The trial of Karmelo Anthony took another turn this week when new defense attorneys revealed evidence that was kept from jurors during the original proceedings, raising questions about a behind-the-scenes agreement and whether his conviction should stand.
The case centers on the April 2025 stabbing death of 17-year-old Austin Metcalf at a high school track meet, for which Anthony was convicted and sentenced to 35 years in prison. His new legal team argues the trial was compromised by undisclosed deals that kept significant character evidence out of front of the jury. That claim prompted hearings where prosecutors and witnesses described an off-the-record understanding aimed at limiting what jurors would hear. Those hearings produced social media and text evidence that was not part of the June trial record.
Prosecutor Bill Wirskye testified about the informal arrangement, characterizing it as an effort to “keep things clean.” The essence of the deal, according to Wirskye, was to avoid delving into “historical character” and instead focus strictly on what happened at the event in question. Defense attorneys now say that restriction prevented the jury from seeing a broader pattern of behavior that could be relevant to motive, threat, and state of mind. The new team argues that withholding such material undermined Anthony’s right to a fair process, because the jury never heard context prosecutors later presented at the hearings.
The deal was “keep things clean,” prosecutor Bill Wirskye said from the stand as Anthony’s new attorney Russell Wilson grilled him about the alleged “shadow docket” Wilson claims corrupted the June proceedings.
At the hearing, prosecutors disclosed disturbing texts and photos that were never shown to jurors, including messages in which Anthony allegedly threatened violence. One revealed text reads, “imma shoot the school up tmr,” and prosecutors say it came from 2023. That message surfaced during the recent Collin County hearing and was presented publicly after being excluded during the trial. The defense is now asking whether keeping such messages from the jury prevented a full understanding of Anthony’s behavior and state of mind leading up to the incident.
Additional evidence revealed included a photo of a knife sent to an ex-girlfriend and accounts that she told a school official she felt stalked by Anthony hours before the fatal stabbing. Prosecutors described a pattern of violent talk and conduct on Anthony’s phone, saying he wrote about enjoying punching people and spoke of “seeing red” and “blacking out” when angry. Multiple messages allegedly referenced guns and recurring threats toward a girlfriend, and one chilling line described licking blood off a blade. Those details were not presented to jurors during the conviction phase.
Witnesses at the hearing also described a documented history of fights and behavioral issues serious enough that Anthony’s parents enrolled him in a specialized program at LSU for youths who could not “keep their hands to themselves.” Prosecutors stressed an obsession with weapons and violent fantasies, saying Anthony had written about stabbing someone and the aftermath in graphic terms. Defense counsel countered that these excerpts were taken out of context or were unreliable, and argued that jurors should have been allowed to weigh them alongside the factual evidence from the April incident.
Karmelo Anthony talked about shooting up his school in a trove of disturbing texts that a backroom deal kept out of the courtroom during his June murder trial, prosecutors said on Friday.
“”imma shoot the school up tmr,” Anthony wrote in a 2023 text that prosecutors revealed in Collin County, Texas, during a hearing to determine if Austin Metcalf’s convicted killer will be granted a new trial, according to WFAA.
Defense attorneys pushed the court to find that the earlier trial’s limited scope prevented full consideration of these communications and relationships, arguing the jury was not given the full picture. Prosecutors maintained that the prior agreement sought to avoid sensationalizing past conduct and to keep focus on the central facts of the fatal encounter. The judge heard arguments over whether excluding this material influenced jurors improperly and whether it rises to the level of a reversible error.
The hearing concluded on Friday, and the judge said he would announce a decision on whether to grant a new trial. If the judge finds the off-the-record arrangements affected the fairness of proceedings, the conviction could be set aside and Anthony might face a retrial with a wider evidentiary scope. Until then, the case remains in legal limbo, with both sides presenting starkly different views of what jurors should have been allowed to consider.
https://x.com/nypost/status/2090986749207990759
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