Less than two weeks after a Collin County jury convicted Karmelo Anthony of first-degree murder and sentenced him to 35 years in prison, a Texas court has made the trial evidence public, and the footage leaves little room for doubt about what happened at Memorial High School on April 2, 2025.
The released materials include surveillance video, police body-camera recordings, photographs of the weapon, and a 911 call placed moments after 17-year-old Austin Metcalf was stabbed in the chest. Together, they form a detailed record of a killing that drew national attention and sparked intense debate long before the jury reached its verdict.
The most striking piece of evidence may be the body-camera audio captured after officers restrained Anthony at the scene. A voice, attributed in the New York Post's trial coverage directly to Anthony, states plainly: "I'm not alleged. I did it."
That recorded admission, combined with surveillance footage and witness testimony, helped prosecutors dismantle the self-defense argument Anthony's legal team mounted at trial.
The newly released evidence includes multiple videos documenting activity around a tent at the track meet shortly before the stabbing. Surveillance cameras captured a brief disturbance beneath the tent, followed by an individual identified by investigators as Anthony leaving the area and running down the bleachers.
At trial, prosecutors presented footage from five camera angles at Kuykendall Stadium. Forensic video analyst Mark Porter testified that the footage showed Anthony entering a team tent before rapid movements occurred, then leaving the tent and running across the stadium before a coach stopped him, Fox News reported.
Prosecutors said Anthony used a semi-serrated folding knife, plunging it once into Metcalf's chest. The wound penetrated Metcalf's heart and killed him. Photographs of the knife and of Anthony's backpack are among the materials the court released.
The emergency call, placed moments after the stabbing, captures the raw aftermath. A dispatcher asks, "What did he stab your friend with?" The unidentified caller responds: "I don't know. My friend's bleeding everywhere."
The caller also told dispatchers that the suspect was standing on the track near the scene. Officers arrived shortly after and recorded body-camera footage during Anthony's arrest.
The Collin County jury that convicted Anthony deliberated less than three hours before returning its verdict, rejecting both the self-defense claim and a lesser manslaughter charge.
Anthony's defense attorney, Mike Howard, told jurors that his client "reacts in a split second of fear and chaos." The defense framed the stabbing as a panicked response during a chaotic confrontation after Metcalf shoved Anthony during a dispute over seating at the Frisco, Texas, track meet.
Prosecutors saw it differently. Lead prosecutor Bill Wirskye told the jury that Anthony "used a hidden knife, opened in his hand, plunged into Austin Metcalf's chest causing his death, and then ran away."
The prosecution's case rested on a straightforward principle. As Wirskye put it, according to the AP:
"You don't get to meet a shove with a stab, especially if you provoke the shove."
National Review's editors noted that Anthony had threatened Metcalf before the confrontation, telling him, "Touch me and see what happens." That prior threat, combined with the fact that Metcalf was unarmed, fatally undermined any claim of justified deadly force.
Anthony did not testify at trial. Only his mother, Kala Hayes, spoke during the sentencing phase, telling the court her son was sorry for what he had done.
"He's my oldest, he's my firstborn. He will always be my baby. I love him very much."
Austin Metcalf's father, Jeff Metcalf, addressed Anthony directly after the sentence came down. His words, as in other Texas cases where juries have delivered firm sentences, carried the weight of a family shattered by violence.
"You failed your parents, you failed yourself and you failed society."
The 35-year sentence fell within a range that could have stretched from as few as two years, under a "sudden passion" finding, to life in prison. The jury's choice reflected the seriousness with which it treated the evidence, including the recorded confession, the surveillance footage, and the forensic testimony.
Anthony's legal team has indicated he intends to challenge the verdict on appeal. The specific grounds have not been disclosed publicly.
That appeal will proceed against a backdrop of evidence that is now available for anyone to review. The Texas court's decision to release the materials ensures the public record matches what jurors saw, and what the body-camera audio captured Anthony saying with his own voice.
The case drew significant attention on social media, where some framed it in racial terms. Both sides at trial rejected that narrative, and the jury's swift deliberation suggests the evidence spoke for itself. The week-long trial in Collin County ended with a verdict reached in roughly two and a half hours after the defense rested its sentencing case.
High-profile murder cases often generate more heat than light. Legal proceedings can take unexpected turns on appeal, and Anthony's attorneys will have their chance to argue the case was handled unfairly. But what the newly released footage shows is difficult to argue around: a young man who brought a knife to a track meet, used it to end another teenager's life, and then told the officers who restrained him exactly what he had done.
National Review's editors summarized the jury's work simply: "The citizens who were charged with adjudicating this case were asked to do just that: adjudicate this case. Evidently, they took that task seriously, and called Anthony's crime what it was: murder."
Austin Metcalf was seventeen years old. He went to a track meet. He shoved someone who had threatened him. And for that, he was stabbed through the heart with a folding knife.
The public release of this evidence is a reminder that transparency in the justice system serves everyone, including the family of a boy who will never run another race. When young lives are taken by violence, the public has a right to see the record and judge for itself whether the system worked.
In this case, twelve citizens looked at the footage, listened to the confession, weighed the self-defense claim, and decided in under three hours that it didn't hold up. The system worked. The only tragedy is that it had to.
