A Texas judge has rejected Karmelo Anthony’s request for a new trial, leaving the 19-year-old’s murder conviction and 35-year prison sentence intact following his conviction in the fatal stabbing of fellow student Austin Metcalf.
Retired Kaufman County District Judge Michael Chitty issued the decision Saturday after reviewing Anthony’s motion, the existing court record, evidence, legal briefs and arguments presented during a two-day evidentiary hearing concerning several issues raised by the defense.
Anthony was convicted by a Collin County jury in June after prosecutors accused him of murder in the April 2025 stabbing of 17-year-old Metcalf during an altercation at a high school track meet in Frisco, Texas, while Anthony’s defense maintained that he acted in self-defense.
The latest legal challenge focused heavily on an informal arrangement between prosecutors and Anthony’s original defense attorneys that was intended to keep certain potentially prejudicial character evidence involving both teenagers away from the jury during the murder trial.
Anthony’s new attorneys argued that the disputed agreement became particularly important when Anthony considered testifying in his own defense, because the defense believed prosecutors would honor an understanding that questioning would remain focused on the confrontation at the track meet rather than his broader personal history.
Former defense attorney Mike Howard testified during the hearing that he understood the arrangement would allow Anthony to testify about the incident without opening the door to damaging character evidence, although he acknowledged that the attorneys had never expressly established how the agreement would apply if Anthony took the witness stand.
Howard also testified that he could not determine that prosecutors had acted in bad faith, while former defense attorney Toby Shook said Anthony’s original legal team had similarly believed the arrangement protected testimony related to the confrontation and had expected Anthony to present his account of the incident.
Prosecutor Bill Wirskye disputed the defense interpretation, telling the court that prosecutors and defense attorneys had never worked out specific terms governing Anthony’s testimony and maintaining that the state had not abandoned the informal agreement regarding character evidence.
The hearing also revealed information that the original jury did not hear, including evidence prosecutors possessed concerning Anthony’s history and communications, as well as defense information involving Metcalf’s alleged fighting, bullying and use of racial slurs, with both sides having agreed to keep such material away from jurors.
The agreement was developed amid intense public attention surrounding the case, which involved a Black defendant and a white victim and generated significant racial debate outside the courtroom, although prosecutors and defense attorneys told jurors during the original trial that race was not the cause of the confrontation.
Anthony ultimately did not testify at his trial, and his new legal team argued that uncertainty surrounding the agreement effectively influenced his decision and prevented him from presenting what they described as a complete defense based on his claim of self-defense.
The defense separately challenged restrictions imposed on public access to portions of the proceedings, arguing that those limitations violated Anthony’s constitutional right to a public trial, while also raising concerns about jury instructions that they said improperly affected how jurors could consider self-defense.
The original trial judge, Collin County District Judge John Roach, was removed from further proceedings in the case earlier in the week after another judge determined that circumstances surrounding Roach’s public comments and conduct created a reasonable basis for questioning his impartiality.
Roach had defended several decisions made during Anthony’s trial and publicly stated after the verdict that the jury had reached the correct result, comments that Anthony’s defense cited when seeking his removal from subsequent proceedings.
Judge Chitty’s Saturday order did not provide a detailed explanation for rejecting the new-trial motion, stating instead that the court had reviewed the motion, record, evidence, arguments, briefs and relevant law before determining that the request should be denied.
The ruling does not end Anthony’s legal challenge, because his attorneys can continue contesting the conviction through the direct appellate process after the unsuccessful request for a new trial.
Anthony was 17 at the time of the April 2, 2025, confrontation that ended with Metcalf being fatally stabbed, and the Collin County jury later found him guilty of murder before imposing a 35-year prison sentence after separate deliberations on punishment.
The defense has indicated that it intends to continue pursuing legal remedies, meaning the disputed testimony agreement, courtroom-access restrictions, jury instructions and other claimed trial errors could remain central issues as Anthony’s appeal proceeds.
