Anthony, 19, is appealing his 35-year sentence for murdering Austin Metcalf.
Credit: Texas Department of Criminal Justice
NEED TO KNOW
- A “gentlemen’s agreement” between attorneys kept damaging details about both Karmelo Anthony and Austin Metcalf out of the murder trial
- New evidence revealed Anthony’s alleged fixation with knives and Metcalf’s history of racist behavior and fighting
- The case drew national attention amid racial tensions and death threats targeting the families, lawyers and courthouse staff
An informal “gentlemen’s agreement” between the prosecution and defense kept potentially damaging information out of Karmelo Anthony’s murder trial — information that concerned both the defendant and his victim, Austin Metcalf.
Anthony, 19, was convicted in June and sentenced to 35 years in prison for fatally stabbing Metcalf at a 2025 high school track meet in Frisco, Texas. He’s appealing his conviction and has spent this week in court arguing for a new trial, in part because he says the breakdown of the “gentleman’s agreement” kept him from testifying in his own defense.
The hearings have brought to light considerable new information that was never presented at trial.
That’s because the prosecution and defense came to an informal “gentlemen’s agreement” to keep certain information that might impugn the character of both Anthony and Metcalf out of the trial, the Dallas Morning News reported last month. Some of the details of the agreement have been coming to light in court this week.
Perhaps most notably, prosecutor Bill Wirskye revealed in court that just hours before fatally stabbing Metcalf in the heart, Anthony’s ex-girlfriend reported to an assistant principal that he was stalking her and refusing to let her end their relationship, WFAA reported.
He also said that Anthony had sent his ex a text saying he was “lowk on the verge,” WFAA reported.
Wirskye also told the court that Anthony had a fixation with knives, allegedly sending his girlfriend a text that he would lick blood off of his knife. Fox 4 reported.
Damaging information on Metcalf was also withheld from trial as a result of the gentlemen’s agreement. Anthony’s lawyer Mike Howard detailed an offense report claiming that Metcalf had sprayed racist and offensive graffiti, including the N-word, “Kill all Black people,” and “Heil Hitler,” KERA reported. Messages and videos on Metcalf’s phone also reportedly showed a “pervasive picture of a racist outlook,” including instances of using the N-word, the lawyer said.
Metcalf allegedly had a history of getting into fights, while Anthony showed an intense interest in fighting, KERA and Fox 4 reported.
The gentlemen’s agreement supposedly would have kept the trial exclusively about the events under the tent where Metcalf was stabbed, Wirskye testified, per Fox 4.
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In an affidavit cited by the Dallas Morning News last month, Howard said Wirskye considered the agreement breached after Howard mentioned during opening statements that Anthony was in the chess club, straying beyond the events under the tent. Howard said that raised the risk that prosecutors could introduce previously excluded evidence about Anthony if he testified, leading the defense to keep him off the stand. Anthony’s lawyers now argue that decision severely damaged his chances of acquittal.
Anthony’s case rested on his contention that he stabbed Metcalf because he feared for his life at the time. Anthony’s lawyer Toby Shook said in court Friday that the lack of his client’s testimony “detrimentally impacted” the defense, per Fox 4.
The agreement came about amid exceptionally heightened tensions in a case that gained national attention and became highly politicized along racial lines — Anthony is Black and Metcalf was White.
Wirskye said in court, per Fox 4, that an “unprecedented” number of death threats came in to various parties in the case. In one instance, Metcalf’s family was “swatted,” he said, while in another Anthony’s family was followed by a group of armed white people. A judge who granted a reduced bond to Anthony received death threats, as did defense attorney Howard, Wirskye said.
So many bomb threats were called into the courthouse that employees had to learn new protocols for how to respond, Wirskye added, per the outlet.
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