MCKINNEY (AP) \u2014 Prosecutors told jurors Thursday that a Texas teenager competing at a high school track meet provoked a 17-year-old athlete from a rival team before fatally stabbing him in the stadium’s bleachers as other students looked on.<\/p>\n
An attorney for Karmelo Anthony said his client did not instigate the fight with Austin Metcalf, telling the jury at the start of a packed murder trial near Dallas that it was instead an act of self-defense.<\/p>\n
Anthony pleaded not guilty over last year’s stabbing, which stunned an affluent suburb where the pair attended school. The death last year<\/a> quickly drew wide attention, in part because of social media posts that amplified the case in racial terms. Anthony, now 19, is Black, while the Metcalf was white.<\/p>\n According to an arrest report, Anthony told police he was protecting himself when the two got into a confrontation during the meet in Frisco, a fast-growing city is dotted by dozens of modern-looking school campuses and gleaming athletic facilities.<\/p>\n But prosecutor Bill Wirskye told jurors it was a \u201csenseless murder\u201d and not a case of self-defense. He called it a \u201csneak, surprise attack\u201d and said Anthony \u201cknows he goaded the murder.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe didn\u2019t want a fight,\u201d Wirskye said of Metcalf.<\/p>\n The jury was seated this week under increased courthouse security and a Collin County judge set strict rules over the proceedings, including prohibiting attorneys from discussing the case publicly. Dozens of people lined up to get a seat in the courtroom Thursday.<\/p>\n The stabbing happened on a rainy morning in April 2025. Witnesses told police the confrontation began when Anthony sat under a tent belonging to Metcalf’s team, according to an arrest report. The teens went to different schools in Frisco.<\/p>\n When Metcalf told Anthony that he needed to move, Anthony reached inside his bag and allegedly replied: \u201cTouch me and see what happens,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n A short time later, Metcalf allegedly grabbed Anthony, who then pulled out a knife and stabbed him in the chest, the report said.<\/p>\n Robert Starr, a track coach at Memorial High School, where Metcalf was a student and athlete, explained to jurors that a tent at a track competition \u201cmarks your spot\u201d and is similar to a team bench in other sports.<\/p>\n \u201cYou just don\u2019t go into someone else\u2019s tent uninvited,\u201d Starr testified.<\/p>\n In his opening remarks, defense attorney Mike Howard said it was Metcalf who made the first contact.<\/p>\n \u201cIn that split second, Melo has a decision to make: how and when to act,\u201d Howard said.<\/p>\n “Self-defense is useless if you wait too late to defend yourself. … He reacts in a split second of fear, chaos,\u201d Howard said.<\/p>\n Starr told the jury that he rushed to the tent when he saw commotion.<\/p>\n \u201cI see Austin on the ground and his face is purple, and he has a big hole in his chest,\u201d the coach said, choking up in the witness chair.<\/p>\n Another area track coach, Vincent Hooper, testified that he put his arm around Anthony and asked what had happened.<\/p>\n Anthony replied that he stabbed someone who had “put his hands on me,\u201d Hooper recalled.<\/p>\n Anthony faces up to life in prison if convicted of murder.<\/p>\n The parents of both teens have said they were good students who planned to go to college. Metcalf’s father has condemned those who seized on the race of the teenagers after the killing.<\/p>\n \u201cThis was not a race thing. This is not a political thing. Please do not comment if you do not know what happened,\u201d Jeff Metcalf said on Fox News’ \u201cAmerica Reports.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThis is a human being thing,\u201d he said. \u201cThis person made a bad choice and it affected both his family and my family forever.\u201d<\/p>\n Authorities have also issued warnings about online discussions surrounding the killing. Frisco Police Chief David Shilson urged people last year to beware of posts spreading \u201cmisinformation, hate, fear, and division.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" MCKINNEY (AP) \u2014 Prosecutors told jurors Thursday that a Texas teenager competing at a high school track meet provoked a 17-year-old athlete from a rival team before fatally stabbing him in the stadium’s bleachers as other students looked on. An attorney for Karmelo Anthony said his client did not instigate the fight with Austin Metcalf, … Continue reading Prosecutor tells jury that teen’s killing at a Texas track meet was murder, not self-defense<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[164],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1512702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-state-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-07 11:46:56","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1512702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1512702"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1512702\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1512704,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1512702\/revisions\/1512704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1512702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1512702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1512702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}