US4 min(s) read
Published 15:50 04 Jun 2026 GMT
An update has been provided in the murder case of Austin Metcalf, a teenager who was stabbed and killed at a high school athletic event.
The then-17-year-old tragically died in his twin brother's arms during the track meet on April 2, 2025, in Frisco, Texas.
Police initially described the incident as an "altercation between two students" at the David Kuykendall Stadium.
Austin was a 4.0 GPA student, and would sadly be pronounced dead at the hospital soon after being wounded.
In the aftermath, it was reported by CNN that Karmelo Anthony, 17, had been arrested in connection to the stabbing, and he was subsequently charged with murder.
The court case officially began on Thursday (June 4).
The Metcalfs' legal team will argue that the stabbing of Austin was not an act of self-defence, despite Anthony's claims.
Opening statements in the long-awaited trial began on Thursday, after a group of 500 prospective jurors was trimmed down to 12 and six alternates.
Anthony, now 19, was openly criticized on social media after being charged, with the racial background of the suspect and the victim playing a part.
A confrontation took place when witnesses claimed Austin told Anthony to move from his team's tent at the event, which is when tensions flared up.
Austin's twin brother, Hunter, recalled: “We asked him to move. He started getting aggressive and talking reckless.”
Anthony allegedly warned the teen: “Touch me and see what happens,” as he reached into his backpack.
An arrest affidavit revealed that Anthony admitted that "he put his hands on me," adding: “I was protecting myself.”
However, the suspect went as far as reportedly claiming: “I’m not alleged, I did it.”
“Just doesn’t make any sense... just because the kid was mad, my son is not here anymore, and I don’t understand it,” their mother, Meghan Metcalf, said.
It is said that Metcalf grabbed Anthony, who pulled out a pocket knife and stabbed Metcalf in the chest once, and Metcalf would die at the scene in his brother's arms.
Speaking to The US Sun, Eric Faddis, a Colorado-based trial attorney who is not involved in the case, said that eyewitnesses will be key in the case's conclusion.
He explained: “I think it’s going to be critical what other people who were around this incident heard and what they saw because those witnesses are probably disinterested,
“They don’t have an interest in this. They’re not the victim. They’re not the defendant. They are just, hopefully neutral, impartial witnesses.
“So did they hear any threats? What did they see in terms of the body positioning and in terms of physical contact, those kinds of things."
He said that the person who was seen as the "primary aggressor" would be important, adding: “Those are things that are hard to reconstruct a year after the fact. You do so via witnesses. And I think that witness testimony is going to be critical here.”
Following Anthony's alleged claim that he stabbed Metcalf, Faddis believes that this may hurt him in court.
“I think what it does is it forecloses on the possibility of other potential defenses,” he highlighted.
The attorney added: “When you have sort of a chaotic circumstance and something physical happens, you got to prove that it’s the defendant who did it here.
“The defendant gave [prosecutors] that proof that he confessed that he was the one engaged in this activity.
“But on the flip side, perhaps the jury’s going to see that and say, hey, Karmelo Anthony was being straight with police from the beginning.
“He admitted that it was him, and he asserted multiple times that he was doing this to protect himself.”
Anthony has been charged with first-degree murder, and investigators say that the pair did not know each other.
Anthony's defense attorney claimed that his client was defending himself and faced a threat when he was confronted, as they will heavily lean on Texas' self-defence laws.
This removes the duty to retreat if someone reasonably believes that they face a threat of bodily harm.
