Austin Metcalf’s father stared down and scolded “despicable” Karmelo Anthony when his son’s killer refused to look him in the eyes during his emotional victim impact statement.
Jeff Metcalf demanded that Anthony, 19, ‘don’t look down’ after he was found guilty of first-degree murder in the fatal stabbing of 17-year-old Metcalf earlier Monday afternoon in a Collins County, Texas courthouse.
“We were robbed!” the elder Metcalf cried out as he told Anthony to face him, according to WFAA, “Don’t look down!”
Anthony had been hanging his head down during the impact statements and refused to look at the Metcalf family members, which included Austin’s father, mother, and twin brother Hunter.
“My boys weren’t bullies,” Metcalf said, referring to the claims made against both Austin and Hunter that they had targeted Anthony for sitting under their school tent at Kuykendall Stadium in Frisco, Texas.
“My son’s death destroyed the person I used to be,” he said. “He does not exist anymore.”
“People think grief is sadness, it is not. It is rage. Pure unfiltered rage,” Metcalf said as he slammed his fist against the table, angrily shouting, the outlet reported.
“You failed your parents, you failed yourself, and you failed society… You don’t belong in this community,” he told Anthony. “A piece of me died with my son, and I’m expected to keep living.
“You’re going to prison. I forgave you the day it happened. I don’t forgive what you did,” he added. “You can’t look me in the eyes but you can stab my f–king son!”
Metcalf had been silenced by a gag order by the court for opposing the decision to place Anthony on house arrest while awaiting trial.
He blamed the teen’s crazed supporters for swatting his home six times.
The outraged Metcalf briefly mentioned the pro-Karmelo Anthony protesters who had formed outside the courthouse as he shot down the group’s claims that the trial was racist against a young black teen who had committed the stabbing in self-defense.
“This was never about race,” he said. “It is about right and wrong. The public’s response sickens me… The moral decay is frightening.”
Metcalf concluded by speaking to his son, “RIP Austin Metcalf, love pops.”
Metcalf kept his glare directed at Anthony as he walked away from the stand, coming within two feet of his son’s killer, according to the outlet.
Austin Metcalf’s mother, Meghan, directed her anger toward Anthony about what she had lost because of the fatal stabbing.
“We will never know what our future could have been,” the heartbroken mother said, fighting through tears. “For journalists, activists, this is a story. For our family, this is our reality.
“There was a part of him you can never take from me, the strength I still get from him every day, because I know what it was like to be loved by him. My son was murdered. He didn’t just die. He was taken from us. Just as he was starting to live,” Meghan said.
Meghan Metcalf shredded the seemingly reduced sentence handed down on Anthony, who had been facing a maximum of 99 years in jail.
“You may have just been given a sentence of 35 years, you should feel lucky because I’ve been sentenced to a life without my son.”
The jury deliberated for about three hours before they gave the guilty verdict. They again deliberated for another three hours before returning with the three-decade-long sentence.
During the sentencing phase, the jury weighed the potential extenuating circumstances of “sudden passion” – crimes committed in the heat of the moment that, in Texas, spell lighter sentences.
Hunter, who was born two minutes after Austin, shared his own emotional statement to the court.
“You took a son, a brother, a friend, and my best friend, from this world. You took someone from me who was supposed to be an uncle, godfather to my kids. Now I want everything taken from you,” Hunter choked.
After the hearing, Anthony’s mother, Kala, and his brother blasted the killer’s conviction and sentence as “racist and biased” to cheering supporters who chanted “free Karmelo.”
