A Texas teenager who fatally stabbed a rival track athlete in the bleachers at a high school meet last spring was convicted of murder on Tuesday and sentenced to 35 years in prison, the Associated Press reported.
Karmelo Anthony, 19, had argued he acted in self-defense. The jury, deliberating less than three hours at the Collin County Courthouse, didn’t buy it. Jurors could have settled on the lesser charge of manslaughter. They chose not to.
The victim, Austin Metcalf, was 17. He died at the meet in April 2025. Anthony, then also 17, was a student at a rival school in Frisco, a fast-growing Dallas suburb. The two did not know each other.
Most of the trial testimony came from students who were at the meet that rainy spring day. They described an argument that started when Anthony sat under a tent belonging to Metcalf’s team, Memorial High School. Metcalf and others repeatedly told him to leave.
According to a police report cited by the AP, Anthony reached into his bag and said, “Touch me and see what happens.” Metcalf shoved him. Anthony pulled a knife and stabbed him in the chest.
One student recalled Metcalf telling Anthony, “You don’t have anything in that backpack. It’s Frisco.”
Anthony did not testify. His mother was the only witness called during the sentencing phase. She told jurors her son was sorry.
The case had drawn national attention long before the verdict, in part because of social media posts that framed the killing in racial terms. Anthony is Black. Metcalf was white. Lawyers on both sides told the jury the case had nothing to do with race.
Jeff Metcalf, Austin’s father, has said the same thing publicly for more than a year. He repeated it in court Tuesday, his voice rising as he turned to face Anthony.
“You failed your parents, you failed yourself and you failed society,” Metcalf said.
In closing arguments earlier in the day, defense attorney Mike Howard urged the jury to consider his client’s split-second decision. “Texas law does not require that you wait until you get hit,” Howard said. He argued that Metcalf had “no legal right to put his hands on Karmelo.”
Prosecutor Bill Wirskye pushed back hard. “This is not self-defense, folks. It’s murder, plain and simple,” he told jurors. “You don’t get to meet a shove with a stab, especially if you provoke the shove.”
Wirskye asked for a long sentence. “Mercy to the guilty,” he said, “is cruelty to the innocent.” He also tried to frame the verdict as something bigger than one teenager’s fate. “Ultimately, this case is about accountability. What kind of community do you want to live in.”
Spectators lined up all week to claim seats in the gallery, and the courthouse was under heavy security. On Tuesday, dozens stood outside in 90-degree heat waiting for the result. When the conviction came down, one woman in the crowd wailed, “This isn’t real!”
Frisco is one of Texas’ fastest-growing cities, with a school district known for its athletic facilities and gleaming modern campuses. The parents of both teens have said their sons were strong students who planned to go to college. High school track athletes from across the country have also drawn national notice in recent years, including through major NIL deals signed by top high school track stars.
For the track and cross-country community, the killing has been hard to shake. Meets bring together hundreds of athletes from competing schools, sharing tents and warm-up space in close quarters. A confrontation over seating turned into a homicide in a setting that, before April 2025, most parents treated as one of the safer corners of high school sports.
0 Comments