Updated

Updated · CNN · Aug 22

Texas Judge Denies Karmelo Anthony New Trial in 17-Year-Old's Stabbing Murder, Upholding 35-Year Sentence

Updated

Updated · CNN · Aug 22

Texas Judge Denies Karmelo Anthony New Trial in 17-Year-Old's Stabbing Murder, Upholding 35-Year Sentence

Q: What hidden evidence in the victim's past was kept from the jury by a secret courtroom deal?

It was not a single confirmed “hidden” item, but a category of evidence the defense says the jury never saw because of an unwritten “gentleman’s agreement” on character evidence. According to testimony at the post-trial hearing, Anthony’s current lawyers argue the deal kept out material they say could have supported self-defense, including school records, social-media posts, and videos involving Austin Metcalf and his twin brother, Hunter. The reporting available does not describe those records in detail or establish any specific past act by Austin Metcalf that was definitively excluded. Prosecutors, meanwhile, said the same agreement was intended to keep the jury from hearing damaging allegations about Anthony’s own history with knives and violence. Former defense lawyer Mike Howard testified that the dispute over how that agreement applied if Anthony testified helped lead to Anthony not taking the stand. So the most accurate answer is that the alleged excluded evidence concerned school records, posts, and videos involving Austin and Hunter Metcalf that the defense claims were relevant to self-defense, but no detailed, verified “secret past” of the victim has been publicly established in the hearing record described so far.

3 articles · Updated · CNN · Aug 22

Judge Michael Chitty rejected Karmelo Anthony’s bid for a new trial after a two-day hearing, leaving intact his June murder conviction in the 2025 stabbing death of 17-year-old Austin Metcalf.
Anthony’s lawyers argued the original trial was unfair because strict courtroom rules limited public access and because trial judge John Roach later said the jury “got it right”; Chitty’s half-page order gave no detailed explanation.
Russell Wilson, Anthony’s attorney, said the defense will appeal, while Collin County prosecutors said the verdict stands and called the original trial fair.
The case drew national attention after social media cast the killing in racial terms, though both sides told jurors race was irrelevant and jurors rejected Anthony’s self-defense claim over the bleacher confrontation at a high school track meet.