No New Trial for Karmelo Anthony; 35-Year Sentence Stands
“The Court has determined that the Motion should be denied. It is therefore considered, ordered… that the Motion for New Trial is denied.”
Karmelo Anthony will not get another trial.
Retired District Judge Michael Chitty denied Anthony’s motion Saturday, leaving his murder conviction and 35-year prison sentence in place. Chitty had until Monday to rule but issued his decision ahead of that deadline.
🚨 IT'S OFFICIAL: Convicted m*rderer Karmelo Anthony is NOT getting a retrial, he's facing 35 years in prison for slaughtering Austin Metcalf
He had intent to m*rder, and said, "when I stab, I'm gonna lick their blood off the blade" 😡
Karmelo is frankly LUCKY he isn't in… pic.twitter.com/sQ8EiklylP
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) August 22, 2026
The on-air report revealed more about the character evidence discussed during the new-trial hearing. It included allegations that Austin Metcalf had previously used racial slurs and bullied black classmates, along with violent text messages attributed to Anthony. One read:
“When I stab SB, I’m gonna lick their blood off the blade.”
Attorneys had reached a verbal agreement before the murder trial to keep character evidence involving both teenagers away from the jury. The report said the agreement was meant to avoid further inflaming a case already surrounded by racial tension, threats and protests.
Users posted the signed one-page order on X.
Order Denying New Trial for Karmelo Anthony. pic.twitter.com/bFHsZqfNi8
— J_Lerone Presents (@j_lerone) August 22, 2026
Chitty wrote that he reviewed the motion, court record, evidence, arguments, briefs and relevant case law.
“The Court has determined that the Motion should be denied. It is therefore considered, ordered, and adjudged by the Court that the Motion for New Trial is denied.”
That was the entire explanation.
Anthony’s attorneys argued that courtroom restrictions violated his Sixth Amendment right to a public trial. They also challenged the jury instructions and claimed prosecutors failed to honor the unwritten agreement over character evidence.
Former defense attorney Mike Howard acknowledged that the two sides never expressly agreed on whether Anthony’s testimony would be covered. He also said he could not accuse prosecutors of acting in bad faith.
Anthony was convicted in June of murdering 17-year-old Metcalf during a Frisco high school track meet. His direct appeal can continue. For now, the conviction stands and so do the 35 years.
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Comments
Let the gnashing of teeth begin.
After him throwing false gang signs I am surprised he is still on this side of the ground.
Prison is coming. He was only in jail I believe.
From what I have heard in various commentary over at YouTube, the black gangs have a beef with his pretending to be a gang member, and he is not exactly on the White Aryan Resistance’s Welcome Wagon list.
Since a new judge stepped in (as an objective third party with no personal stake or prior comments on the case), Karmelo won’t be able to claim the hearing was rigged by a biased judge.
Of course he can. The judge didn’t rule in his favor. He is therefore not only biased but racist.
This is black logic.
Which was the point of grabbing a motion that really had no firm basis.
*granting
Any bets on whether he survives thirty-five years in prison?
I have been thinking the same thing.
Poor impulse control, a sassy mouth and a reputation as a guy who likes knife fighting. The odds of running into an inmate who decides to call him out get pretty high over a 35-year period.
If granted credit for time served, he “only” has 17 years and about four months to go before eligible for parole.
The odds of running into an inmate who decides to call him out get pretty high over a 17-year period.
“Eligible” doesn’t mean likely to get. It’s almost unheard of for a murderer in TX to get parole on the first few attempts after he becomes eligible.
at least he was given an appeal–metcalf had none
He can still appeal. This wasn’t an appeal, it was a motion in the same court for a new trial. He lost that, so now he can go to the appeals court. Not that he’s likely to get anywhere with it. He’s pounding the table.
he can appeal … however while that is going on … and on … and on
he isn’t going to be sitting in a jail cell… he will be in a prison cell …
The two strongest arguments on appeal appear to be
A – Baston challenge and
B – the gentlemen’s agreement.
Addressing B – the gentlemen’s agreement. – Everything I have heard has been via social media , so you can credit what ever validity you want to the info. Supposedly, the victim used racial epitaths in the past while karmelo texted he was going to knife someone that morning. Obviously the defense wanted to keep the later out of evidence since that likely would lead to the max sentence.
Addressing the Baston challenge. the prosecution struck on black male from the jury who had indicated he wouldnt convict a “bro” They also struck two black female teachers (high school teachers as I recall). The reason was that teachers are supposedly predisposed to be lax on criminals (ie a high percent of teachers tend to be woke) and thus very unlikely to vote guilty. Additionally this was a HS sports event. Judge Roach accepted that rationale. At the same time, a white teacher was selected to be on the jury , albeit different school system and an elementary school teacher.
My guess is that the baston challenge is unlikely to survive through the texas court of criminal appeals.
Once losing at the Texas court of Criminal appeals, the habus filing goes through either the ND of Texas and/or the CA5. Neither of which are going to be receptive of a baston challenge. Further the current makeup of the SC is unlikely to entertain a petition in a high profile case,
It would have been the absolute height of hilarious irony if he’d managed to get a new trial and then got the death penalty.
Since he committed the crime as a minor (17 years old), he cannot receive the death penalty. That comes from a SCOTUS decision.
But he was tried as an adult
I can’t remember the specific SCOTUS case but involved a teenager who was tried as an adult.
That makes absolutely no difference. The fact remains that he was a minor, and the Supreme Court says it’s unconstitutional to sentence someone to death, or to life without parole, for a crime committed as a minor. Do you think a state can get around a constitutional prohibition simply by saying “Let’s pretend he’s something he isn’t”?!
Even if he had been an adult, the death penalty simply isn’t available for the crimes he was charged with.
Murder?
in Texas it must be Capital Murder
Look up the murder statutes. A simple murder like this has a max penalty of life, with the possibility of parole.
Seems like the DOJ might find something interesting examining the history of his lawyers.
Karmelo’s attorneys will come up with something else to try to get a new trial. One avenue will be that there were no black jurors; I have no idea what else they may try.
In the case of Batson v. Kentucky, the Supreme Court ruled that lack of black jurors, or the racial makeup of a jury is not a basis for a new trial.
The reason for challenging the perspective jurors can be a basis of a new trial, but a jury with no blacks is not a reason for a new child.
And besides, what people don’t realize is the the jury was not comprised of all white jurors.
It included Asian, Indian, and Hispanic members.
<blockquote?And besides, what people don’t realize is the the jury was not comprised of all white jurors.
It included Asian, Indian, and Hispanic members.
To the people outside the courthouse chanting like parrots, that means the jury was “all white:.
The most badly hurt by this denial are his parents. They can’t start another godundme to support their lifestyle.
Sure they can.
But the claim that the original one went to fund their lifestyle and was not used for his defense turned out to be a lie. I don’t remember who started it but it just wasn’t true.
BS, as usual
Yes, it was BS. Thank you for acknowledging that.
Minor quibble. The claim that his lawyer was from the public defender’s office was not true. His attorney was Mike Howard who, while having been a public defender in the past, was a private criminal defense attorney when he was hired by the Anthonys to defend their son. How much of the gofundme money went to him is unknown and probably unknowable for the foreseeable future. I believe his current attorneys are some of Ben Crump’s flying monkeys and working pro bono.
Yes, that claim was also not true. But I’m talking about the claim that was spread, including on this forum, that the family had taken the money from the gofundme and used it to buy a luxury car, move into luxury housing, and other lifestyle spending that had nothing to do with his defense. And that claim was just not true. It was a made-up libelous dirty lie. Gofundme confirmed at the time that not one penny had been paid out of the fund, for any purpose. All the money raised was still there, waiting to be used for his defense, which it eventually was. And here we have people who missed the memo repeating the false story months later. That’s just like claiming that Little Saint Trayvon was attacked, or that Mike “Gentle Giant” Browne was trying to surrender.
Aw. Too bad! But here’s a lovely parting gift!
🩹
From CBS News:
source: https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/new-details-background-karmelo-anthony-retrial-hearing-08-20-2026/
Metcalf was portrayed in the media as being a nice kid, with no issues, blah blah blah.
Anthony’s record is just as bad with fighting, issues with guns, fighting with a teacher, threats to rob a home, threats of punching people indiscriminately, threatening an old girlfriend
Neither of these guys were “choir boys.”
They were thugs at best, criminals at worst,
With Anthony going away for 35 years, and Metcalf not here, there is a part of me that thinks that the world is a better place for both of these lowlifes not being in society anymore.
Not relevant. Anthony still stabbed and killed Metcalf.
Besides, who believes CBS News?
.
The status of the victim has no bearing on a case. Even if you kill another killer inside a prison it is still unlawful homicide and you can be fully charged, prosecuted, and convicted of murder, regardless of the victim’s legal status.
The victim’s alleged propensity to racially inflammatory language is relevant to the likelihood that he provoked this attack.
Relevant and admissible ? Maybe yes maybe no. I would think that if the use of the inflammatory language was related to this incident , or a prior incident involving the same person, it would be relevant and admissible. If it was related to an incident[s] which the karmelo would not have knowledge of, it would not be relevant and thus inadmissible. In this case, there was apparently no indication that he used racial inflamatory language prior to the incident, and thus inadmissible.
One of the allegations against Metcalf was that he had previously attacked another person at a different event for sitting under his team event.
That would seem to indicate that he had a propensity for the type of action he took with Anthony. Metcalf was bigger than Anthony, which could have meant that Anthony was afraid of Metcalf and therefore self defense comes into play.
That is all speculation however as Anthony, in a supposed “gentleman’s agreement” between the prosecutors and the defense team, did not testify. If he had, his texts of wanting to stab someone that day would have come in front of the jury.
The point of my post was not to say that Metcalf deserved to be stabbed or die. Or that Anthony was justified in stabbing Metcalf
My point is that the narratives push by the media were lies. Metcalf was not the choir boy were we told, and Anthony was arguably much worse of a teen than we knew.
We have to wonder why the media lied in this case (and others.) Is it to push a certain narrative for their world view? Is it to sell more papers and views?
Or is it to keep us, as a nation, divided?
People had no issue when CBS reported that Anthony attacked a peaceful, wonderful, Metcalf.
Secondly, the statements on Metcalf are part of court filings. They are not part of some fake “investigative” reporting by CBS.
Thirdly, the relevance is how we, the general public, were lied to about Metcalf and also Anthony. Neither of these guys were “good people” or poster boys for how teens / adults should be and should behave.
fwiw – There is a lot of commentary posted on social media (facebook) about the violence of Metcalf and the racial epitaths. Its hard to ascertain the credibility of social media commentary.
One item to note in the CBS story, there are no links to the actual source documents ie actual school records.
The CBS story doesnt even have links to the secondary source documents which would be the court filings.
Failure to provide links to the source documents, doesnt give me confidence in a fair presentation of the facts. ( one sided view )
Absent a court order, a leak, or Metcalf’s parents authorizing the release of his school disciplinary records (all of which are various degrees of ‘unlikely’), they will not be made public. See the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). That doesn’t mean they do or don’t exist, just that they’re strictly confidential.
There are plenty of other sources that have the filings in which the allegations against Metcalf and additional information on Anthony being even more violent than was ever reported, are detailed.
My post was not to try and say Metcalf deserved to be stabbed or deserved to die.
My point – as I stated – was that the media and the sides tried to paint Metcalf and Anthony were nothing but choir boys.
They weren’t.
We all (or at least many) bought into a narrative pushed by the different parties that was not investigated by the media at all.
“If it bleeds, it leads” is an old saying for the media.
We were lied to by the media who often times seems to want racial strife, violence and blood to continue in order to sell papers or get viewers.
That was my only point.
We were lied to.
I’d love to see a defamation lawsuit.
Anthony had some hack lawyers with a bunch of flair and showmanship but no substance. It would not surprise me if this was disallowed because it wasn’t substantive. Nevermind that it’s also irrelevant.
toby Shook is one of the most highly rated defense attorney’s in texas.
Even if the report turns out not to be true (and that’s unlikely) a defamation suit is not possible, because it was a court filing.
CBS. You are kidding , right?
You nope they get their a$$’es sued off
Would you prefer the Sun or Fox news that reported the same thing?
Metcalf had a violent history. That is something that was not known before as he was presented to the world as some “peaceful, loving, great kid.”
He wasn’t.
At the same time, Anthony’s history and violent tendencies were not known to the extent they are now. His ex-girlfriend reported him to the school that day for making threats about the assistant principal.
The public was lied to about both actors.
That’s the point.
OK. Racial slurs and graffitti are not nice, but murdering someone IS a crime. Give it a rest.
Give what a rest?
Give the truth a rest?
When this case broke, all we heard was how wonderful Metcalf was. He wasn’t. He had a criminal history. He even had an incident similar to this one where he attacked someone from sitting under his team’s tent.
The point is the Metcalf was not the choir boy we were all led to believe.
Anthony’s history was much worse than we were told. He had other incidents that were violent as well.
These facts don’t excuse what happened that day, and don’t excuse Anthony’s guilt.
The overreaching point is how the media lied to every one of us and how we latched onto their narrative – and continue to do so to this day.
There’s no such thing as a bad boy.
Objection Your Honor! A seventeen-year-old with a flick-knife does not meet the OED definition of a boy.
For that matter, I would also posit that a fifteen-year-old with a gun does not meet the definition of “boy” either.
15-year-old arrested in connection to deadly Independence HS shooting
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-Xno65Q5hA
There has to be some Commassar Judge who can resurrect this case? The laws be damned.