The Chilling Texts Karmelo Anthony’s Jury Never Saw — And the Secret Deal That Hid Them
A Texas prosecutor has now publicly described a cache of evidence that never reached the jury in the murder trial of Karmelo Anthony. The revelations, made during a hearing on Anthony’s request for a new trial, include claims that his former girlfriend reported him for stalking on the morning of the killing, along with text messages prosecutors say showed an obsession with knives and violence.
Anthony, then 17, was convicted in June 2026 of murdering 17-year-old Austin Metcalf at a Frisco high-school track meet on April 2, 2025. A jury rejected his self-defense claim after hearing that Metcalf and teammates repeatedly asked Anthony to leave their team tent. Witnesses said a confrontation followed, Metcalf shoved Anthony, and Anthony pulled a knife from a bag and stabbed Metcalf once in the chest. Anthony later told officers he had done it after Metcalf put hands on him. He received a 35-year sentence.
What the jury did not hear, according to Collin County Assistant District Attorney Bill Wirskye, was a broader picture of Anthony’s state of mind that day. Wirskye told the court that Anthony’s ex-girlfriend went to a school administrator that morning and said he was stalking her after their breakup and would not accept that the relationship was over. She also described him as obsessed with fights, guns, and knives. Prosecutors said Anthony sent her a photograph of a knife together with a message that he was “low key on the verge.” They further cited an earlier message in which he wrote about stabbing someone and licking the blood off the blade. Wirskye described Anthony as “spiraling.” Additional records, the prosecutor said, showed Anthony had previously attended a program for juveniles with anger issues.
None of this was presented at trial because of an informal “gentleman’s agreement” between the original defense team and prosecutors. Wirskye said he proposed the deal so the case would stay focused on the brief encounter under the tent rather than become a wider character contest. In return, the defense agreed not to introduce material about Metcalf’s juvenile record, which prosecutors said included racist graffiti. Both sides wanted to limit the racial tensions already swirling around the case online and outside the courthouse.
The agreement later became a flashpoint. Anthony’s new lawyers argue it was breached late in the trial, after a dispute over whether certain remarks had “opened the door.” They say the fallout caused Anthony to abandon his plan to testify, fearing that taking the stand would expose him to the very evidence both sides had promised to keep out. The original trial judge was recused after making public comments about the verdict; a new judge is now considering whether those issues, plus restrictions on courtroom access and jury instructions on self-defense, warrant a retrial.
The withheld material raises difficult questions about what a jury is entitled to know. Character evidence is often excluded precisely because it can prejudice more than it proves. At the same time, texts and contemporaneous reports of stalking and violent ideation go to state of mind and whether a defendant arrived at an event already primed for confrontation. The agreement was intended to keep the trial from becoming a referendum on two teenagers’ pasts. Its collapse now sits at the center of the appeal.
A ruling on the new-trial motion is expected soon. Whatever the judge decides, the newly described evidence has already changed how the public understands the hours before the stabbing. The jury that convicted Anthony never saw it. Future proceedings may.
