Attorneys for Karmelo Anthony filed an allure Tuesday and requested a brand novel trial for the dilapidated scholar-athlete convicted in the fatal stabbing of one more scholar at a Texas tune meet.
A jury sentenced Anthony, 19, to 35 years in penal complex after convicting him last month of the abolish of Austin Metcalf at a meet in Frisco, Texas, a Dallas mattress room neighborhood. Both Anthony and Metcalf were 17 on the time of the killing.
Anthony’s novel attorneys, who didn’t symbolize him on the trial, said of their filings that the courtroom erred when it restricted public rep admission to to the trial, violating Anthony’s rights.
Additionally they appealed on the grounds that the snarl and defense had an unwritten agreement to exclude decided personality and “extraneous-offense” evidence from the trial, nevertheless that prosecutors repudiated the agreement, which denied Anthony the dedicated to testify on his be pleased behalf.
The attorneys criticized the bustle at which the settle conducted the trial, including a courtroom date on a Saturday when numerous defense witnesses were unavailable.
“When the 2d got right here for the Defendant to carry out the most consequential decision of the trial, whether or no longer to waive his Fifth Amendment privilege and testify, the Court docket distributed the defense ten minutes to counsel a nineteen-year-feeble by it and denied counsel’s query for extra time,” the attorneys said.
In a impart, Collin County prosecutor Invoice Wirskye rejected the complaints in Anthony’s allure, pronouncing they were “incorrect characterizations of the trial courtroom cases.’
“I and your total prosecution team conducted this trial ethically and in fleshy compliance with the Court docket’s rulings and any agreements with defense counsel,” he said, adding they’d well possibly be extra addressed in responding filings. “The jury heard intensive evidence over the route of the trial and returned a unanimous verdict. We stay confident in that verdict and the equity of the courtroom cases.”
In a separate filing, the attorneys demanded that snarl District Court docket Desire John Roach be removed from the case because he gave an interview after the trial to Dallas TV dwelling WFAA and expressed non-public opinions about the jury’s verdict, the equity of the trial and correctness of his be pleased rulings.
The attorneys said that, by taking part in the interview, Roach violated the snarl’s judicial habits and requirements code on appearance of objectivity. In accordance with Anthony’s attorneys, one of the important settle’s “problematic” comments encompass agreeing to the correctness of the jury’s verdict, pronouncing “whatever they are saying … they rep it devoted.” Roach also commented on Anthony being “a nice young man” who “understands this day … the implications of committing against the law admire … he did.” The attorneys said in the recusal query that in the WFAA interview, the settle defended the resolution of the jury, which didn’t encompass a single Gloomy particular person, and that in a impart to Fox News, Roach defended his ruling on media rep admission to to the courtroom. Roach also wrote a signed public letter printed on the earn net page of Collin County, the place the courtroom and Frisco would be found, that he addressed to the “Collin County Family.” In the letter, Roach refers to his work on the trial as “one amongst the sizable honors of my judicial profession” and thanked these who worked to be decided the route of changed into conducted somewhat, Anthony’s attorneys said. “A settle who publicly memorializes the trial as concluded, and publicly proclaims the route of ultimate, whereas smooth conserving the authority to grant a brand novel trial, signals to the practical observer that he regards the topic as closed,” the attorneys wrote in the filing. Roach’s comments, coupled with the truth that he imposed a gag show for the length of the trial on any commentary by any a quantity of members, “sharpens as a replace of softens the appearance that the Court docket now no longer sits as a just arbiter of the submit-trial courtroom cases that stay earlier than it,” the attorneys wrote. But whereas the settle has granted interviews and written about the trial, he has sealed your total courtroom file of the trial and has most attention-grabbing allowed Anthony’s attorneys to scrutinize it on condition they no longer portion what changed into noticed “leaving the file most attention-grabbing available in chambers,” the attorneys said, adding that they didn’t agree to the condition. Metcalf changed into fatally stabbed on April 2, 2025, as the tune groups of Anthony’s Centennial Excessive College and Metcalf’s Memorial Excessive College participated in a districtwide meet in Frisco. Anthony admitted to the stabbing, nevertheless his good team argued he acted in self-defense below the strain of bodily intimidation, after he sat in the bleachers below the tent of rival excessive college Memorial and changed into confronted by members of its tune team and told to leave. Prosecutors rebutted that depiction of events, pronouncing it changed into Anthony who threatened Metcalf. A excessive-profile neighborhood of appellate, civil rights and prison defense attorneys teamed as much as describe Anthony pro bono on his allure quickly after his conviction and sentencing. The case drew nationwide attention because Metcalf changed into white and Anthony is Gloomy, which drew heated debate on social media. The six attorneys of the good team encompass dilapidated Dallas County prosecutor Russell Wilson; prison defense attorney Michael Ware; attorney Gary Bledsoe, who could well even be the Texas NAACP president; Brooke Cluse of Ben Crump Legislation; Sean Daredia; and Justin A. Moore. CORRECTION (July 7, 2026, 8:10 p.m. ET): A outdated version of this text misstated Karmelo Anthony’s age. He’s nineteen, no longer 17.
