A Texas decide is ready to listen to arguments Thursday on whether or not Karmelo Anthony ought to get a brand new trial, two months after a jury convicted and sentenced him to 35 years in jail for fatally stabbing a fellow scholar at a highschool monitor meet.
The listening to comes a day after the Collin County decide who presided over the homicide trial was removed from additional proceedings within the case.
Prosecutors known as the lethal stabbing “unjustified” and “plain and easy homicide,” whereas the protection argued that Anthony acted in self-defense when he stabbed 17-year-old Austin Metcalf at a monitor meet in Frisco in April 2025.
The reserving photograph for Karmelo Anthony, launched June 9, 2026.
Collin County Jail
After listening to 4 days of testimony, a Collin County jury discovered Anthony, 19, responsible of homicide following three hours of deliberation on June 9. The identical jury sentenced him to 35 years in jail after a number of extra hours of deliberation.
Anthony’s attorneys claimed in a movement looking for a brand new trial that the teenager was “coerced” into waiving his proper to testify, stemming from a purported dispute between protection attorneys and prosecutors about whether or not his testimony could be coated by an settlement limiting some character proof within the trial. Protection attorneys alleged this denied him a “full protection.”
The protection additionally alleged that Collin County Choose John Roach improperly instructed the jury and that his courtroom restrictions, which restricted public entry to the proceedings, denied Anthony a good trial.
In a statement to ABC Dallas affiliate WFAA forward of this week’s hearings, Collin County First Assistant District Legal professional Invoice Wirskye stated Anthony’s new attorneys “filed a movement containing a number of inaccurate characterizations of the trial proceedings.”
“I and all the prosecution workforce performed this trial ethically and in full compliance with the Court docket’s ruling and any agreements with protection counsel,” Wirskye added.
A brand new decide will preside over Thursday’s listening to, after Choose Sid Harle granted the protection’s movement to recuse Roach from any additional issues within the Anthony case.
In his order issued Wednesday, Harle wrote that there have been grounds for recusal “in that the proof adduced on the listening to is such that the respondent decide’s impartiality may moderately be questioned.”
Retired Kaufman County District Choose Michael Chitty has been assigned to supervise the case.
Austin Metcalf in a household offered photograph.
Metcalf Household
Within the protection movement looking for to recuse the trial decide from the post-trial proceedings, Anthony’s attorneys questioned each Roach’s impartiality within the case and his courtroom restrictions.
The movement cited what it known as “problematic feedback” Roach made throughout an interview following the decision, by which it stated the decide “endorsed the jury’s responsible verdict” and defended his courtroom restrictions. It additionally pointed to a public letter Roach launched following the trial, by which he said that those that labored on the case “contributed to making sure the method was performed pretty.”
Anthony’s attorneys stated Wednesday that they’re “happy” with Harle’s choice to recuse Roach and “stay up for presenting the deserves of Karmelo’s movement for a brand new trial to a good and unbiased decide.”
Forward of the high-profile trial, Roach imposed a gag order and barred any electronics from the courtroom through the proceedings because of the consideration the case had garnered.
“As a result of important public and media curiosity on this case, the Court docket finds that particular procedures are crucial to make sure the Defendant’s proper to a good and neutral trial, the orderly administration of justice, the security and safety of all members, and affordable public entry per constitutional necessities,” Roach wrote in a Could order.
On Wednesday, Chitty ordered that the trial procedures will stay in impact right now for future proceedings within the case.
