AUSTIN Metcalf’s grieving family confronted his killer Karmelo Anthony in court and demanded he looked them in the eye as the teen was jailed for 35 years for the fatal stabbing.

In a series of emotional victim impact statements, Austin’s father Jeff Metcalf stared down Anthony and blasted him for refusing to face the family whose lives he destroyed.

 

 

 

“You’re going to prison,” Jeff told Anthony. “You can’t even look me in the eyes right now, but you can stab my f****ng son in the heart.”

The tense courtroom showdown came moments before Anthony, now 19, was sentenced to 35 years behind bars for murdering 17-year-old Austin at a high school track meet in Frisco, Texas.

Jeff described the “unfiltered rage” he has lived with since his son’s death and told the court he had been “destroyed” by the tragedy.

“People think that grief is sadness but it’s not. IT’S RAGE!!! Pure unfiltered rage,” he shouted.

Addressing Anthony directly, he added: “You’re free to make choices all you want, but you’re not free from those consequences. You will face those consequences starting today.

“You failed your parents, you failed yourself and you failed society. You don’t belong in this community.”

Austin’s twin brother Hunter also pleaded with Anthony to meet his gaze as he delivered a heartbreaking statement about losing his best friend.

“If you could just look me in the eye while I speak, I would really respect that,” Hunter said.

But Anthony kept his head down as Hunter accused him of swallowing evil to take control on the day of the killing.

“You let the devil take over in that moment,” he said.

“Eventually your name will be forgotten, but my brother’s memory will live on.”

Hunter told the court he wanted “everything to be taken” from Anthony after losing the brother he had expected to spend the rest of his life alongside.

 

“You took a son, a brother, a friend, and my best friend, from this world,” he said.

Austin’s mother Meghan said she had effectively received a life sentence of her own following her son’s death.

“You may have just been given a sentence of 35 years behind bars but you can consider yourself lucky because I’ve been sentenced to a lifetime without my son,” she told Anthony.

The powerful statements came after Anthony shook as he was sentenced to prison after a jury rejected a last-minute “passion” plea.

A 12-person jury had convicted Anthony earlier on Tuesday afternoon of first-degree murder for the April 3, 2025, killing of Austin Metcalf, who was knifed in the chest and died in the hands of his twin brother.

Jurors deliberated for roughly three hours before convicting Anthony of the top charge after Judge John Roach allowed them to consider a lesser crime of manslaughter when they were handed the case.

Anthony broke down in tears after the verdict was read in the courtroom on Tuesday afternoon.

He again sobbed and held his head down as he reentered the courtroom for his sentencing just hours later, as tensions flared beween protesters outside.

The death penalty had been thrown out in the case as Anthony was a minor at the time, leacving him facing five to 99 years in jail on the murder conviction.

But the jurors were instructed to take a “sudden passion” claim into consideration just before they began their sentencing deliberation.

If all 12 jurors agreed that Anthony’s actions were under the immediate influence of “sudden passion,” he would face a maximum sentence of only 20 years.

During the sentencing phase, Anthony’s mother, Kayla Hayes, begged the jury for mercy as she sobbed on the stand.

 

“Please have mercy on my son. He’s my oldest. He’ll always be my baby. I love him very much,” an emotional Hayes said.

“I know my son, he’s very sorry for what he did.”

The jurors ultimately rejected the hail-mary bid at a lower sentence, slapping the Texas native with over three decades in jail.

The now-19-year-old teen was immediately placed in the custody of Collin County Sheriff’s deputies.

Outside the courthouse, Dominique Alexander, an advocate of the Anthony family, said his organization, Next Generation Action Network, put up $10,000 for an appellate attorney.

“I respected this process. I allowed and called for peace in this process,” Alexander told reporters after the sentencing phase concluded.

“But Black America should be very upset about what went on today.

“I’m only an advocacy leader. I’m not an attorney. I can only help families navigate these processes when they find themselves in these types of situations.

“I can only allow lawyers to be what they are – lawyers. I can’t instruct them, I can’t stop them from doing anything. I have to respect the process just like anybody else.

“But what we saw today was flawed, unjust, and I can ask that the community continue to pray for the Anthony family.”

The case and trial has gathered nationwide attention, with supporters of Anthony gathering outside of the Collin County Courthouse in McKinney, Texas.

Dozens of people could be seen outside of the courthouse on Tuesday, with people being heard yelling and cursing at one another before and after the verdict was released.

 

Two men, one in a Nike polo shirt and another in an American flag polo got into a heated exchange for several minutes.

The man in the Nike polo repeatedly yelled “peace, love, unity and respect” behind a barrier as local sheriffs stood in front of the crowd before the verdict was revealed.

He later repeatedly shouted “I accept” after the verdict was made public.

One person was seen holding a “Justice 4 Austin” sign while a woman close to the barrier held a sign reading “Self-defense is not a crime.”

Another woman held up a sign reading, “Karmelo is innocent.”

One woman could be heard yelling about how another person was “talking s**t about everybody.”

Police were reportedly also forced to break up a fight in the crowd just minutes before Anthony’s sentence was read.

The murder trial has lasted nearly a week with the jury hearing gruesome details of how then-17-year-old Anthony killed Metcalf in April 2025.

Investigators said the two teens, who went to different high schools, did not know each other.

The two got into an altercation before Anthony stabbed Metcalf, 17, who later died at the hospital.

Anthony and his defense team have claimed the teen was defending himself, saying he faced an imminent threat when he was confronted by Metcalf.

The defense has been leveraging self-defense laws in Texas, which removes the duty to retreat if a person reasonably believes they face a threat of bodily harm.

Robert Starr, an assistant football coach at Frisco Memorial High School, was in tears in court as he detailed Metcalf on the ground, with his “face purple” and a “big hole in his chest.”

Starr said he ran to the bleachers at Kuykendall Stadium in Frisco after he spotted a commotion by a tent area where his school’s track team was stationed.

“I just knew Austin was gone,” he said.

Starr recalled seeing Metcalf’s twin brother, Hunter, screaming, “Do something,” as he pointed to Anthony.

“I asked [Anthony]. He said he put his hands on me. [Anthony] was hysterical,” the coach said.

“I jumped the gate and I went to Hunter, and he was hysterical. I just knelt down and I just prayed with him.”

Several people in the gallery were seen crying as Starr shared his account of the incident, including Metcalf’s father, Jeff, the Daily Mail reported.

Texas State Representative Jared Patterson issued a statement after the verdict was announced on Tuesday, saying, “The murder of Austin Metcalf was a senseless and heartbreaking tragedy that forever changed the lives of his family, friends, and community.”

“Today’s outcome of a murder conviction is justice served.

“While no outcome can erase this pain, it is our hope that this moment allows the Metcalf family and our community to begin the difficult process of healing and moving forward together.”