Texas judge rejects Karmelo Anthony retrial bid after hearing exposes disputed deal over evidence
BY Bond Mayers I SCN NEWS
DALLAS — A Texas judge on Saturday denied Karmelo Anthony a new trial in the fatal stabbing of 17-year-old Austin Metcalf, leaving intact a murder conviction and 35-year prison sentence after a two-day hearing exposed an unusual dispute over how prosecutors and defense lawyers agreed to handle potentially damaging evidence during one of the country's most closely watched juvenile-related murder cases.
Judge Michael Chitty rejected Anthony's motion in a brief order after reviewing testimony and arguments presented during hearings near Dallas. Anthony, now 19, was convicted in June of murdering Metcalf during an April 2025 confrontation at a high school track meet in Frisco, Texas. Jurors rejected Anthony's argument that he acted in self-defense.
The new-trial fight, however, focused less on whether Anthony stabbed Metcalf — a fact that was not disputed — and more on whether decisions surrounding the original trial deprived him of a fair opportunity to present his defense. Anthony's new lawyer, Russell Wilson, argued that an informal understanding between the original prosecution and defense teams over potentially inflammatory evidence affected the defense strategy and ultimately contributed to Anthony not taking the witness stand.
Testimony during the hearing revealed that lawyers on opposing sides had discussed keeping potentially damaging character evidence involving both teenagers away from the jury. The arrangement was not a formal written agreement, and the two sides disputed its precise terms and whether prosecutors later violated it. The evidence excluded from the murder trial included allegations unrelated to the fatal confrontation that could have substantially changed how jurors viewed either Anthony or Metcalf.
That distinction is important. None of the newly discussed material changes the established fact that Anthony fatally stabbed Metcalf, nor did Chitty's ruling make new findings about either teenager's character. The issue before the court was whether the handling of evidence and other trial decisions were serious enough to justify throwing out the conviction and starting again.
Anthony's lawyers argued that uncertainty over what prosecutors might introduce if he testified affected his decision to remain silent during the original trial. That was particularly significant because Anthony's defense rested on self-defense, meaning his own explanation of what he believed was happening during the confrontation potentially could have been important to jurors evaluating his state of mind. Prosecutors maintained that Anthony received a fair trial and that the jury had sufficient evidence to determine what happened.
Witnesses at the original trial testified that the confrontation began after Anthony was asked to leave another school's team tent during the track meet. The encounter escalated physically before Anthony stabbed Metcalf once in the chest. Anthony acknowledged the stabbing at the scene and later maintained that he believed he was defending himself, but prosecutors argued his use of deadly force was unjustified. The jury agreed and convicted him of murder.
The retrial proceedings had already produced one significant victory for Anthony before Saturday's defeat. State District Judge John Roach Jr., who presided over the murder trial, was removed from handling the post-trial proceedings after the defense challenged his impartiality. The challenge followed a television interview in which Roach said jurors had “got it right” in reaching their verdict.
Visiting Judge Sid Harle ruled that Roach should be recused, saying the issue was whether his impartiality could reasonably be questioned rather than whether he personally believed he could remain fair. Chitty was then assigned to decide the new-trial motion. The change of judge gave Anthony's lawyers a fresh hearing on their claims but ultimately did not produce the result they sought.
Saturday's ruling leaves Anthony's conviction and sentence intact, but it does not end the case. Wilson said the defense intends to appeal, shifting the legal battle from an attempt to persuade the trial court to reopen the case toward a broader appellate challenge to the conviction and proceedings that produced it.
Collin County District Attorney Greg Willis welcomed the decision and said prosecutors remained confident that Anthony had received a fair trial. The district attorney's office also acknowledged the continuing grief surrounding Metcalf's death, which has remained at the centre of a case that generated national attention, political commentary and harassment directed at both families.
The case has also repeatedly been pulled into America's racial and political debate because Anthony is Black and Metcalf was white. Both sides in the original proceedings said race was not part of their legal case, and the new-trial ruling does not establish a racial motive for the killing. SCN NEWS therefore does not treat racial narratives circulating around the case as established evidence about what caused the confrontation.
The more consequential development is procedural. A judge has now rejected Anthony's attempt to overturn his conviction even after another judge removed the original trial judge and a subsequent hearing brought previously undisclosed disagreements over trial strategy and excluded evidence into public view.
For Anthony, that means the legal path has narrowed but not closed. His 35-year sentence remains in force, while his lawyers prepare to ask an appellate court whether issues they say compromised the original proceedings require the conviction to be reconsidered.
For Metcalf's family, Saturday's ruling preserves the verdict reached by the Collin County jury more than a year after the 17-year-old was killed at what should have been an ordinary high school sporting event.
The next major decision will therefore no longer come from the trial courtroom. It will come through Anthony's appeal — where the disputed evidence agreement, his decision not to testify and other claims about the fairness of the original proceedings are likely to form the next stage of the case.
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The strongest development is not simply that the retrial was denied.
Within the same week, Anthony first succeeded in having original trial Judge John Roach removed after Roach publicly said the jury “got it right.” Then a new judge heard testimony about an informal arrangement between prosecutors and defense lawyers to keep potentially inflammatory background evidence concerning both teenagers away from the jury — but still concluded there was insufficient basis to grant a new trial.