Jury seated in Karmelo Anthony trial over Frisco stabbing death

A Collin County jury convicted Karmelo Anthony of murder in the fatal stabbing of Austin Metcalf, ending a trial that turned on whether a confrontation at a Frisco ISD track meet could be justified as self-defense. Jurors heard from students, investigators and medical experts before rejecting the defense’s account of the April 2025 attack at Kuykendall Stadium.

Frisco police said the confrontation happened at about 10 a.m. on April 2, 2025, in the 6900 block of Stadium Lane. Officers said an altercation between two students ended with one stabbing the other, and first responders performed CPR and administered blood before the 16-year-old victim died; later reporting identified him as Austin Metcalf, while police identified the suspect as 17-year-old Karmelo Anthony of Frisco.

What weakened the self-defense argument was the accumulation of testimony rather than any single turning point. Jury selection began June 1 and a jury was seated June 3, then students who witnessed the confrontation told jurors they did not believe Anthony acted in self-defense. The defense rested June 8 without Anthony taking the stand, and the case went to the jury June 9 after prosecutors pressed a first-degree murder charge that carried a potential sentence of five to 99 years or life, with manslaughter available as a lesser offense.

The case drew national attention because it combined school-event violence, race and public confusion over self-defense law in one closely watched courtroom fight. Outside the Collin County Courthouse in McKinney, Anthony supporters gathered, while Frisco Police Chief David Shilson urged the community to reject misinformation after the killing. The verdict underscores how these trials increasingly turn on eyewitness accounts, medical evidence and whether a defendant’s claim of self-protection survives scrutiny in open court.