We are getting the latest developments this Monday as Karmelo Anthony’s lawyers rested their case in his trial for the fatal stabbing of another student at a high school track meet. Anthony, 19, faces a murder charge for the death of 17-year-old Austin Metcalf. Police said Anthony and Metcalf got into an argument over seating in the stadium stands on April 2, 2025, which escalated when Anthony stabbed Metcalf in the chest with a pocketknife. LiveNOW’s Andy Mac is speaking with criminal defense attorney Matthew Tympanick as Anthony faces a maximum sentence of five to 99 years in prison if convicted of murder.

Metcalf, 17, was stabbed and mortally wounded on April 2, 2025, after ordering Anthony out from a section of bleachers under a tent belonging to Metcalf’s high school.

Anthony, 19, has claimed self-defense. He’s been charged with murder, which carries a sentence of five years to life in prison. Although Anthony was 17 at the time of the stabbing, Texas law considers 17-year-olds to be adults.

Closing arguments in the case are slated for Tuesday morning, after which the jury will start deliberations.

State District Judge John Roach Jr. has ordered the jury to be sequestered from the “outside world” at a hotel, with no access to television or phones and only an emergency number for family members.

The past few days of testimony were often emotional, as prosecutors played 911 calls and showed videos of the altercation and the aftermath, as well as graphic photos of Metcalf and his wounds. Family members of both Metcalf and Anthony were in the courtroom.

The defense has focused on inconsistencies in some witnesses’ testimony.

Metcalf’s attorneys have downplayed race as an issue in the case — Anthony is Black and Metcalf white. Both were student athletes at crosstown rival schools with high grade-point averages.

But race has been at issue on social media, in protests outside the courthouse and after no Black jurors were selected for the trial.

A string of witnesses, largely classmates and teammates of Metcalf, gave accounts during the trial.

Their testimony depicted a rainy-day dispute after Anthony, an athlete at Centennial High School in Frisco, sat underneath the tent of Memorial High School, where Metcalf was a student and athlete.

Anthony’s track coach testified over the weekend that his team didn’t bring its own tent to the track meet at David Kuykendall Stadium, an athletic facility that serves all of Frisco’s school district.

Most prosecution witnesses said Anthony was the aggressor in the fight that preceded the stabbing. But there were conflicting details in their testimony. While some said Metcalf gave a hard, two-handed push to Anthony before the stabbing, others said it was one-handed, a jab or a tap.

The witnesses said things got heated when Metcalf or others ordered Anthony out of the tent. But they disagreed on whether Metcalf was joined by others, including his twin brother, in trying to get Anthony to leave.

Anthony knew one of the athletes in the tent, 18-year-old Edwin Parra, whom prosecutors called the “common denominator” between Anthony and Memorial High School.

Although Parra tried to distance himself from Anthony in his testimony Saturday, defense attorneys showed photos of him with Anthony at family gatherings, as well as text and other social media messaging between the two.

Roach, the judge, issued a court order prohibiting using the names of any witnesses who were minors.

In Monday testimony, a 17-year-old teammate of Anthony’s said that his team had sought refuge from the rain under the field’s baseball dugout, but soon was ordered to leave by a baseball coach. The rain stopped briefly. But when it restarted, Anthony headed to the Memorial tent, the witness, a Centennial High School rising senior, testified.

Austin Metcalf.
At the trial, a string of witnesses gave accounts of the events leading to Austin Metcalf’s fatal stabbing. Meghan Metcalf

The witness said he was on the field testing his spiked track shoes when yelling suddenly broke out, catching the teen’s attention.

“When I looked up … I heard a sound not like yelling, but louder voices than usual and when I looked over, people were looking back, and so it caught my attention at that point,” he said.