U.S. News

The Jury in the Karmelo Anthony Trial Watched the Stabbing Happen on Video

By Erica Coleman · June 6, 2026

The jury that will decide whether Karmelo Anthony committed murder or acted in self-defense has now seen what happened at the Kuykendall Stadium track meet on April 2, 2025. It was recorded. They watched it.

Opening statements began Thursday in Collin County District Court in McKinney, Texas, the first substantive day of proceedings in the murder trial of Karmelo Anthony, 19, charged with first-degree murder in the stabbing death of 17-year-old Austin Metcalf at a Frisco-area high school track meet. Judge John Roach Jr. has banned cameras and live streaming from the courtroom — meaning every development filters out through reporters’ notes rather than televised footage.

What jurors saw during opening statements was the surveillance video that captured the incident. Prosecutors used it to anchor their account of what happened: a dispute over tent space at the track meet escalated, Metcalf and his brother confronted Anthony about using the wrong team’s area, Anthony reached into his bag and warned them — “Touch me and see what happens” — then drew a knife and stabbed Metcalf in the chest. Metcalf died from his injury.

The prosecution’s case is that this was not self-defense. It is that Anthony had a knife, that he issued a warning that functioned as a threat, and that Metcalf’s physical approach — whatever form it took — did not constitute the kind of imminent, unavoidable threat that Texas law requires to justify lethal force. The video, prosecutors argued, shows that sequence.

The defense’s opening argument centered on the self-defense claim Anthony has maintained since his arrest. His attorneys argued that Metcalf was the aggressor, that Anthony genuinely feared for his physical safety, and that the law of self-defense exists precisely for moments when a person believes they have no other option. Anthony told police “I’m not alleged, I did it” immediately after his arrest — and then invoked self-defense. His attorneys have argued those two statements are not contradictory.

The racial dimension that surrounded this case from its public emergence has been present outside the courthouse throughout the proceedings. Anthony is Black. Metcalf was white. The case generated enormous social media engagement driven by narratives that frequently diverged from the actual legal facts. A fundraising campaign raised $600,000 for Anthony’s defense. A separate group held vigils for the Metcalf family. A small white nationalist contingent appeared outside the courthouse Monday. Judge Roach’s media restrictions are widely understood as an attempt to insulate the jury from the trial that has been running on social media for the past 14 months.

The trial is expected to conclude by June 12. If convicted of first-degree murder in Texas, Anthony faces a sentence of five to ninety-nine years.