Texas judge denies Karmelo Anthony’s request for new trial in deadly stabbing at track meet

Retrial Bid Rejected: Karmelo Anthony Remains Convicted in Collin County Track-Meet Stabbing

Healfromzero.com – A half-page judicial order issued Saturday out of a Collin County courtroom near Dallas effectively closed the most immediate chapter in the case of Karmelo Anthony, the 19-year-old convicted of murdering a 17-year-old athlete at a high school track meet last spring. Judge Michael Chitty denied the defense’s motion for a new trial after a two-day hearing, leaving Anthony’s June conviction and his 35-year prison sentence intact. The ruling came without elaboration beyond a general reference to the evidence and arguments presented during the proceedings.

The decision ends the fastest available path Anthony’s legal team had toward undoing the verdict, but it does not end the fight. Russell Wilson, Anthony’s attorney, confirmed immediately after the order was read that the defense intends to file an appeal. Wilson framed the next phase in firm, forward-looking terms:

“Our commitment to our client has not changed. We will continue to advocate vigorously on his behalf through every lawful avenue available.”

What the retrial motion argued

The defense built its case for a new trial on two principal grounds. First, attorneys argued that trial judge John Roach imposed courtroom rules so restrictive that they curtailed public access to the proceedings, effectively insulating the jury from outside scrutiny during a trial that had already drawn intense national attention. Second, they sought Roach’s recusal from the case, pointing to a posttrial television interview he gave to a Dallas-area station in which he told reporters the jury “got it right.” Prosecutors pushed back on both points, insisting Roach did nothing improper and that his procedural choices were standard measures to protect a fair trial.

Prosecutor Bill Wirskye used the hearing to defend the original trial as conducted fairly and within the bounds of the law. Collin County District Attorney Greg Willis issued a statement after the denial was announced, underscoring the state’s position:

“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. Every defendant has the right to appeal, and our thoughts and prayers remain with the Metcalf family in the painful wake of last week’s hearing.”

The underlying facts

The killing took place in April 2025 in the bleachers of a high school track meet. Anthony, then 18, stabbed Austin Metcalf, 17, during what the defense characterized as a physical confrontation. Anthony told jurors he was acting in self-defense. The jury, after deliberation, rejected that account and returned a guilty verdict on the murder charge. In June, Roach sentenced Anthony to 35 years behind bars.

Anthony’s attorneys had also sought to have him testify at the retrial hearing, but those plans were ultimately dropped, according to Wilson. The decision to forgo testimony narrowed the hearing to documentary evidence and legal argument rather than live witness examination.

Race, social media, and a case that escaped the courthouse

The trial attracted a level of public attention unusual for a Collin County criminal case, in large part because of a wave of social-media commentary that framed the stabbing in racial terms. Anthony is Black; Metcalf was white. That demographic reality, combined with the viral spread of video and commentary, turned a local homicide into a national conversation within days of the April incident. Families on both sides reported receiving harassment in the aftermath.

Nevertheless, counsel for both sides instructed jurors that the case was to be decided on the facts of the confrontation, not on the race of the parties. The jury’s verdict reflected that instruction: it credited the state’s narrative over Anthony’s self-defense claim.

What happens next

With the retrial motion denied, the defense’s next procedural step is an appeal to a Texas intermediate appellate court. That process typically involves briefing on the trial record, oral argument, and a written opinion that can take many months. An appeal would allow Anthony’s lawyers to challenge legal rulings made by Roach during the original trial, including evidentiary decisions and jury instructions, without requiring a full retrial.

For the Metcalf family, the Saturday ruling offers a measure of finality at the trial level, though the DA’s office acknowledged that the appellate process keeps the case legally alive. For Anthony, locked in a Texas state prison serving a sentence that will carry him into his mid-fifties, the appeal represents the nearest remaining mechanism to contest the verdict. Until a higher court rules otherwise, the jury’s finding of guilt and the 35-year sentence remain the law of the case.