Karmelo Anthony's parents speak out after murder conviction in Texas stabbing case

Karmelo Anthony’s parents stepped into the center of a case that has already become bigger than one Texas courtroom. Hours after a Collin County jury convicted the 19-year-old of murder and a judge sentenced him to 35 years in prison, Kayla Hayes and Andrew Anthony spoke publicly about the son they say the trial did not fully capture.

The verdict ended a case that began at Kuykendall Stadium in Frisco, Texas, on April 2, 2025, when Austin Metcalf, 17, was fatally stabbed during a high school track meet. The killing drew intense attention far beyond Collin County, in part because it unfolded in a youth sports setting that parents and school officials recognize as ordinary and tightly supervised, and in part because the defense and public debate quickly turned to questions of self-defense, race and how violence between teenagers should be judged in court.

In the interview, Anthony’s mother said he "didn't intend to hurt anyone." That statement, and the decision by CBS News to air the parents’ comments after the verdict, underscored how the case has moved into the familiar American pattern in which a teen homicide becomes both a legal proceeding and a public morality drama. The emotional claims made by family members may shape the public narrative, but they do not alter the jury’s finding of guilt or the 35-year sentence imposed in Collin County.

The sentencing also brought a separate moment for the Metcalf family. Austin Metcalf’s relatives delivered victim-impact statements in court, giving the proceeding a second emotional axis: one family describing loss, the other trying to preserve its son’s humanity in the face of a murder conviction. That contrast has helped make the case a national flashpoint, especially as arguments over self-defense and race continue to follow it.

Anthony has already filed a notice to appeal, setting up the next legal stage in a case that is still far from over. For now, the central facts remain fixed: a 17-year-old athlete was killed at a track meet, a jury found Anthony guilty of murder, and the sentence stands at 35 years. What the parents said after the verdict may matter politically and socially, but it does not change the weight of the judgment handed down in Texas.