By admin 
MCKINNEY, Texas (AP) — The fatal stabbing of a high school athlete at a Texas track competition was “murder plain and simple,” a prosecutor declared Tuesday as a high-profile trial neared a conclusion, leaving jurors to decide whether a tragedy at a community sports event could lead to a life prison term for a teenager.
Karmelo Anthony, now 19, did not testify in his own defense over the killing of Austin Metcalf, whose death in April 2025 stunned Frisco, a booming Dallas suburb where the two students attended different schools.
The courtroom at the Collin County courthouse was packed again as the public passed through an extra security checkpoint to get inside and watch closing arguments.
Jurors heard dueling narratives from prosecutor Bill Wirskye and defense attorney Michael Howard, who repeatedly emphasized that Anthony was defending himself after Metcalf wanted him to exit a tent that belonged to the track team from Frisco Memorial High School.
Howard said Metcalf had “no legal right to put his hands on Karmelo.”
“Texas law does not require that you wait until you get hit,” Howard said. “In that split second of chaos, you must put yourself in his shoes.”
Wirskye suggested it was strange that a teen would bring a knife to a school sports event. He said deadly force has to be “immediately necessary” to be legal.
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“This is not self-defense, folks. It’s murder,” the prosecutor said.
Anthony, who was a student at Frisco’s Centennial High School, could face up to life in prison if convicted of murder. Judge John Roach Jr. said the jury also could consider a lesser charge of manslaughter, which carries a possible sentence of up to 20 years in prison.
Over a nearly weeklong trial, Anthony’s attorneys sought to show that he was forced to defend himself. Several schools were competing on that rainy day, and Metcalf and others had repeatedly told Anthony to leave, witnesses testified, leading to an escalating confrontation.
Trial witnesses described Anthony as the aggressor. Several students testified that Metcalf pushed Anthony, who then pulled out a knife and stabbed him in the chest. Many questions from the lawyers centered on team culture at track meets and the confrontation in the tent.
One teammate told jurors that Anthony was “distraught” after the stabbing.
“I was hearing him say, ‘I told him not to touch me,’” the teenager said.
The judge ordered that the names of teenage witnesses not be made public.
The death last year quickly drew wide attention, in part because of social media posts that amplified the case in racial terms. Anthony is Black; Metcalf was white.
After the stabbing, Jeff Metcalf, Austin’s father, condemned those who seized on the race of the teens. Prosecutors also opened the trial by saying race had nothing to do with the case.