A Texas jury convicted 19-year-old Karmelo Anthony of murder in the fatal stabbing of 17-year-old Austin Metcalf at a 2025 high school track meet in Frisco and sentenced him to 35 years in prison. The trial featured tense testimony, banned courtroom recording,
When the verdict landed. it didn’t just end a trial—it fixed a timeline for a family’s grief and a defendant’s life. A Texas jury convicted 19-year-old Karmelo Anthony of murder in the fatal stabbing of fellow student and competitor Austin Metcalf at a 2025 high school track meet. marking the end of a case that drew national attention and shocked the city of Frisco.
The jury then sentenced Anthony to 35 years in prison. Prosecutors had pursued a murder conviction after arguing that Anthony threatened Metcalf before the stabbing. The defense countered that Anthony acted in self defense. insisting he believed he was threatened and responded after physical contact occurred.
Both Anthony and Metcalf were 17 at the time of the April 2, 2025 incident.
The courtroom battle began in early June. Jury selection kicked off on June 1, and the trial ended after the conviction and sentencing on June 9. During the proceedings. the judge barred cameras. livestreams. and audio recording inside the courtroom. a rule that kept the focus tightly on testimony and evidence.
Eye witnesses described a chaotic scene at Kuykendall Stadium in Frisco on April 2, 2025, including graphic video footage introduced at trial. Prosecutors sought to frame the stabbing as an unjustified attack tied to a disagreement over Anthony’s presence under a Memorial High School team tent during the rainy track meet.
Defense attorneys portrayed a different chain of events—one they said turned physical when Austin and his twin brother became the aggressors.
Prosecutors rested their case on June 6 after calling 21 witnesses.
Several moments from that day were central to the fight over what happened after the first contact. Prosecutors pointed to statements Anthony made immediately after the stabbing as admissions of guilt.
Eduardo Cortez, a school resource officer, testified that when he reported having the “alleged suspect” in handcuffs, Anthony responded: “I’m not alleged, I did it.”
In closing, prosecutors leaned on that sequence. Prosecutor Bill Wirskye told jurors Anthony started the confrontation with Austin in a tent at the track meet and. after the stabbing. immediately admitted to what he’d done and told bystanders that Austin touched him first “as if it justifies the murder he just committed.” Wirskye later argued that “You don’t get to meet a shove with a stab. especially if you provoke the shove. ” as he addressed the jury.
Anthony’s attorney, Mike Howard, presented the case as a split-second decision made under threat. Howard said Anthony warned Austin not to touch him and had a right to defend himself after Austin initiated physical contact. Howard told the jury on June 9: “There is no evidence Karmelo did anything but really think he was defending himself in that split second of chaos.”.
The sentencing stage carried its own kind of evidence—raw emotion that spilled into the courtroom record. Anthony’s mother asked the jury for mercy during the trial. At sentencing. Metcalf’s mother addressed Anthony directly. saying. “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.”.
Under Texas law, Anthony was charged as an adult even though he was 17 when the incident happened. The jury’s sentencing decision placed Anthony at 35 years in prison.
Jurors could have sentenced him to as little as two years or as much as the rest of his life behind bars—an enormous range that made the jury’s choice feel like a statement rather than a compromise.
For a city that followed the case closely, the verdict closed one chapter while keeping the central question alive: was this an unjustified attack, or a response to a threat that felt immediate in the middle of chaos?
Karmelo Anthony Austin Metcalf Frisco Texas Kuykendall Stadium murder conviction sentencing self defense high school track meet Collin County jury