Karmelo Anthony found guilty of murder in Texas high school stabbing

McKINNEY, Texas — A Texas jury found Karmelo Anthony guilty Tuesday of the 2025 murder of Austin Metcalf, a fellow high school student at a Dallas-area track meet.

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The verdict, reached in less than three hours and read by Texas District Court Judge John Roach Jr., carries with it a sentence of five years to life in prison. Anthony was 17 at the time, but Texas law allowed him to be charged as an adult. He is now 19.

Some in the courtroom reacted with cries and Metcalf’s twin brother, who made his first appearance in the courtroom, leaned forward. Anthony’s mother wept. Roach had warned people in the courtroom to control their emotions when the verdict was read. Anthony’s attorney kept an arm wrapped around him.

Metcalf, 17, was fatally stabbed on April 2, 2025, as the track teams of Anthony’s Centennial High School and Metcalf’s Memorial High School participated in a district-wide meet in Frisco, a Dallas suburb.

Anthony admitted to the stabbing, but his legal team argued he acted in self-defense after he’d sat in the bleachers under the tent of rival high school Memorial and was confronted by members of its track team and told to leave, under the pressure of physical intimidation.

Metcalf died in his twin brother’s arms that rainy day, their father said.

Immediately following the verdict, the judge moved on to the sentencing hearing.