A Texas judge on Saturday refused to grant convicted killer Karmelo Anthony a new trial for the fatal stabbing of 17-year-old Austin Metcalf, rejecting defense claims that strict courtroom rules and faulty jury instructions tainted the verdict.
Anthony, 19, was found guilty of murder on June 9 and sentenced to 35 years in prison for stabbing Metcalf, a high school football standout, at a multi-school track meet near Dallas in April 2025. His lawyers had pushed for a do-over, arguing that the original trial was compromised on multiple fronts. The judge who heard the motion, a replacement brought in after the original trial judge was removed from the case, was unmoved.
The ruling caps weeks of contentious hearings that surfaced evidence the jury never saw, including a disturbing 2023 text message in which Anthony wrote, "imma shoot the school up tmr." Prosecutors revealed that message during the new-trial proceedings, underscoring a pattern of violent language that predated the stabbing by roughly two years.
The stabbing unfolded at a track meet near Dallas where multiple high schools had gathered. Anthony, who did not attend Memorial High School, sat under a tent that Memorial students had set up beneath the bleachers. Metcalf told Anthony to leave. According to a police report, Anthony responded: "touch me and see what happens."
Metcalf pushed Anthony. Anthony then reached into his bag, pulled a knife, and stabbed Metcalf. The wound was fatal. Anthony's defense team argued self-defense at trial but chose not to put him on the stand.
Witnesses testified that Anthony was the aggressor, and a jury agreed, convicting him of murder. The 35-year sentence followed. The case drew intense public attention and sharp political reaction from House Democrats, who framed the verdict in racial terms.
Judge John Roach, who presided over the trial, was removed from the case after making public comments about the verdict. In an interview with WFAA TV, a Dallas-area station, Roach said of the jurors' decision:
"Yeah, they did, whatever they say, they got it right."
Anthony's lawyers seized on the remark, arguing it showed bias, and successfully pushed for Roach's removal. A replacement judge was assigned to handle the new-trial motion, and that judge ultimately sided with prosecutors, denying the request.
The defense raised three main objections: that the trial court imposed overly strict courtroom rules, that the jury received improper instructions, and that a so-called "gentleman's agreement" between prosecutors and the defense to limit certain evidence presented to the jury had been violated or had otherwise compromised the proceedings. The specifics of each argument were not detailed in the New York Post's reporting, but the judge found none of them sufficient to warrant a second trial.
Among the most striking revelations from the new-trial hearings was the 2023 text message in which Anthony threatened to "shoot the school up." Prosecutors introduced it not as evidence in a retrial but during the hearings themselves, as part of a broader trove of material the jury had never been shown.
The existence of that text raises its own questions. If prosecutors had the message before trial, why was it excluded from the jury's consideration? The gentleman's agreement between the two sides to withhold certain evidence from jurors may explain the omission, but the full scope of what was kept back, and why, remains unclear.
The case has generated harassment and threats directed at both the Anthony and Metcalf families, though the sources and specifics of those threats have not been publicly detailed. The volatile atmosphere around the trial extended beyond the families: one man, Jake Lang, was arrested for allegedly threatening to kill Anthony after a livestream captured a remark about a "headshot."
Meanwhile, the victim's father publicly condemned a former school superintendent for allowing Anthony to attend a graduation ceremony, a decision that struck many as a gratuitous insult to the Metcalf family. That episode drew national attention and deepened the sense that institutions were failing to respect the gravity of what happened.
With the new-trial motion denied, Anthony remains convicted and sentenced to 35 years. His legal team has not publicly outlined their next move. An appeal to a higher court is the standard path, but nothing in the available record confirms whether one has been filed or is planned.
Several questions linger. The replacement judge who denied the motion has not been publicly identified. The precise courtroom rules and jury instructions that the defense challenged have not been spelled out in detail. And the full contents of the gentleman's agreement, what evidence it kept from jurors and on whose initiative, remain murky.
None of that changes the core facts. A 17-year-old was told to leave a tent that wasn't his. He refused, issued a threat, and when the confrontation turned physical, he pulled a knife and took a life. A jury heard the case and convicted him. A second judge reviewed the objections and found no reason to start over.
When the system works the way it's supposed to, when juries weigh evidence, judges follow the law, and convicted killers stay convicted, the least anyone can do is let the result stand.
