A Collin County judge has officially denied Karmelo Anthony a new trial in the fatal Frisco track meet stabbing.
On Saturday, retired Judge Michael Chitty rejected the motion following a two-day hearing. Anthony, now 19, was found guilty of murder in June and given 35 years for stabbing 17-year-old Austin Metcalf at an April 2025 high school track meet. He maintained it was self-defense. The jury did not agree.
The original trial judge was recused earlier this week after making public comments that the jury “got it right.” A different judge then heard the new-trial arguments.
The hearing pulled back the curtain on character evidence kept from the original jury:
• School and police records alleged the Metcalf twins had a history of racist graffiti (including phrases like “kill all Black people” and “Heil Hitler”), texts about jumping other students, fights, and roughly 50 documented incidents of violence or racism.
• Prosecutors highlighted texts and records they said showed Anthony talking about knives, fighting, and other violent themes, along with school discipline issues and additional incidents.
Anthony’s lawyers argued an unwritten “gentleman’s agreement” with prosecutors collapsed, which stopped him from taking the stand, limited public and camera access to the trial, produced flawed self-defense instructions, and left the original jury with no Black members.
The judge was not convinced those issues required a new trial. The conviction and 35-year sentence stay in place.
District Attorney Greg Willis said his office expected the denial and stands by the process. Anthony’s appellate team will now take the fight to the Fifth Court of Appeals in Dallas.
The case has already divided people over self-defense claims, race, what a jury should hear, and how fairly the system treated both teens. This ruling is unlikely to settle those arguments.
