Texas jury convicts Karmelo Anthony in fatal school track stabbing

A districtwide track meet in Frisco turned deadly in seconds, and the courtroom response was just as stark: a Collin County jury found Karmelo Anthony guilty of murder and sentenced him to 35 years in prison. The verdict closed a case that has become a national warning about school-event security, youth violence prevention and how quickly a familiar campus gathering can turn into a crime scene.

Austin Metcalf, 17, was an 11th grader at Frisco Memorial High School when he was stabbed on April 2, 2025, at David Kuykendall Stadium during a district track competition. Anthony, then 17 and a student at Frisco Centennial High School, was arrested that day and later indicted for first-degree murder by a Collin County grand jury on June 25, 2025. Under Texas law, he could be charged as an adult because he was 17 at the time.

Jurors heard prosecutors rely on a 911 call and enhanced surveillance video from the stadium as they argued the stabbing was murder, not self-defense. The defense countered that Anthony acted in self-defense and, during punishment deliberations, in sudden passion. After about three hours of deliberation, jurors rejected both arguments and chose a sentence within the five-year-to-life range allowed in a murder case that was not charged as capital murder. Anthony did not face the death penalty or life without parole.

The trial began with jury selection on June 1, 2026, and ended on June 9, more than a year after the killing. That timeline, along with the case’s spread through social media, pushed the incident far beyond Frisco and into the center of broader arguments over race, bail reform and misinformation. Collin County District Attorney Greg Willis said the case struck a deep nerve in the county and beyond.

After sentencing, Metcalf’s family delivered emotional victim impact statements and said they created a scholarship in Austin’s memory. His father also urged the public not to turn the case into a racial issue, while the family said repeated swatting incidents added to their distress. For districts nationwide, the case sharpened questions about how school systems secure athletic events that are usually treated as routine and safe, and whether enough is being done to keep disputes between students from escalating into lethal violence.