The fate of Karmelo Anthony was decided by a Collin County jury after attorneys delivered sharply different accounts of the confrontation that ended with the death of Texas teenager Austin Metcalf.
According to Fox 5 Atlanta, jurors began deliberating late Tuesday morning after hearing closing arguments in Anthony’s murder trial. After only a few hours behind closed doors, the jury returned with a verdict, finding Anthony guilty of murder.
The 19-year-old was accused of the April 2, 2025, stabbing death of 17-year-old Metcalf at a stadium in Frisco, a suburb north of Dallas.
The defense concluded its case Monday without calling Anthony to testify, setting the stage for final arguments from both sides.
Prosecutors urged jurors to reject Anthony’s self-defense claim and argued that he was responsible for escalating the encounter.
Collin County District Attorney Bill Wirskye told jurors that Anthony brought a concealed knife to the track meet and initiated the chain of events that led to Metcalf’s death.
“You don’t get to meet a shove with a stab, especially if you provoke the shove,” Wirskye said during his closing argument.
The prosecution characterized the stabbing as an unjustified attack on an unarmed victim, arguing that Anthony’s actions went far beyond any reasonable response to the confrontation.
Defense attorney Mike Howard presented a very different version of events.
Howard argued that Anthony, who was 17 years old at the time of the incident, reacted in a moment of panic after being confronted and pushed by Metcalf inside a crowded team tent.
According to the defense, the stabbing occurred during a tense and rapidly unfolding encounter.
Howard described Anthony’s actions as the product of a “split second of fear and chaos” and maintained that his client acted in self-defense.
The competing arguments highlighted the central question jurors were tasked to answer: whether Anthony committed murder or whether his actions were legally justified.
Jurors were instructed to consider either a murder conviction or the lesser charge of manslaughter.
Anthony faces a potential sentence ranging from five years to 99 years in prison or life behind bars.
