Karmelo Anthony appeals 35-year murder sentence in Austin Metcalf stabbing case

Karmelo Anthony has moved his case out of the trial phase and into the much narrower terrain of appeal, filing notice one day after a Collin County jury sentenced him to 35 years in prison for murder. The filing asks the court to appoint appellate counsel because Anthony says he cannot afford a lawyer for the next stage.

The appeal does not reopen the entire tragedy surrounding Austin Metcalf’s death. It shifts the fight to whether the conviction, the punishment and the trial rulings that led to the verdict can survive review. The jury had deliberated for about three hours before returning a unanimous murder verdict, then rejected the defense theory of sudden passion, a finding that left Anthony exposed to the full punishment range available for murder.

The case grew out of the April 2, 2025 stabbing at a high school track meet in Frisco, Texas. Police said the confrontation began as an altercation between two students in the 6900 block of Stadium Lane shortly before 10 a.m. Austin Metcalf was 17 when he died at the scene, despite CPR and blood administration by first responders. Anthony was 17 at the time of the incident and is now 19.

The appeal is likely to focus on the limited issues that can still be challenged after a murder conviction and sentence: what the jury was allowed to hear, how the evidence was presented, whether instructions and rulings were handled properly, and whether the rejection of sudden passion was legally sound. What it cannot do is simply retry the case from scratch or erase the jury’s factual finding that Anthony was guilty of murder.

Outside the courtroom, the fight over the case has been just as intense. Reporting around the trial noted sharp attention to race and jury composition, including the absence of Black jurors after the state struck three potential Black panelists because they were educators. Supporters of Anthony and his family have called the verdict a miscarriage of justice and said video evidence did not match testimony presented at trial.

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice also released a new photo of Anthony on June 10, the same day he filed for appeal. That image will do little to affect the legal questions now in play, but it reinforces how this case has become as much about public perception as appellate procedure. Anthony remains in custody at the Collin County Sheriff’s Office Detention Facility, while the next phase turns on the record the trial judge made and the arguments defense lawyers can still preserve.