Karmelo Anthony Tuesday was handed a 35-year-old prison sentence following his conviction for killing Austin Metcalf during a track meet in April 2025

Both were 17 at the time of the murder on April 2, 2025, but under Texas law, he could be and was charged as an adult.

Anthony will now have to serve at least half of the sentence before he is eligible for parole.

Anthony, 19, filed a notice of appeal on Wednesday – less than 24 hours after he learned his fate for fatally stabbing Metcalf in the heart after an exchange of words

Karmelo Anthony, [photo], 19, filed a notice of appeal on Wednesday June 10, less than 24 hours after he was handed a 35-year prison sentence for fatally stabbing Austin Metcalf in the heart after an exchange of words during a track meet in Frisco, Texas

The racially racially polarizing trial of Karmelo Anthony over the April 2025, stabbing death of Austin Metcalf drew national attention, sparking a debate about self-defense and school safety concluded with 19-year-old Anthony receiving a 35-year prison sentence.
Both were 17 at the time of the murder on 2 April 2025, but under Texas law, he could be and was charged as an adult.
Karmelo Anthony filed a notice of appeal on Wednesday, less than 24 hours after he learned his fate for fatally stabbing Metcalf in the heart during a track meet in last year.
His legal team told the court that they would be appealing right after the trial concluded. 
‘We believe there are several important issues for the appellate courts to consider. An appeal is the next part of the legal process and a right afforded every American,’ Mike Howard said. 

Austin Metcalf , [photo], was bled out in his brother’s arms after Anthony stabbed him to death at a track meet in Frisco on April 2, 2025

Anthony was found guilty of fatally stabbing fellow teenager Austin Metcalf at a high school track meet in Frisco, Texas on April 2, 2025.
Anthony walked into the tent of a rival high school at the meet and got into an altercation with Metcalf, which escalated to Anthony pulling a knife from his bag and fatally stabbing Metcalf.
The case has shocked America, especially from a racial standpoint, as Metcalf was white and Anthony is black.
More drama was served up following his conviction.
Anthony sobbed in court on Tuesday, and his family burst into tears as the judge handed down the verdict. 
As opposing counsels argued over the depth of punishment to be meted out to the convict, his mother begged the jury to show him mercy.
Ultimately, the decision was that the teenage would spend three and half decades behind bars, drawing an audible gasp inside the courtroom when his sentence was handed down hours later. 

Karmelo Anthony, [photo], 19, has launched an appeal fighting his 35 year prison sentence for murdering Austin Metcalf, according to newly filed court records

Throughout the trial, Anthony and his legal team have claimed that he stabbed Metcalf in an act of self-defense after they got into a confrontation during a rain delay at the sporting event. 
Metcalf called out Anthony for standing under a tent that did not belong to his school.
Anthony had originally faced between five to 99 years in prison for knifing Metcalf, but after the verdict was passed at the Collin County courthouse on Tuesday, prosecutors agreed to consider ‘sudden passion’ as a factor when determining his sentence.
‘Sudden passion’ is a legal term in Texas that allows a criminal to argue they were in an intense emotional state when they committed wrongdoing. It would have reduced Anthony’s murder to a second-degree felony, for which he could have served as little as two years in prison.
The jury then spent less than three hours to arrive at the guilty verdict.
Following the conviction, the jury had to decide whether to apply the ‘sudden passion’ argument to the case and reduce Anthony’s murder charge or stick to their original verdict. Two and a half hours into the sentencing deliberation, jurors handed down their sentence.
Anthony will now have to serve at least half of the 35-year sentence before he is eligible for parole.

Jeff Metcalf [left], during his victim impact statement, reportedly yelled, beating his fists into the podium as he dared 19-year-old Anthony to look him in the eye while he expressed his grief over losing one of his twin sons, Austin, [right]

The fatal stabbing happened under a tent reserved for Metcalf’s track team. The confrontation began when Metcalf called out Anthony for standing under a tent that did not belong to his school. Witnesses said Anthony was asked to leave at least 15 times by Metcalf and several others, but he chose to stay

Metcalf’s father, Jeff Metcalf, delivered an emotionally intense victim impact statement after his son’s killer was found guilty. 
The senior Metcalf demanded that Anthony look at him as he said: ‘You’re going to prison. You can’t even look me in the eyes right now, but you can stab my f***ing son in the heart,’  as he went further to describe the ‘unfiltered rage’ he feels over his son’s death.
‘If you ask me what my son’s death did to me, I would tell you it destroyed the person I used to be. Not changed me, destroyed me,’ Jeff told the court.
He said he forgave Anthony ‘the day it happened’ but did not forgive ‘what you did.’
Jeff said his family was ‘robbed’ of seeing Austin grow up and regretted he wasn’t there to defend his son at the sporting event in April 2025.
‘People think that grief is sadness but it’s not. It’s rage!!! Pure unfiltered rage,’ Jeff shouted as he slammed his fist down.
‘My son’s death didn’t just break my heart,’ it also destroyed ‘my sense of safety, my faith in people.’
For the victim’s dad, the case – an altercation between a black teenager and a white teenager – was about not about race, rather
the case was about ‘right and wrong,’ he argued.
‘We’re all humans. We all bleed the same color,’ Jeff noted, before addressing Anthony himself. 

Austin Metcalf bled out in the arms of his twin brother Hunter who was also at the track meet. Hunter witnessed the verbal altercation and stabbing

Hunter Metcalf [center] and his mother, Meghan Metcalf, [right], were also in court during Karmelo Anthony’s trial on June 9, Both delivered emotional statements

Metcalf’s mother, Meghan, and his twin brother, Hunter, also delivered emotional statements.
Hunter, who held his brother in his arms while he bled out that day, started off by telling Anthony: ‘If you could just look me in the eye while I speak, I would really respect that.’
But Anthony kept looking down as Hunter said he wanted ‘everything to be taken’ from him. 
‘You took a son, a brother, a friend, and my best friend, from this world,’ Hunter said, getting emotional. ‘You took someone from me who was supposed to be an uncle, godfather to my kids. Now I want everything taken from you.’
Meghan said she was left ‘crushed’ by Austin’s death and seeing the effect it had on Hunter.
‘Seeing my loving son, his identical twin, lose the most important person in his life, it crushes you as a mother,’ she said.
Anthony is being held in isolation away from other inmates as employees take steps to ensure the safety of all inmates in the facility.