A Texas jury convicted 19-year-old Karmelo Anthony of murder and sentenced him to 35 years in prison for the fatal stabbing of 17-year-old Austin Metcalf at a high school track meet in the Dallas suburb of Frisco last year. The jury reached its guilty verdict in less than three hours.
The sentencing, handed down Tuesday evening in McKinney, Texas, closes the criminal chapter of a case that drew national attention, racial controversy, and competing protests to a suburban stadium, all while a grieving family waited more than a year for a courtroom reckoning.
Anthony faced up to 99 years. The 35-year sentence came after jurors rejected the defense argument that Anthony acted under the influence of "sudden passion," a legal finding that would have reduced the maximum penalty. As NBC News reported, Texas District Court Judge John Roach Jr. read the verdict and warned those in the courtroom to control their emotions.
Austin Metcalf was fatally stabbed on April 2, 2025, during a districtwide track meet in Frisco. Metcalf attended Memorial High School. Anthony attended Centennial High School. Both schools had teams competing that day.
Anthony's legal team argued he had been sitting in the bleachers under the tent of rival Memorial High School, was confronted, and was told to leave. Several witnesses said Metcalf at one point pushed Anthony to get him to move. The two sides disagreed on how hard the push was.
Prosecuting attorney Bill Wirskye rebutted the defense version. Quoting a trial witness, Wirskye said Anthony warned Metcalf: "Touch me and find out." Wirskye maintained the encounter was one-on-one, said video evidence supported his argument, and called the killing "murder, murder, murder."
Defense attorney Mike Howard countered that prosecutors failed to prove Anthony did anything but defend himself. Howard urged jurors to consider the chaos of the moment.
"Decisions made in the heat of the moment are different than decisions that come after reflection."
Howard asked jurors whether it was reasonable for Anthony to fear others might intervene, whether "Hunter might pop in to defend his brother... because the split second of chaos is you can't know what's about to happen." The jury was unconvinced.
After sentencing, the Metcalf family addressed the courtroom. Their statements made plain what a 35-year prison term cannot restore.
Hunter Metcalf, Austin's twin brother, appeared in the courtroom for the first time. He leaned forward as the verdict was read. He told Anthony he had spent much of the last year learning how to forgive, then delivered a statement that carried no ambiguity about his grief.
"You took someone from me who was supposed to be uncle, godfather to my kids. Now I want everything taken from you."
Hunter told Anthony directly: "You let the devil take over in that moment." After speaking, he returned to teenage friends and supporters in the courtroom.
Austin's mother, Meghan Metcalf, called her son a "peacemaker" and a "protector." She addressed Anthony with a line that cut through the courtroom formality.
"You may have just been given a sentence of 35 years. You should feel lucky, because I've been sentenced to a life without my son."
Jeff Metcalf, Austin's father, said his son died in Hunter's arms. He described Austin as a football team MVP with a 4.0 GPA. "He was loved by many. He was a leader," Jeff Metcalf said in a prior statement. In court, he told Anthony not to look down as he spoke and said it was time for Anthony to face consequences. He described what happened to his son as "pure unfiltered rage."
Jeff Metcalf also announced a scholarship in his late son's name.
The case attracted outside actors almost immediately. A couple of weeks after Metcalf's death, a participant in the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, later pardoned by President Donald Trump, led a small protest at the stadium as leader of a group called "Protect White America." Last week, the Next Generation Action Network, a civil rights organization that advocated on Anthony's behalf, denounced the racial composition of the jury, noting that not one juror was Black.
Jeff Metcalf addressed the racial dimension head-on. He told the courtroom "this was never about race or politics." He added: "We're all humans. We all bleed the same color." He spoke about "how you were raised with values and character," saying his children "have a wide array of friends. They weren't bullies. They weren't racists."
The father's words stood in sharp contrast to the noise that had surrounded the case for more than a year, noise from both ends of the political spectrum, none of which brought Austin Metcalf back or changed the facts presented to the jury.
Prosecutor Dewey Mitchell pushed for a sentence harsher than the 35 years the jury ultimately imposed. His closing appeal to jurors was blunt.
"Whether you like it or not, mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent."
Wirskye, the prosecuting attorney, rejected any framing of the outcome as a tragedy for Anthony. "It's the decisions he made and that he has to come to terms with," Wirskye said.
Collin County District Attorney Greg Willis spoke outside the courthouse after sentencing. He commended the teenagers who testified, saying they "did the right thing." Willis thanked the broader Collin County community and reflected on the long wait for trial.
"I asked our community to ignore all the noise and instead be levelheaded and patient as the process worked. And today, the process delivered accountability."
Anthony was 17 at the time of the stabbing. Texas law allowed him to be charged as an adult. He posted a $250,000 bond and was placed under house arrest. NBC Dallas-Fort Worth reported that Anthony had a 3.7 GPA going into the last weeks of the 2025 school year. He was permitted to graduate under an agreement between advocates and the Frisco Independent School District.
The only defense witness called to speak before sentencing was Anthony's mother. She gave a tearful statement asking the jury to "please have mercy on my son." She said Anthony is her oldest child and "is very sorry for what he did."
The jury was not moved to leniency beyond the 35-year term. Anthony was taken away after sentencing.
Judge Roach issued an order preventing publication of the names of some key witnesses who were under 18, a measure that reflected how many young people were drawn into a case that began with a high school sporting event and ended in a murder trial.
What remains unanswered is why Anthony carried a weapon to a track meet, or what, precisely, escalated a push into a killing. The defense framed it as self-defense in a chaotic moment. The prosecution called it premeditated aggression. The jury sided with the state, decisively, in under three hours.
The outside groups that tried to turn Austin Metcalf's death into a political symbol, from white-nationalist provocateurs to civil rights organizations challenging the jury's racial makeup, got what advocacy groups usually get when a case finally reaches a courtroom: irrelevance. Twelve jurors weighed the evidence, heard the witnesses, watched the video, and delivered a verdict.
Jeff Metcalf was right. This was never about race or politics. A 17-year-old was stabbed at a track meet and bled out in his twin brother's arms. The system took its time, but it delivered a measure of accountability. What it cannot deliver is the life that was taken, and no sentence, however long, changes that math.