MCKINNEY, Texas (AP) — A lawyer for a Texas teen charged with murder in the fatal stabbing of a high school athlete emphasized self-defense Tuesday, telling jurors that the tragedy at a track meet was linked to the victim aggressively trying to control who could be in a team tent. “Austin Metcalf had no legal right to use force to eject Karmelo Anthony from that tent,” Michael Howard said during closing arguments. “He had no legal right to put his hands on Karmelo.”Anthony, now 19, did not testify in his own defense over the killing of Metcalf, whose death stunned Frisco, a booming Dallas suburb, where the two students attended different schools. If convicted of murder, he faces up to life in prison.Judge John Roach Jr. told the jury that it also could consider a lesser charge of manslaughter when deliberations begin.Over the course of a nearly weeklong trial, Anthony’s attorneys have sought to show that he was forced to defend himself under a tent belonging to the track team of Frisco Memorial High School, where Metcalf was in his junior year.
Several schools were competing on that rainy day in April 2025, and Metcalf and others had repeatedly told Anthony to leave, witnesses testified, leading to an escalating confrontation.
