A retired Texas judge denied Karmelo Anthony's motion for a new trial in the stabbing death of 17-year-old Austin Metcalf at a high school track meet, leaving his 35-year prison sentence intact and sending the case to appeal.
Retired District Judge Michael Chitty signed the half-page order Saturday after hearing two days of testimony in McKinney, Texas. The order was filed with the Collin County court on Monday. Chitty reviewed Anthony's motion, the full court record, evidence and arguments from both sides, legal briefs, and relevant case law before ruling. The order itself, as Fox News Digital reported, does not detail the judge's reasoning for the denial.
Anthony, now 19, was convicted by a Collin County jury in June of murdering Metcalf during an altercation at a Frisco, Texas, track meet in April 2025. The jury sentenced him to 35 years in prison. His defense team had sought a retrial on multiple grounds, chief among them, a dispute over an unwritten agreement between prosecutors and defense attorneys that the defense says kept Anthony off the witness stand.
The central argument at the new trial hearing revolved around an off-the-record arrangement between prosecutors and defense lawyers. Both sides agreed before trial to keep damaging character evidence about both teenagers out of the proceedings. The dispute was over what that agreement covered, and whether it extended to Anthony's own testimony.
Former lead defense attorney Mike Howard testified that he understood the agreement to allow Anthony to take the stand and describe the confrontation under the tent at the Frisco track meet without opening the door to character attacks. But when the time came, prosecutors took a different position. Howard said the resulting dispute led to a heated break in proceedings and left Anthony unwilling to testify. Under cross-examination, Howard acknowledged the lawyers never expressly agreed on whether a testifying defendant was covered by the arrangement. He said he could not say whether prosecutors acted in bad faith.
Former defense attorney Toby Shook, who testified on Friday, backed up that account in part. Shook said the original defense team had always expected Anthony to take the stand in support of his self-defense claim, and that the prosecutors' position caught him off guard. During a break, the defense updated Anthony and explained that Judge John Roach, who presided over the trial, said he could not enforce the unwritten agreement. That left Anthony unsure whether testifying would allow prosecutors to introduce character evidence against him.
Lead prosecutor Bill Wirskye disputed the defense's version. He said the lawyers never discussed the specific details of what the agreement would permit if Anthony testified, and that prosecutors remained willing to honor the deal. Wirskye said the state feared testimony from Anthony or his mother could inadvertently open the door to character evidence, a risk neither side wanted.
The defense introduced one pointed piece of evidence: a training presentation Wirskye himself had used in continuing legal education courses on self-defense cases. One slide advised defense lawyers that the client "(probably) needs to testify." The implication was clear, even the lead prosecutor recognized that a self-defense case typically requires the defendant's own account, and Anthony never got to give his.
The hearing itself only happened after a separate legal fight over the judge. Judge Roach, who presided over Anthony's trial, was removed from remaining proceedings by Judge Sid Harle. Harle found that a reasonable outside observer could question whether Roach appeared impartial after Roach publicly told a reporter the jury "got it right" and defended several of his trial decisions.
Roach's post-verdict comments to WFAA TV drew sharp criticism from Anthony's defense team and outside observers. "Yeah, they did, whatever they say, they got it right," Roach told the station, as the New York Post reported. For a judge whose job included ruling on a motion to overturn the very verdict he publicly endorsed, the comments created an obvious problem. Harle, who previously oversaw a trial related to the 2022 Uvalde school shooting, stepped in and assigned Chitty to hear the new trial motion.
Anthony's defense also raised a Sixth Amendment claim, arguing that courtroom access restrictions during the trial violated his right to a public proceeding. A separate challenge targeted jury instructions the defense said limited jurors' ability to consider self-defense. Chitty's order addressed all of these arguments with a single denial and no written explanation.
The case drew national attention well beyond the courtroom. Race became a defining issue after it emerged that the final jury included no Black members. The Washington Examiner reported that Roach had excused three prospective Black jurors during selection, a decision the defense pointed to as further evidence of an unfair trial.
Post-conviction hearings also revealed evidence that was kept from the jury under the terms of the original agreement. That evidence included a 2023 text message in which Anthony wrote, "imma shoot the school up tmr," as well as other material pointing to what prosecutors described as a pattern of troubling behavior. The character evidence agreement cut both ways, it shielded Anthony from damaging material, but it also kept certain information about Metcalf from the jury.
Anthony, a former student-athlete at Frisco Centennial High School, was 17 at the time of the stabbing. Metcalf, a 17-year-old junior at Memorial High School in Frisco, was stabbed in the chest during the altercation and died.
When police confronted Anthony after the stabbing, he made two statements that surfaced during the proceedings. "I was protecting myself. He put his hands on me," Anthony said, and separately: "I'm not alleged, I did it." Those admissions, reported by Breitbart, framed the core tension of the case, Anthony never denied the act, but his defense rested on the claim that he acted in self-defense. Without his testimony, the jury heard the admission but not the full account behind it.
Collin County District Attorney Greg Willis issued a statement after the order was filed, expressing no surprise at the outcome.
"We respect, and expected, the court's decision denying the motion for a new trial. The jury's guilty verdict stands, and we remain confident in the process."
Willis added that every defendant has the right to appeal, and offered thoughts and prayers for the Metcalf family "in the painful wake of last week's hearing."
Anthony's current attorney, Russell Wilson, signaled the fight is far from over. Just The News reported that the defense plans to continue through the appeals process. "Our commitment to our client has not changed," Wilson said. "We will continue to advocate vigorously on his behalf through every lawful avenue available."
Anthony's legal team filed an appeal of his 35-year sentence less than a day after his conviction in June. The denial of the new trial motion now sends the case to direct appeal, where an appellate court will review the trial record and the issues the defense raised.
Hunter Metcalf, Austin's twin brother, defended his brother's memory in an Instagram post after the ruling. He said the media had portrayed Austin unfairly and described him as "the most caring, loyal boy you could ever meet", "a teddy bear" and "the biggest hugger you could ever meet."
The financial and personal toll of the case has extended well beyond the courtroom for both families. For the Metcalfs, the legal proceedings have meant reliving their son's death in public, hearing evidence that was hidden during the trial, and watching the conviction challenged at every turn.
A jury weighed the evidence and returned a verdict. A judge reviewed the record and let it stand. If Anthony's defense believes the system failed him, the appeals court is the right place to make that case. But the facts in the record, the unwritten deal no one put on paper, the testimony that never happened, and the 35-year sentence a jury chose, belong to the process the defense now asks a higher court to second-guess.
