Teen convicted of track meet stabbing, sentenced to prison

The District Court in Collin County, Texas, on Tuesday sentenced Karmelo Anthony to 35 years in prison. A jury earlier in the day found the 19-year-old guilty of murder for the April 2025 death of 17-year-old Austin Metcalf, according to court records. Anthony fatally stabbed Metcalf at a high school track meet in the city of Frisco, Texas, after a short confrontation in which Metcalf shoved him. But witnesses testified that Anthony was the aggressor and that the two did not know each other.

Jurors rejected a milder manslaughter conviction for Anthony, along with arguments that he acted in self-defense. Anthony was 17 at the time of the stabbing, but was tried as an adult under state law.

Social media users and local news outlets captured chaotic scenes on Tuesday outside the Collin County courthouse, where dozens of people supporting Anthony confronted supporters of the Metcalf family. Police appeared to arrest at least one person. The parking lot outside the courthouse was eventually closed by Tuesday evening by court order and patrolled by law enforcement.

Anthony’s supporters frequently argued that the crime and prosecution had a racial element—Metcalf was white and Anthony is black. But lawyers on both sides of the case, as well as Metcalf’s family, said the trial was about murder rather than race, according to the Associated Press.

Dig deeper: Read my report on Anthony’s indictment for murder.