Jake Lang, a 31-year-old Florida activist who spent four years in federal prison for his role in the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot before receiving a presidential pardon, now sits in a Collin County, Texas, jail on a $1 million bond, charged with making a terroristic threat against convicted murderer Karmelo Anthony. Court documents obtained exclusively by CBS News Texas lay out the allegation: Lang was recorded on a live stream video outside the Collin County Courthouse in McKinney threatening to kill Anthony with a gunshot to the head.
The charge is a third-degree felony in Texas, carrying two to ten years in prison if Lang is convicted.
Whatever one thinks of the Karmelo Anthony verdict, and there are good reasons to think a 35-year murder sentence for a fatal stabbing at a high school track meet was warranted, threatening to kill a defendant is not justice. It is a crime. And it hands a gift to every activist and politician who wants to paint legitimate concerns about the case as racial extremism.
The alleged threat came on June 4, the first day of testimony in Anthony's murder trial. Hundreds of demonstrators had gathered outside the courthouse. Lang, who had traveled from Florida, stood among them holding a sign reading "White Lives Matter" alongside a photo of Austin Metcalf, the 17-year-old student-athlete Anthony fatally stabbed at Kuykendall Stadium in Frisco on April 2, 2025.
Court documents describe a live stream video in which Lang allegedly said: "He won't be playing basketball. I will be waiting outside this courthouse. Guess what? Headshot. Done."
An unidentified person on the recording then asked: "So, you going to kill Karmelo Anthony?"
Lang's alleged reply, per the court filings: "Yes. Yes, I will."
The Texas Fusion Center, an intelligence unit within the Department of Public Safety, had been covertly monitoring the courthouse, social media, and live streams during the trial. Prosecutors stated that agents used facial recognition technology to identify Lang as the person making the threat on the video.
Lang was arrested while trying to leave Texas. At the time of his arrest, he was already violating a criminal trespass warning he had received two days earlier, which banned him from Collin County Courthouse property for 30 days. He was booked into the Collin County Jail and scheduled for a bond hearing before Judge John Roach Jr., the same judge who presided over Anthony's murder trial and sentencing.
CBS News Texas also reported that Lang has a history of arrests since receiving his pardon from President Trump, though no specifics were provided. Lang has not made any public statement in response to the charge, and no attorney has spoken on his behalf in available reporting.
An online fundraising account in Lang's name has collected nearly $50,000. CBS News Texas noted that the same crowdfunding platform recently shut down an account raising money for Karmelo Anthony's family, a detail that raises its own questions about platform consistency, but does not change the legal facts of Lang's case.
Lang's conduct is not new. Months before the trial, he organized a rally in Austin Metcalf's name under the banner of a group called "Protect White Americans." The rally drew roughly 40 people and resulted in two arrests.
Jeff Metcalf, Austin's father, publicly rejected the event and Lang personally. In an interview with the New York Post, the elder Metcalf called the organizers "race baiters" and said they were pursuing their own agenda.
"That's all they are: Race baiters. F, ing people that wanna spew their narrative for their own agenda. They don't give a s*** about my family."
Jeff Metcalf directed a message at Lang specifically: "You, sir, are part of the f, ing problem. You are not a part of the solution. I don't want anything to do with you."
Those words landed months ago. Lang apparently did not listen. He showed up at the trial anyway, allegedly made a recorded death threat, violated a trespass order, and now faces felony charges in the same courthouse where Anthony was convicted.
The Anthony murder trial was already a charged proceeding. Fox News reported that opening statements drew dueling crowds outside the Collin County Courthouse, with the case framed by some commentators along racial lines. Prosecutor Bill Wirskye told jurors the killing was "a provoked unjustified murder" and had "nothing to do with race." He described Anthony using "a hidden knife, opened in his hand, plunged into Austin Metcalf's chest causing his death, and then ran away."
Defense attorney Mike Howard countered that Anthony was an honor-roll student who "reacts in a split second of fear and chaos" after Metcalf allegedly shoved him. Early evidence included surveillance footage from multiple camera angles and testimony from a forensic video analyst.
The jury ultimately convicted Anthony of murder. He received a 35-year prison sentence that his parents have vowed to fight. Anthony now sits in isolation at Collin County Jail as he begins serving that sentence.
That outcome, a conviction and a serious sentence, is what the legal system produced. The process worked. The family of Austin Metcalf got a measure of accountability, even as Anthony maneuvers for post-conviction legal relief.
Lang's arrest is not a complicated case to evaluate from a conservative standpoint. Threatening to shoot a criminal defendant in the head, on camera, outside a courthouse, during an active trial, is not advocacy. It is not protest. It is not standing up for a murdered teenager. It is a felony, and it should be treated as one.
The damage extends well beyond Lang himself. Every politician and media figure looking to dismiss legitimate outrage over the Metcalf stabbing now has a ready-made exhibit. When figures like Rep. Jasmine Crockett defend Anthony on podcasts, they benefit from being able to point at extremists outside the courthouse rather than answering hard questions about the case itself.
Lang tried to recruit Jeff Metcalf using race-based statistics before the trial. Metcalf refused and said so publicly. Lang showed up anyway. He allegedly made a death threat on a live stream, violated a trespass order, and got himself arrested with a $1 million bond, all while raising nearly $50,000 online from supporters who apparently believe this constitutes fighting for justice.
It does not. It constitutes making yourself the story, handing ammunition to the other side, and disrespecting a grieving family that explicitly asked you to stay away.
Karmelo Anthony was tried, convicted, and sentenced to 35 years for murder. The legal process delivered a result that reflected the evidence. Jake Lang allegedly threatened to circumvent that process with a bullet. The legal system responded to that, too, with an arrest, a felony charge, and a million-dollar bond.
Conservative principles do not require defending everyone who waves a sign on the right side of a courthouse. They require defending the rule of law, even when it means calling out someone who claims to share your values but acts in ways that undermine them.
Austin Metcalf's father understood that. Jake Lang, apparently, did not.
