Karmelo Anthony Verdict: Guilty of Murder, Sentenced to 35 Years for Austin Metcalf Stabbing

On June 10, 2026, a Collin County jury convicted Karmelo Anthony, 19, of first-degree murder for stabbing 17-year-old Austin Metcalf to death on April 2, 2025, at Kuykendall Stadium in Frisco, Texas. The jury sentenced Anthony to 35 years in prison. He will be eligible for parole after serving half that time - roughly 17.5 years.

The verdict came after less than three hours of deliberation. Anthony, now 19, broke down in tears as the sentence was read - and was immediately taken into custody. The case gripped the country for over a year, sparking a deeply polarized national debate about race, self-defense laws, and justice. It ended in a Collin County courtroom in McKinney, Texas, with no ambiguity from the jury.

On the morning of April 2, 2025, multiple high school track teams gathered at Kuykendall Stadium in Frisco, Texas, for a district-wide meet. It was raining. Karmelo Anthony, then a 17-year-old student at Frisco Centennial High School, had sat down in the bleachers under a pop-up tent belonging to rival school Frisco Memorial High School.

Austin Metcalf, a 17-year-old junior at Memorial and a standout athlete on the football and track teams, told Anthony to leave the tent. According to witness testimony, Anthony reached into his bag and said, "Touch me and see what happens." When Metcalf pushed him, Anthony pulled out a black pocketknife and stabbed Metcalf once in the chest. He then ran. He dropped the knife. He did not stab anyone else.

Metcalf collapsed and died from the wound. Collin County Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Elizabeth Ventura testified that he was stabbed through the heart - a two-and-a-half-inch wound that was not survivable. Anthony was arrested within hours. He was charged with first-degree murder and held on a $1 million bond. The stabbing happened in front of dozens of witnesses, including students, coaches, and teammates from multiple schools.

The case became national news within 48 hours, and stayed there for more than a year - for reasons that had little to do with the legal facts.

Anthony is Black. Metcalf was white. That detail, combined with social media posts that spread rapidly after the stabbing, turned the case into a proxy battle for larger arguments about race and justice in America. Some online communities rallied behind Anthony, framing the case as self-defense against a white aggressor. Others rallied around Metcalf's family, arguing the stabbing was unprovoked and the racial framing was unfair.

A GoFundMe for Metcalf's family raised over $290,000. A separate defense fund for Anthony raised over $250,000 within the first week after the stabbing. Supporters showed up outside the Collin County Courthouse daily throughout the trial, chanting "Free Karmelo." A member of the New Black Panther Party was also photographed outside the courthouse during proceedings.

No Black jurors were selected for the trial. The defense filed a Batson challenge, arguing that three potential Black female jurors were improperly removed due to race. Judge John Roach Jr. denied the challenge after reviewing the prosecution's reasoning for each strike.

Prosecutors and the Metcalf family both pushed back hard on the racial framing throughout. "This case has nothing to do with race," lead prosecutor Bill Wirskye told jurors in opening arguments. "This was an unprovoked, unjustified murder. It is senseless." Jeff Metcalf, Austin's father, echoed that point directly at Anthony during his victim impact statement after sentencing: "This was never about race or politics, but what you did was to choose to make it about both."

• The stabbing: April 2, 2025, at Kuykendall Stadium in Frisco, Texas, during a Frisco ISD district track meet
• The victim: Austin Metcalf, 17, Frisco Memorial High School - stabbed once in the chest and killed
• The defendant: Karmelo Anthony, 17 at the time, Frisco Centennial High School - tried as an adult under Texas law
• The trial: Held at Collin County Courthouse in McKinney, Texas, before Judge John Roach Jr.; jury heard testimony over four days from more than 21 prosecution witnesses
• The verdict: Guilty of first-degree murder, reached after roughly two hours and 20 minutes of deliberation on June 10, 2026
• The sentence: 35 years in prison; parole eligibility after serving 17.5 years; Anthony faced a range of 5 to 99 years or life
• The self-defense claim: Rejected by the jury; jurors also rejected the argument that Anthony acted under "sudden passion," which would have capped sentencing at 20 years
• Anthony's GPA: Both Anthony and Metcalf were reportedly high-achieving students; Austin Metcalf held a 4.0 GPA and was nominated team MVP

Anthony's attorney, Mike Howard, argued that his client acted in self-defense out of "fear and chaos." The defense maintained that Metcalf shoved Anthony first - and that once Anthony was physically touched, he had the right under Texas law to defend himself.

Howard also argued that Anthony going under the Memorial tent was not unusual. Frisco ISD had no written policy at the time barring athletes from sitting in another school's tent during a meet, and Centennial track coach Adam Linwood testified that athletes regularly mingle between school sections at these events.

Anthony did not testify in his own defense. The defense rested Monday, June 8, without calling him to the stand.

But the jury didn't buy it. Video evidence shown in court contradicted key parts of the self-defense argument. Witnesses - including some called by the defense - testified that Anthony was not surrounded or attacked by a group. Metcalf confronted him alone. Multiple witnesses stated that Metcalf explicitly told Anthony he was not going to fight him. One witness, a minor whose identity was withheld, said directly: "That's lethal force against non-lethal force."

Even Centennial's own track coach, when asked by the prosecutor whether there was any reason an athlete should bring a knife to a track meet, answered simply: "No."

The prosecution, led by Bill Wirskye, built their case around a simple, direct argument: this was a choice, not a reaction.

Wirskye told jurors that Anthony reached into his bag, issued a verbal warning, and then stabbed a teenager in the heart - all before Metcalf laid a hand on him in any meaningful way. The prosecution called 21 witnesses over four days, including classmates, coaches, investigators, and Dr. Ventura, the medical examiner.

The graphic autopsy testimony hit the courtroom hard. Judge Roach warned those present before it began. Several jurors covered their mouths. Members of the Metcalf family stepped out of the room.

During closing arguments Tuesday, prosecutors told jurors to focus on one thing: Austin Metcalf, not Karmelo Anthony's future. "Austin Metcalf was a son. Austin Metcalf was a brother," the prosecutor said. The jury clearly agreed.

After the sentence was read, four members of the Metcalf family addressed Anthony directly in open court. It was one of the most raw and public moments of an already intensely watched case.

Austin's mother, Meghan Metcalf, told Anthony: "You may have just been given a sentence of 35 years. You should feel lucky - because I've been sentenced to a life without my son." She described Austin as a peacemaker and protector. She talked about the last morning they spent together before he left for the track meet.

Austin's twin brother, Hunter Metcalf, asked Anthony to look him in the eye. Anthony eventually did. "What I've been doing this last year is trying to learn how to forgive," Hunter said. "You took a son, a brother, a friend, my best friend from this world. You took someone who was supposed to be an uncle to my kids. Now I want everything taken from you." He told Anthony his name would eventually be forgotten - but Austin's memory would not. "You let the devil take over in that moment."

Austin's father, Jeff Metcalf, was the most direct. Court officers stepped toward him as his voice rose. He told Anthony not to look down. "We were robbed," he said. "I forgive you, but I do not forgive what you did. You can't even look me in the eye, but you can stab my son in the heart." He also called out the public reaction to his son's death. "The public response sickens me, especially when a gag order didn't allow me to defend my son. This was never about race."

Anthony did not respond to any of the statements. He was removed from the courtroom and court was adjourned.

The jury sent a clear message Tuesday - and it wasn't subtle.

They deliberated for less than three hours. They rejected self-defense. They rejected sudden passion. They gave a sentence on the higher end of what many legal observers expected, stopping well short of life but making clear this was no accident and no borderline call.

For Anthony's supporters, the verdict will confirm what they feared: that a Black teenager did not receive a fair hearing. That argument will continue online and possibly on appeal. But inside that courtroom, 12 jurors watched the same video evidence, heard from over 20 witnesses, and concluded that a teenager brought a knife to a school event and used it to kill someone who had not yet struck him with force that warranted a lethal response.

The part most coverage won't sit with long enough: both of these were teenagers with no criminal records and real futures ahead of them. Metcalf had a 4.0 GPA. Anthony had been nominated for a team captaincy. This began as an argument about a tent in the rain. One young man is dead. Another is going to prison likely until his mid-30s at best.

That's the actual tragedy - not the verdict, not the politics. Two lives destroyed over a moment that should have meant nothing.