The Karmelo Anthony trial in Texas
You may recall the case: 17-year-old Austin Metcalf was stabbed by then-17-year-old Karmelo Anthony (now 19) at a track meet in front of many witnesses. Metcalf was white; Anthony is black.
The trial is not about whether Anthony stabbed him; it’s about why. And in that respect the Anthony defense is very much like the argument Vickrum Digwa tried to mount: that the stabbing was self-defense. Anthony’s definition of self-defense, much like that of Digwa, is the perception of danger even when no real danger was present or even arguably present. In other words, it rests on feelings.
That’s not the way the law of self-defense goes, even if you buy that that’s what Anthony felt in his heart. Mere perception is not enough; there must be some valid and objective reason for that perception. Karmelo’s defense lawyers are presenting this approach, and tomorrow will be closing arguments:
Prosecutors say the stabbing was an unjustified attack stemming from an argument over whether Anthony could be under the tent of Metcalf’s team.
Anthony’s attorneys have argued that he acted in self-defense and reacted in fear during a “split-second” moment after Metcalf made physical contact.
The jury heard from defense witnesses on Monday, including one of Anthony’s former teammates who was at the track meet when the fatal confrontation unfolded.
One of Anthony’s teammates, testifying Monday, said Anthony was “distraught” after the stabbing.
“I was hearing him say, ‘I told him not to touch me,’” the witness said.
So what?
From what I’ve read, evidence in this trial paints a picture of Anthony as the aggressor. He had come into the other team’s tent and refused to leave although asked many times, and then this happened:
Prosecutors previously called more than 20 witnesses, including students who were at the meet and a medical examiner who testified that Metcalf was stabbed through the heart. …
One teen recalled Anthony telling Austin, “Touch me and find out,” and described both teenagers as angry, though he characterized Anthony as the one provoking the situation. He said Austin eventually pushed Anthony, after which Anthony pulled a knife from his backpack and stabbed Austin in the chest.
It seems to me that, both in the Digwa case and this case, the person doing the stabbing was highly reactive and ready to kill at the slightest provocation, which included anything perceived as “dissing” him. That’s not self-defense in the legal sense. That’s a murderer in the making.
Anthony has his champions among the public, and jury selection and race has been an issue. If Anthony is sentenced, I bet that will be one set of grounds for his appeal:
The trial, which is expected to last about two weeks, has drawn significant political scrutiny, with racially charged demonstrations calling for Anthony to ‘walk free.’
A panel of 12 jurors and six alternates was selected after roughly 600 prospective jurors were questioned during a selection process that began Monday. No black jurors were seated on the final jury.
Why no black jurors? Here’s some information on that:
Dewey had to remind panelists that nobody would get “in trouble” for revealing their feelings about the hot-button case, which the Anthony family, who are black, claimed is a product of “white supremacy.”
With that sort of attitude on the family’s part, it’s not hard to see why Anthony might have been so primed to strike.
As for the potential jurors:
“He looks like a child,” several said in questioning relayed by WFAA, when asked if they could consider a life sentence for the teen, who has been charged with first-degree murder.
“I don’t think I can make a decision about somebody so young. One mistake, one argument, one conflict, you can’t say he’s a bad person,” one potential juror told Assistant District Attorney Dewey Mitchell. …
Mitchell asked panelists how they feel about this statement: “I don’t feel comfortable finding an African American male guilty of murder.”
“I don’t know if I feel right putting a brother in jail,” one candidate stated, according to WFAA.
Perhaps they’re also afraid of being doxxed if they’re on a jury that convicts Anthony.
It’s a sad commentary on contemporary black culture in which a request to leave a restricted area and a push on the shoulder are considered valid excuses for murder. At no time was Anthony in danger for his life, and he knew that.
Fortunately this trial is in Texas, not Minneapolis.
Wait and see. It’s going to be hard for there not to be “payback” (i.e. riots and juror doxxing) if the jury convicts.
Large swathes of the black community doesn’t know what else to do.
I have not found a mainstream news outlet that has pointed out that while no blacks were selected for the jury, the jury has a rather varied composition. Here is one report that makes a false claim.All-White Jury in Karmelo Anthony Trial Draws Immediate Backlash
THE JURY IN THE KARMELO ANTHONY TRIAL IS NOT “ALL WHITE.”
Photo included.
Marla Hohner
You’d think if your client stabbed someone to death in front of a scrum of eyewitnesses and a security camera that you’d negotiate a plea bargain. I’m not understanding why one was not concluded: did the family veto that, or is the defense counsel a Ben Crump style race grifter, or did the prosecutor refuse to bargain, or did the defense / family insist as a part of the agreement that he serve little time? I’ll wager the defense’s strategy included getting a critical mass of black jurors seated and appealing to them to produce a mistrial; what’s thrown a spanner into their works was that the blacks among the prospective jurors managed to get themselves dismissed for cause.
Replace: “I don’t know if I feel right putting a brother in jail.”
with” “I don’t know if I feel right putting a white guy in jail.”
and watch all hell break out!
Kate: “Fortunately this trial is in Texas, not Minneapolis.”
… And John Guilfoyle:
“Wait and see. It’s going to be hard for there not to be “payback” (i.e. riots and juror doxxing) if the jury convicts.
Large swathes of the black community doesn’t know what else to do.”
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Texas is not Minnesota, that’s true.
But the leftist big cities — including their suburbs — are vastly woke, idiot-run hellholes.
If Anthony is convicted and gets a reasonable, long sentence, I expect another BLM riot-filled summer.
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Texas is not a “safe” red state.
Texas doesn’t have Tampon Timmy.
However this case goes, the larger question – which absolutely will not be addressed, or even mentioned, by anyone in legacy media or officialdom – is “why is black culture in America so severely dysfunctional, can it be rectified, and, if so, how?”
The family went all in on self-defense from the beginning. They’ve made money fundraising for his defense. If they allowed their son to plead guilty; they’ll lose that income and potential earnings from their son being a living martyr.
Get ready for the massive riots that will occur if Marcelo Anthony is found guilty. The democrats would welcome such a scenario.
If the victim had been black, the media would have ignored the entire incident .
Recall the black women recently murdered by a black criminal on an Atlanta metro platform; the media stopped any coverage within one day.
One cannot hate the media too much.
But how will Low T Talrico twist the Gospel to prove that you should murder your neighbor?
Marlene, you may be right. I am not too familiar with Texas geography. Frisco, I now learn, is on the northern fringe of the Dallas metro area. There could be trouble.
Along with Art Deco, I wonder why there was no plea agreement, considering the strength of the evidence. The defense attorney, with nothing helpful to work with, suggested that the victim lunged forward and impaled himself on Anthony’s knife. Nobody thinks that will fly. We’ll see.
It’s a sad commentary on contemporary black culture in which a request to leave a restricted area and a push on the shoulder are considered valid excuses for murder.
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An exasperated commentary on Anthony’s family, Anthony’s legal counsel, and on the numbnutzes putting cash into his GoFundMe. I think I’d leave the other 40 million or so out of the assessment for the time being.
Get ready for the massive riots that will occur if Marcelo Anthony is found guilty. The democrats would welcome such a scenario.
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Karmelo Anthony.
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“Massive riots” occur only when politicians insist police forces not do their jobs (and, on occasion, when police forces are severely undermanned or skill deficient).
“why is black culture in America so severely dysfunctional, can it be rectified, and, if so, how?”
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The function of the state is order maintenance, implementation of a formal regulatory architecture for society (which includes suppressing collusion among producers), contriving ways to contain externalities from productive activity, management of common property resources, production of public goods, and animating an ethic of common provision in society. Activities of the state may influence culture, though often not in readily discernible or predictable ways.
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There are salutary public policies (which may or may not influence culture in agreeable ways). Those of the Democratic Party are dead set against such policies. Always and everywhere.
He went into the opposing high school tent intending to provoke. That is why he had a knife.
Would be interesting to know what classmates say about Anthony’s personality. Every high school has students who are ready to instigate and fight any time, anywhere.
He may be one to carry a knife as a matter of course.
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Sitting under the other team’s tent was an aggressive move.
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Back in 1983, a teacher with the Rochester City School district was stabbed to death by a student he was reprimanding. The teacher in question was assigned to a program for poor performers which included morning gym classes. The student sauntered in late (as he had before); he also stank of liquor. While Mr. Castle was giving him the business, he pulls out a knife and stabs him. (Among the teachers witnessing this was a friend of my sister’s). I don’t recall there was any attempt by any actor at the time to pass this off as self-defense.
> Sitting under the other team’s tent was an aggressive move.
The word is that he was invited into the other tent.
Another note about the juror selection. Three other black jurors were rejected by the prosecutor because they were teachers. I don’t know if that’s the real reason, but that was the stated reason, and the judge overruled the defense’s objections on the matter.
Rick Gutleber:
It was reported on the Intertubes (Instapundit?) that the teachers were excluded specifically because of their occupational bias to consider youths as deserving second chances for seriously bad behavior.
Age being a get out/stay out of jail card. Teachers are unlikely to convict a “youth” for murder if sentance is decades+ incarceration.
Empathy trumps discernment.
For some knowledgeable commentary on the trial, check out Atty Andrew Branca at Law of self-defense.com He is evaluating testimony against the backdrop of actual self-defense law, statute and case decisions. A lot of his work is available on YouTube.
Some of you here may be aware of him. If you own a firearm for home defense, or carry a firearm, you should have a copy of his book. He is giving it away (although you pay the shipping) at the website. I receive no compensation of any sort for the foregoing crass commercial message.
that the teachers were excluded specifically because of their occupational bias to consider youths as deserving second chances for seriously bad behavior.
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I don’t think that’s a structural feature of working as a teacher, but rather is a function of institutional cultures manifest in schools and in the teacher training apparat. People who are repelled by the fatuity of it get out. “A second chance” is a fuddled notion. The offender properly gets his 2d chance after he is punished for his first offense.
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IMO, a sensible system of punishment incorporates formulae which enhance penalties for recidivist offenders and provide dispensations for youth. The enhancements do not start on a base of zero and the dispensations do not extinguish penalties altogether.
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I’m not sold on the notion that 42 year old lady teachers have much empathy for male youth of any description, much less aggressive characters like Anthony. The school’s athletic director might, but they don’t. A different set of emotions is at work here.
Rick Gutleber
Source? Note that even something is “documented” by being on the Internet, that “documented” statement may well be false. See my post above on the so-called “All White Jury.”
I heard about branca back during the zimmerman case, when he was one of the few authorities worth considering
All the ones that got it wrong were rewarded with more books podcasts and other recognition
I’ve read that it’s off the table, but I’m thinking that if Karmelo Anthony is convicted, justice would entail him being sentenced to death and speedily executed.
The alternative verdicts are murder, manslaughter, or acquittal. On the first, possible sentence of life in prison; on the second, possible twenty years in prison.
The jury has returned a verdict. That was fast. I imagine it will be a conviction.
The law, a trial, and a verdict don’t necessarily result in justice.
Fox News says Anthony has been convicted of murder. They also report that the jury will decide on Anthony’s sentence.
There is a smallish crowd outside the courthouse. One person has been detained in a fight.
Per the Daily Mail, the verdict is guilty. By their account Anthony and his family are in tears.
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Not clear whether they convicted him of 1st degree murder or a lesser included offense.
It was murder, per CNN, which adds: “While most states have a distinction between first-degree murder and second-degree murder, the state of Texas does not. Texas law only creates a difference between capital murder and murder.” So in this case was between murder and manslaughter, or it may be called criminally negligent (or reckless?) homicide.
According to this, the jury now proceeds to the sentencing phase immediately. That process is now underway.
https://hotair.com/john-s-2/2026/06/09/verdict-reached-in-the-karmelo-anthony-case-n3815782
This Dallas-Fort Worth site has a live blog on the sentencing. The state has agreed to have “sudden passion” added among the items to be considered. If the jury accepts this addition, the possible sentence is reduced from a maximum of 99 years to a maximum of twenty.
https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/closing-arguments-expected-tuesday-in-karmelo-anthonys-murder-trial/4033724/?cardId=1:8:4034234
Interesting experience. I knew virtually nothing about the case. Now it’s blowing up on all news sources because there is a verdict. I came here to learn about it. This is a wonderful place to learn about things.
Place your bets ,, I say since he got murder , they negotiated a short sentence he’s out in 10 .
Well, the intelligence quotient of the comment thread just took a nose dive.