Gasps heard in court as teen killer Karmelo Anthony sentenced to 35 years in prison after being found guilty of murdering Austin Metcalf, 17

Karmelo Anthony has been found guilty of murder for the fatal stabbing of Austin Metcalf at a high school track meet.

There was an audible gasp in the courtroom when his 35-year sentence was passed down on Tuesday evening. He will be eligible for parole after serving half of the time.

The same jury found Anthony guilty of murder earlier in the day for the stabbing death of Metcalf in 2025.

When the decades-long sentence was announced two women were escorted out of the courtroom after they said ‘We love you Karmelo!’ following the sentencing.

It came after the judge had already informed those in the public gallery that anyone having an emotional outburst would be removed from the courtroom.

Anthony, 19, sobbed and his family burst into tears as the judge read the guilty verdict. His mother had begged a jury to show him ‘mercy’ ahead of sentencing.

Jurors were then presented with arguments from the defense and prosecution before being sent out to deliberate on the length of his punishment.

Following Anthony’s sentencing, victim impact statements were read aloud by members of Metcalf’s devastated family including his aunt and the teenager’s father.

+18
View gallery

Karmelo Anthony (above) was found guilty on Tuesday of murdering Austin Metcalf at a high school track meet in Texas last year. Now jurors must decide his sentence

+18
View gallery

Austin Metcalf, 17, died after Anthony stabbed him with a folding knife last April

+18
View gallery

An Austin Metcalf supporter holds a sign in front of the Collin County courthouse after the verdict was reached in the Karmelo Anthony trial on Tuesday in McKinney, Texas

Aunt Marlene Needa recalled how she got a call from her sister on the day of the boy’s death.

‘The sounds of the screams from my sister is something that still haunts me til this day,’ she told the court. ‘It was one of the hardest day of my life.

‘There is a void in our family that can never be filled. My daughters often ask why Austin had to die. All i can tell them is that must trust in God’s plan even when we don’t understand it.’

As Needa was speaking, Metcalf’s father could be seen crying in the courtroom all the while Anthony sat and listened, with his head hanging low.

‘We will never know what he future could have been,’ aunt Needa continued. ‘Why was a young man with his entire future ahead be taken away? We will live with this loss forever.’

Metcalf’s mother, Meghan Metcalf also spoke to give her impact statement while Anthony could be seen in tears.

‘Seeing my loving son, his identical twin, lose the most important person in his life, it crushes you as a mother.

‘Austin was a hugger, and a good one at that. Austin always had a way of bringing people together. He was the peacemaker, the protector,’ Meghan Metcalf recalled.

‘There is a part of him you can never take away from me or anyone who loves Austin. What it meant to be loved by him. It’s the love that I can continue to have in my heart.

‘He was taken from us just as he was starting to really live,’ the slain teen’s mom said as she addressed Anthony directly.

‘You may have just been given a sentence of 35 years behind bars but you can consider yourself lucky because i’ve been sentenced to a lifetime without my son,’ Meghan said.

Metcalf’s father, Jeff, also delivered an impact statement on Tuesday evening.

+18
View gallery

Anthony’s defense attorneys argued that he had been invited over to the tent where the altercation happened, despite there being no evidence of that

+18
View gallery

While quizzing the medical examiner, Anthony’s lawyers implied that Metcalf impaled himself on the knife

He told the court how his family was ‘robbed’ of seeing Austin grow up, and expressed his grief that he couldn’t defend his son.

He went on to express the ‘unfiltered rage’ he has experienced since his son was murdered, saying Austin’s death ‘didn’t just break my heart’ but also destroyed his ‘sense of safety’ and ‘faith in people.’

‘Since the first day he grabbed my finger, he had my heart,’ Jeff Metcalf began as he shared the hopes and dreams he had for his son.

‘To watch both my sons on the field at the same time was such a blessing. I truly believed you had a great career ahead of you. All of your teammates looked up to you. We were robbed, don’t look down, on all of these things,’ Jeff said before addressing Anthony directly.

‘I said from day one, this was never about race, please don’t politicize it. But what did you choose to do? Both. It’s about right and wrong. We’re all humans. We all bleed the same color. You’re free to make choices all you want, but you’re not free from those consequences. You will face those consequences starting today,’ Jeff Metcalf said.

‘If you ask me what my son’s death did to me, I would tell you it destroyed the person I used to be. Not changed me, destroyed me. My son’s death didn’t just break my heart, my sense of safety, my faith in people,’

‘People think that grief is sadness but its not. It’s rage! Pure unfiltered rage,’ he shouted.

+18
View gallery

A person walks around announcing the guilty verdict in the Karmelo Anthony trial in front of the Collin County courthouse on Tuesday

+18
View gallery

Karmelo Anthony supporters voice their opinions in front of the Collin County courthouse

‘You failed your parents, you failed yourself and you failed society, You don’t belong in this community,’ Metcalf said to Anthony.

‘You’re going to prison, You can’t even look me in the eyes right now but you can stab my f***ing son in the heart!’

Hunter Metcalf, Austin’s twin was next to speak. He made a personal plea to Anthony before making his statement.

‘If you could just look me in the eye while I speak, I would really respect that,’ he asked of his brother’s murderer.

But Anthony kept looking down.

‘Now, I want everyone taken from you. I know deep down, you really forget what you did,’ Hunter said.

‘I always say an eye for an eye but you still have air to breath while my brother is six feet under,’ the twin lamented.

Earlier in the day, killer, Anthony was warned he faced between five and 99 years behind bars for knifing Metcalf, 17, at the track event in Frisco, Texas, last year.

But after the verdict was passed at the Collin County courthouse on Tuesday, prosecutors agreed to consider ‘sudden passion’ as a factor when determining Anthony’s sentence.

This is a legal term that allows a criminal to argue they were in an intense emotional state when they committed wrongdoing. It would have reduced Anthony’s murder to a second-degree felony.

Roach ultimately decided to rule against the sudden passion application and gave jurors the power to put Anthony behind bars for the rest of his life.

The murder case shocked America, and the discussion surrounding the killing of a white teenager by a black peer quickly became racially fraught.

+18
View gallery

The case shocked America, and the discussion surrounding it quickly became racially fraught. Anthony’s supporters claim he was treated unfairly because he is black

+18
View gallery

Witnesses who were in the tent described Anthony as the aggressor, testifying that Anthony told Metcalf, ‘Touch me and see what happens’

Anthony, who was 17 at the time, claimed he was acting in self-defense when he stabbed Metcalf with a folding knife after a heated argument under a tent.

His mother, Kala Hayes, begged the jury to go easy on her son as the jury prepared to determine the length of his punishment.

‘He’s my oldest. He’s my firstborn. He will always be my baby. I love him very much,’ she said through tears.

‘I know my son, and he’s very sorry for what he did. Please have mercy on my son.’

The jury deliberated for less than three hours on Tuesday before passing its guilty verdict after the defense and prosecution delivered closing arguments.

Anthony’s lawyers then asked for a private moment with the killer, which was quickly shot down by the judge.

The judge responded that Anthony has been found guilty and is now in the sheriff’s custody. ‘Things move differently now,’ he said.

During closing arguments, prosecutors eviscerated Anthony’s self-defense claim that Metcalf attacked him first and encouraged jurors to find him guilty of murder.

‘What is important is not motive. It’s mindset. Mindset. He took a knife to a track meet,’ Collin County First Assistant District Attorney Bill Wirskye said.

‘[Anthony] of course, felt empowered that he was going to come out on top of any encounter. You don’t get to meet a shove with a stab, especially if you provoke the shove.’

Wirskye added, ‘Why didn’t he just walk away. He could have left the tent at any time. He didn’t. He didn’t abandon the encounter.’

‘The video tells the story, supported by the eyewitnesses and corroborated by the defendant’s actions and words,’ Wirskye said.

+18
View gallery

Supporters for the murdered teen gathered outside the courthouse ahead of the verdict

+18
View gallery

An emotional Karmelo Anthony supporter is consoled by another outside the courthouse

+18
View gallery

Supporters for Anthony leant on one another as the guilty verdict was announced

Anthony’s defense attorney, Mike Howard, claimed 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.’

He also argued that Anthony, who was a student at Centennial High School, was invited to the Memorial High School tent by a fellow student, despite there being no evidence of that.

‘Why would he pick a fight with a kid that’s bigger than him?’ Howard said. ‘Austin and Anthony had never met before. There’s no background.’

He continued, ‘It’s not about race. As much as people on the outside want to make it about that, one or the other. It’s not.’

Over the course of the nearly weeklong trial, jurors were presented with witness testimony from students, coaches and investigators, as well as surveillance footage of the altercation.

Witnesses who were in the tent described Anthony as the aggressor, testifying that Anthony told Metcalf, ‘Touch me and see what happens,’ provoking Metcalf to push Anthony, who then pulled out a knife and stabbed him in the chest.

Prosecutors said Metcalf’s twin brother, Hunter, rushed to his aid as Anthony ran from the scene and later tried to blend into groups of kids who were fleeing the stadium.

Anthony sat motionless in court as police body camera footage from April last year showed Hunter pleading for help after the stabbing.

+18
View gallery

A Karmelo Anthony supporter reacts to the verdict in the trial in front of the Collin County courthouse

+18
View gallery

A crowd gathers by Collin County Sheriffs vehicles parke in front of the courthouse after the Karmelo Anthony verdict was reached

+18
View gallery

A law enforcement official talks with an Austin Metcalf supporter in front of the courthouse

+18
View gallery

Law enforcement officials stand in front of the Collin County courthouse after the verdict was reached in the Karmelo Anthony trial

Hunter shouted, ‘Oh my God. He’s my best friend. He’s my brother.’

He became hysterical as he begged for help and cried out, ‘I can’t do this.’

At one point, Hunter grew incoherent and seemed to be praying out loud.

Jurors gasped in horror after being shown never-before-seen photos of Metcalf’s punctured heart during the trial.

Metcalf was stabbed once in the chest. The knife pierced through his bone in the center of his chest and punctured the right side of his heart, a medical examiner testified.

While cross-examining the medical examiner, Anthony’s lawyers implied that Metcalf impaled himself on the knife.

After his defense lawyers called on six witnesses who offered underwhelming evidence, Anthony opted not to take the stand.

In Texas, defendants have the right to ask a jury to determine their punishment.

It meant that jurors were able to hear evidence from prosecutors and defense attorneys before deciding the sentence.

 

SOURCE: Gasps heard in court as teen killer Karmelo Anthony sentenced to 35 years in prison after being found guilty of murdering Austin Metcalf, 17 | Daily Mail Online