A jury in Collin County, Texas, has sentenced Karmelo Anthony to 35 years in prison for the murder of Austin Metcalf, the teenager he fatally stabbed at a high school track meet in Frisco. The punishment was handed down in the trial's sentencing phase, which followed Tuesday's guilty verdict and brought to a close a case that had drawn national attention since the killing. With the sentence now decided, Anthony will serve a lengthy prison term for the death of the 17-year-old.
The 35-year term fell at the lower end of the punishment available to the jury. Because they had convicted him of murder, the panel weighed a range that ran from five to 99 years, and they could have imposed a far harsher sentence. Several observers following the trial had expected a longer term, and the outcome registered as a surprise to some who had anticipated the jury coming down more heavily.
A key part of the jury's decision was its finding that Anthony did not act under sudden passion. That determination meant the full five-to-99-year range applied, rather than the lighter punishment reserved for a killing committed in the heat of the moment. Even with that wider range on the table, the jury settled near the bottom of it, and his youth was seen as playing a role in why the sentence landed where it did.
The prosecution had pressed the jurors to impose a substantial sentence. Prosecutor Bill Wirskye did not ask them for a specific number of years, but he impressed upon them that the punishment should be long, urging them to send a message that the community would not tolerate senseless violence. He spoke of the jurors coming together as a community to serve justice and to uphold a standard for the place where they live.
The case dates back to last April, when the stabbing took place at a high school track meet in Frisco. Austin Metcalf and Karmelo Anthony, who attended different schools within the same district, got into an argument under a tent belonging to Metcalf's team. What began as a dispute over space quickly escalated into a fatal encounter, and both boys were 17 at the time, with no evidence they had known each other before that day.
On Tuesday, the same jury had found Anthony guilty of murder after only a few hours of deliberation, rejecting both his self-defense claim and the option of a lesser manslaughter conviction. Much of the courtroom debate had centered on the pocket knife, a blade of about three and a half inches, with prosecutors questioning why he brought it to a track meet. The state called around 21 witnesses, the defense called only a handful, and Anthony himself did not take the stand.
The trial moved at an unusually fast pace, in part because of how Collin County chose to manage it. According to those following the case, the courthouse was essentially shut down for the proceedings, with few other hearings held, and the judge had the court sit six days a week, including on a Saturday, to keep the case moving. That decision reflected a recognition that a county courthouse of general jurisdiction could not be tied up indefinitely by a single trial.
From the outset, the case drew national attention, with media, online commentators and demonstrators gathering outside the courthouse in McKinney, some rallying in support of Metcalf and others backing Anthony. Much of the wider conversation surrounding the case had centered on race, though prosecutors insisted throughout that it had nothing to do with race. With the sentence delivered, the legal chapter of a case that gripped the community and the country has reached its conclusion.