19-year-old Karmelo Anthony has been found guilty of murder after stabbing 17-year-old Austin Metcalf to death at a track meet in Frisco, Texas, in April last year. As the sentence was proclaimed, Anthony and his family burst into tears. And just moments earlier, his mother had issued a last desperate 4-word plea to the judge.

Nineteen-year-old Karmelo Anthony has been sentenced to 35 years in prison after being found guilty of murdering 17-year-old Austin Metcalf during a high school track meet in Frisco, Texas, in April 2025.

The case, which shocked communities across the state, centered on a confrontation that ended with Austin losing his life and two families forever changed.

Prosecutors argued throughout the trial that the stabbing was entirely avoidable, describing it as a “senseless” act of violence.

“What is important is not motive. It’s mindset,” prosecutor Bill Wirskye told jurors. “He took a knife to a track meet.”

According to prosecutors, Anthony had multiple opportunities to walk away from the situation but instead chose to remain involved in the confrontation.

Karmelo Anthony sentenced to 35 years in prison

“The video tells the story,” Wirskye said, pointing to surveillance footage and eyewitness testimony presented during the trial.

Anthony’s attorneys painted a very different picture.

Defense lawyer Mike Howard argued that his client acted in self-defense and reacted in a split-second moment of fear.

“Texas law does not require that you wait until you get hit,” Howard told jurors. “In that split second of chaos, you must put yourself in his shoes.”

As the jury considered Anthony’s punishment, his mother, Kala Hayes, made an emotional plea for mercy.

Fighting back tears, she described Anthony as her firstborn child and asked jurors not to define him solely by the tragedy that occurred.

“He’s my oldest. He’s my firstborn. He will always be my baby,” she said.

Mother’s desperate plea

“I know my son, and he’s very sorry for what he did. Please have mercy on my son.”

After less than three hours of deliberation, the jury returned a guilty verdict and ultimately sentenced Anthony to 35 years behind bars.

But some of the most emotional moments came after the verdict, when Austin Metcalf’s family addressed the courtroom.

Austin’s mother, Meghan Metcalf, spoke about the devastating reality of losing her son and the painful silence that has followed his death.

“Now my conversations with him are one-sided, sitting at his grave,” she said. “I have to accept that instead of walking beside me, he’s walking above me.”

She described the everyday reminders of her loss — walking past Austin’s empty room, seeing his empty bed, and facing each day without him.

Remembering the kind of person her son was, Meghan called Austin a “morning kid” and a “hugger” who had a gift for bringing people together.

Austin Metcalf described as “peacemaker”

“He was a peacemaker,” she said.

Her final words left the courtroom silent.

“My son was murdered. He didn’t just die.”

For Austin’s loved ones, the sentence marks the end of a lengthy legal battle. But as his mother made clear, no verdict can erase the grief of losing a son whose life was cut tragically short.

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