Teen Guilty of Murder in Track Meet Stabbing

A Texas teenager who fatally stabbed a 17-year-old track athlete from a rival team during a meet was convicted of murder Tuesday in a trial that drew national attention. The jury rejected Karmelo Anthony's claims of self-defense during a confrontation with Austin Metcalf in the stadium's bleachers last year, the AP reports. Anthony, now 19, didn't testify in his own defense over the killing of Metcalf, whose death in April 2025 stunned Frisco, a booming Dallas suburb where the two students attended different schools. Most who did testify were students who described a heated exchange over Anthony refusing to leave a tent belonging to Metcalf's team during a rainy competition.

• Jurors heard dueling narratives from prosecutor Bill Wirskye and defense attorney Michael Howard, who repeatedly emphasized that Anthony was defending himself after Metcalf wanted him to exit a tent that belonged to the track team from Frisco Memorial High School, the AP reports. The stabbing was "murder plain and simple," Wirskye declared Tuesday. He called it a "sneak, surprise attack" and accused Anthony of egging on the confrontation.

• Howard said Metcalf had "no legal right to put his hands on Karmelo." "Texas law does not require that you wait until you get hit," Howard said. "In that split second of chaos, you must put yourself in his shoes."
• Wirskye suggested it was strange that a teen would bring a knife to a school sports event. He said deadly force has to be "immediately necessary" to be legal. "This is not self-defense, folks. It's murder," the prosecutor said.
• Anthony, who was a student at Frisco's Centennial High School, faces up to life in prison upon sentencing. Judge John Roach Jr. said the jury also could consider a lesser charge of manslaughter, which carries a possible sentence of up to 20 years in prison.

• Over a nearly weeklong trial, Anthony's attorneys sought to show that he was forced to defend himself. Several schools were competing on that rainy day, and Metcalf and others had repeatedly told Anthony to leave, witnesses testified, leading to an escalating confrontation.
• Trial witnesses described Anthony as the aggressor. Several students testified that Metcalf pushed Anthony, who then pulled out a knife and stabbed him in the chest. Many questions from the lawyers centered on team culture at track meets and the confrontation in the tent.
• The death last year quickly drew wide attention, in part because of social media posts that amplified the case in racial terms. Anthony is Black; Metcalf was white. After the stabbing, Jeff Metcalf, Austin's father, condemned those who seized on the race of the teens. Prosecutors also opened the trial by saying race had nothing to do with the case.
• This story has been updated with new developments.