bill Wirskye said in the state’s closing argument. Anthony “had a secret — he had a knife that day. He was always gonna come out on top that day. That is a mindset.”
“You don’t get to meet a shove with a stab — especially if you provoke a shove,” Wirskye told the jury.
Judge John Roach included a legal advisory on self-defense justification in the jury’s instructions. The judge, who is presiding at the trial in the 296th District Court in Collin County, denied a defense request for the jury to be allowed to consider criminally negligent homicide, but jurors can consider a verdict of manslaughter, which a reckless killing.
If the jury finds Anthony guilty of murder, the panel would, in a second trial phase, assess a term of between five and 99 years, or life, in prison.
The defense argued that Anthony sought shelter from the rain under the Memorial tent because his school did not have a tent. The defense attorney said Anthony was sitting down and talking to someone he knew when Austin Metcalf and Metcalf’s twin brother confronted him.
Anthony provoked and goaded Metcalf, the state argued.
Witnesses told police that the two 17-year-old students fought after Metcalf asked Anthony to move from under the Memorial High School tent at Kuykendall Stadium, and that Metcalf either pushed or grabbed Anthony before Anthony pulled a knife from his bag and stabbed Metcalf in the chest.
Anthony cried and told officers that he acted in self-defense and that Metcalf had “put his hands on me. I told him not to,” according to a police report.
Metcalf was a Memorial High School student. Anthony was a student at Centennial High School.
This story was originally published June 9, 2026 at 11:51 AM.
