A Texas courtroom is once again at the center of national attention as a judge considers whether Karmelo Anthony, convicted this summer in the fatal stabbing of a fellow student at a high school track meet, deserves a new trial. Here’s what’s happening and how the case got here.
Anthony, now 19, was convicted in June of murdering 17-year-old Austin Metcalf during a confrontation at a high school track meet involving several area schools last year. Prosecutors say Metcalf and others repeatedly asked Anthony to leave a tent belonging to Metcalf’s team on a rainy spring day, and the exchange escalated. According to a police report, Anthony reached into a bag and told Metcalf, “Touch me and see what happens.” Witnesses testified that Metcalf then pushed Anthony, who pulled a knife and stabbed him in the chest. Anthony did not testify at trial. A Collin County jury rejected his claim that he acted in self-defense and convicted him of murder; a judge sentenced him to 35 years in prison.
The case drew intense national scrutiny in part because social media posts framed the killing along racial lines; Anthony is Black and Metcalf was white. Attorneys for both sides, however, told jurors race played no role in the confrontation, and both families have said they faced online harassment as the case gained attention.
Anthony’s attorneys asked for a new trial, arguing the June proceedings were unfair. Hearings on that request began Wednesday in Collin County. Before the retrial question could even be addressed, a visiting judge removed state District Judge John Roach Jr., who had presided over Anthony’s trial, at the defense’s request. Anthony’s legal team argued Roach compromised his impartiality with a television interview after the verdict in which he said jurors “got it right.” Judge Michael Chitty has since taken over the case to decide whether a retrial is warranted.
Thursday’s hearing opened with both sides giving opening statements on the retrial motion itself, now before Chitty. Wilson began by asking that Anthony be removed from his shackles for the proceedings, a request Chitty granted. Wilson then laid out the defense’s procedural arguments, including the “shadow docket” allegation and the claim that Anthony had no hearings ahead of jury selection. The hearing was ongoing as of Thursday, with Chitty expected to rule within days.
The hearings are only to decide whether Anthony gets a new trial, not to re-litigate what happened the day Metcalf was killed. Chitty is expected to rule within days on whether Anthony’s conviction and 35-year sentence stand or whether the case starts over. Anthony has appeared in court this week in a green prison jumpsuit; his and Metcalf’s parents have both attended.