A jury convicted Karmelo Anthony of murder in Texas and sentenced him to 35 years after Austin Metcalf was fatally stabbed at a Frisco track meet. The decision triggered a national racial reckoning online, with supporters and critics clashing outside the Colli
When Karmelo Anthony’s sentence came down in the Collin County Courthouse in Frisco, it didn’t land quietly.
Outside. supporters of Anthony and supporters of the victim. Austin Metcalf. collided in public view on Tuesday. June 9. 2026—faces turned toward the courthouse doors. signs held high. tempers already stretched thin. At least one woman stood with a sign reading “Austin: Say His Name. ” echoing a slogan popularized by the Black Lives Matter movement.
Inside, the jury found Anthony—now 19—guilty of murder on Tuesday. The case, tied to the death of 17-year-old Metcalf, has quickly become a racial flashpoint in online and political debate far beyond Texas.
Anthony’s conviction and 35-year sentence followed the stabbing that occurred when both boys were 17 at a Frisco school district track meet in April 2025. Anthony fatally stabbed Metcalf in the chest with a folding knife, and Metcalf died shortly after.
Anthony’s legal team argued that Anthony acted in self-defense after he was physically confronted by a larger member of the opposing track team during the meet. Prosecutors, however, said Anthony intentionally escalated what they described as an otherwise mild situation—stabbing Metcalf in the chest.
The prosecution told jurors the case “has nothing to do with race.” Metcalf’s father also disavowed those who framed race as a contributing factor. Even so. the verdict was met with immediate polarization—some people arguing Anthony’s response could be considered self-defense. others insisting the outcome was harsher because of race.
There was no single argument that dominated the conversation. Instead, the debate folded over and over into the same questions: would the response have been different if the boys’ races were reversed? And how do you weigh a 35-year prison sentence when Anthony was tried as an adult under Texas law?
The argument turned even sharper online—fast—alongside a wave of misinformation. The case generated a massive amount of false information, including fake autopsy reports and a fake social-media account impersonating the Frisco police chief.
At the same time, an online legal-defense fundraiser raised hundreds of thousands of dollars. Critics called it a “reward” for someone accused of murder, while supporters pointed to it as an attempt to ensure Anthony could fight the conviction.
Well-known public figures fed the fire in different ways. Cardi B posted: “Wow! Just freakin wow! DISGUSTING… This is not justice, this is trying to make an example!!!”
Her comments landed as the case drew comparisons to another moment in American courtrooms and culture wars: Kyle Rittenhouse.
The Anthony case immediately evoked memories of Rittenhouse’s high-profile trial in Wisconsin. where Rittenhouse—a white man—shot three people and killed two during a Black Lives Matter protest. Rittenhouse was 17 at the time and was illegally armed with an AR-15-style rifle. He was charged with multiple counts, including homicide, but was acquitted after a jury found he acted in self-defense.
Supporters of Anthony argued that Rittenhouse received the benefit of the doubt while Anthony was widely condemned before trial, turning the legal question into a perceived racial divide.
Talbert Swan, a bishop and NAACP chapter president in Massachusetts, said, “White folks out here asking why Karmelo Anthony had a knife but had no problem with 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse having an AR 15 that he wasn’t licensed to carry.”
Critics of the comparison said the cases are fundamentally different and that the legal facts don’t match the political narrative spreading around them. Rittenhouse rejected the link directly. saying. “I defended myself after I was violently attacked by white antifa thugs with criminal records—and it was clear I’d die if I didn’t defend myself. We are not the same.”.
Even as the country argued about what the law did in the moment, the story’s details kept resurfacing—because so much of the case turns on the events that preceded the knife.
Anthony and Metcalf had never met before the Frisco school district track meet in April 2025. When it started raining, some athletes stayed on the field and others ran for cover under team tents. Anthony’s school, Centennial High School, did not have a team tent. Anthony sought shelter under the Memorial High tent, where Metcalf was a student.
Witnesses told police that Metcalf told Anthony to leave. Anthony responded, “Touch me and see what happens.” Witnesses said Metcalf grabbed Anthony to remove him from the tent. Then witnesses told police Anthony pulled out a knife, stabbed Metcalf once, and ran away.
Police reports say Anthony immediately told police he was the one who stabbed Metcalf, that he was “protecting himself,” and asked if Metcalf was “going to be OK.”
As the legal story played out, it also deepened existing tensions in Frisco, a fast-growing city that has faced demographic change and anti-immigrant sentiment for years.
The city grew 61% in the last decade and is now majority minority. Census data cited in reporting puts the population at 46% white, 34% Asian, 10% Latino, and 10% Black.
Local politics and culture were already charged before the trial. A candidate for Frisco mayor called immigrants “rats” and Islam a “terrorist group,” according to reporting from the Washington Post. Locals have complained of an “Indian takeover” in the area. and at one city council meeting. a man waved an Indian flag. spoke with a fake accent. and said. “I’ve started throwing my trash outside and pooping everywhere” to make Frisco feel more like home. Video of that meeting went viral.
Anti-immigrant rhetoric has helped push several far-right politicians into seats of power. Neha Suratran, a 22-year-old Hindu tech worker who was raised in Frisco, told the Post, “Now that MAGA extremism is becoming the norm, people are more comfortable being racist in person and online.”
The courtroom outcome now sits inside that larger argument—where a single stabbing, a 35-year sentence, and competing claims of self-defense have become a lightning rod for who gets believed, who gets protected, and who pays the price.
Outside the courthouse Tuesday. the fight over the case was already happening in real time: supporters of Metcalf and supporters of Anthony clashed. while high-profile voices amplified opposite conclusions—one pushing for harsher accountability. another demanding the sentence be seen as exemplary punishment.
In that swirl, some voices went further than criticism or comparison. Right-wing provocateur Jake Lang stood outside the courthouse and shouted that Anthony should be “lynched.” Sports columnist Jason Whitlock called the violence “sensenseless” and said Anthony “should’ve pleaded insanity” as the only “real explanation for his behavior.” Civil rights activist Dominique Alexander said the verdict showed “Black lives do not matter in Collin County.”.
Anthony’s case is now set against a backdrop of communal fracture—where the decision is not just a sentence, but a symbol others will use to argue about fairness, race, and the meaning of justice in Texas and beyond.
Karmelo Anthony Austin Metcalf Frisco Collin County Courthouse Texas sentencing 35-year sentence stabbing case self-defense Cardi B racial flashpoint Kyle Rittenhouse comparison Jake Lang Dominique Alexander NAACP Centennial High School Memorial High tent folding knife