Details on Karmelo Anthony's sentencing after murder conviction for Texas track meet stabbing

Added: 2026-06-10

[00:00:00]All right, we have been watching CBS News Texas. Carmelo Anthony found guilty of murder for fatally stabbing Austin Metcalfe, a 17-year-old student athlete during a track meet on April 2nd, 2025 in Collin County, Texas. The jury reaching its verdict after hearing testimony from dozens of witnesses over several days. During closing arguments, the judge allowed the jury to consider a lesser manslaughter charge. Under a murder guilty verdict, Anthony faces a punishment range of 5 to 99 years or life in prison, and sentencing could begin right away since the jury came back so quickly.

[00:00:35]Um let's go ahead and now go to CBS News correspondent Jonah Kaplan on the phone uh from McKinney, Texas, north of Dallas. Um so, Jonah, what is it like where you are?

[00:00:47]>> You know, I've been speaking to so many people here, and even if they didn't know the people involved personally, this is still very personal to them. And if you think about any of these high-profile cases, what is it about them that resonates? Sometimes it's the law. Does a verdict show new reaches or new interpretations of the law? Or does it reveal something more about the state of the community, the state of society?

[00:01:11]And here, it's clear that it's the latter. You had two young men, two teenagers, both in involved in high school sports, and an altercation led to then deadly violence. How it started, what those individuals were thinking in that altercation, that's ultimately what the defense and prosecutors tried to argue, and the burden of proof was on the prosecutors to prove that this gentleman, this young man, Carmelo Anthony, who now is 19 years old, had the intent that when he pulled out his knife, he meant to kill this young man uh this this uh young uh other teenager, Austin Metcalfe, 17 years old.

[00:01:56]And so, what you're seeing is a group of people here who say, "No, this is not a fair verdict. How could you say that it was a murder charge when this was an altercation? It was a scuffle. He feared for his life. These are emotional teenagers." And the other side's saying this has nothing to do with race. This has nothing to do with any racial divide or anything more than just a teenager was pissed off and got carried away and wanted to kill a rival.

[00:02:29]>> Yeah.

[00:02:29]And so, Jonah, I had mentioned that the judge had allowed the jury to consider manslaughter. So, let's talk about the definitions because obviously the jury went to the murder charge first-degree felony.

[00:02:42]According to Texas law, it's when the defendant intentionally or knowingly causes the death of an individual.

[00:02:47]Manslaughter is when the defendant recklessly causes the death of an individual. And obviously they had vastly different sentencing guidelines as well. Murder is 5 to 99 years or life in prison. Manslaughter would bring 2 to 20 years in prison. So, let's talk about the sentencing because we've been discussing the fact that Anthony had chosen the jury to decide his sentencing.

[00:03:10]Do you expect that we will know that in short order?

[00:03:15]>> Well, that's certainly I mean a big change, right? I mean we're talking for a 19-year-old young man, you know, 20 years versus life in prison.

[00:03:23]Even if it's on the shorter side, he's not coming out then until he's nearly 40 years old. And so, this is a very heavy ask and a big deal considering what the number of years are going to be.

[00:03:36]In terms of that intense, let's go back to that because one of the pieces of evidence that the prosecutors argued was that the stab wound in itself was a deep stab wound. We're talking about up to 2 inches into the body. And therefore they say that proves that Carmelo Anthony wanted to kill this person. He didn't want to injure him. He didn't want to just, you know, shoo him away or kind of scare him off with with a knife, but he wanted to kill him. And that is what the jury then decided. That was proven beyond a reasonable doubt that that was the intent of Carmelo Anthony all along.

[00:04:12]That the knife was not used just as a deterrent, but instead as a tool to kill and inflict maximum damage.

[00:04:20]>> And we know that from our CBS News Texas station reported that Carmelo Anthony broke down in tears when the verdict was read. His family in the courtroom also cried.

[00:04:31]They also reported that Austin Metcalfe's twin brother Hunter Metcalfe was in the courtroom for that verdict being read for the first time.

[00:04:42]Jonah, any other moments from the trial that stuck out to you that you think we should know about that led us to this?

[00:04:50]>> Well, it's interesting that Carmelo Anthony did not take the stand in his own defense. He could have He could have chosen His attorneys could have chosen to give him the opportunity to speak about his experience and what he remembers from that experience.

[00:05:05]And so, instead, the first-hand witnesses were the other teenagers that were there in this tense and that witnessed the altercation.

[00:05:13]And when we talk about again why this is so personal for a lot of the people in this crowd, the question is why was you know, maybe Austin Metcalfe's friends version of events more believable than Carmelo Anthony? Was it Did Did Did Did Did the jury not trust Carmelo Anthony enough? And is that a greater indicator of other suspicions and maybe some inherent racism in society? A lot of people here would say, "Yes."

[00:05:44]And And that this verdict shows that is the divide we still have to come over.

[00:05:50]Um this like many other trials, sometimes it's about the law, but other times it's about something that is much greater. It's a microcosm for other issues going on, and I think that's what we're seeing here. And the other key to this is not just now what happens with the sentencing, but how are the emotions going to materialize and manifest? And you hope that more emotions don't turn into more violence.

[00:06:16]>> Okay, Jonah Kaplan. Thank you, and keep us posted. And we can also hear more of your reporting tonight on the CBS Evening News.