Texas teen convicted of murder in fatal stabbing at high school track meet

A Collin County seriff drives past the front of the county courthouse Thursday, June 4, 2026, in McKinney, Texas. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

MCKINNEY, Texas — A Texas teenager who fatally stabbed a 17-year-old track athlete from a rival team during a meet was convicted of murder Tuesday in a trial that drew national attention far beyond the booming Dallas suburb where the two students attended different high schools.

A jury rejected Karmelo Anthony’s claims of self-defence during a confrontation with Austin Metcalf in the stadium’s bleachers last year. Anthony, now 19, didn’t testify. Most who did were students who described a heated exchange over him refusing to leave a tent belonging to Metcalf’s team during a rainy competition.

Anthony faces up to life in prison upon sentencing.

The trial drew lines of spectators hoping to find seats in the gallery and unfolded amid heavy security at a courthouse in Collin County. Anthony and Metcalf attended separate schools in Frisco, one of Texas’ fastest-growing cities that is dotted with dozens of modern school campuses and gleaming athletic facilities.

Several students testified that Metcalf, after ordering Anthony to leave his team’s tent, scoffed before Anthony reached a hand into a bag and pulled out a knife.

One teenage witness recalled Metcalf telling Anthony, “You don’t have anything in that backpack. It’s Frisco.”

Outside attention on the case spread, in part, over social media posts that amplified the killing in racial terms. Anthony is Black; Metcalf was white. Prosecutors and defence attorneys told jurors that the case had nothing to do with race.

Instead, prosecutor Bill Wirskye called the stabbing a “sneak, surprise attack” and accused Anthony of egging on the confrontation. Mike Howard, an attorney for Anthony, said his client acted in a “split second of fear, chaos” after Metcalf made the first physical contact.

The stabbing happened on a rainy morning in April 2025. Teenage witnesses said the confrontation began after Anthony sat under a tent belonging to the track team of Memorial High School, where Metcalf was in his junior year.

Other students competing at the meet testified that several athletes told Anthony to leave the tent and that he was the aggressor. When Metcalf told Anthony he needed to move, Anthony reached inside a bag and replied: “Touch me and see what happens,” according to a police report.

Metcalf then pushed Anthony, according to witnesses, who said Anthony reacted by pulling out a knife and stabbing Metcalf in the chest.

One teammate told jurors that Anthony was “distraught” after the stabbing. Judge John Roach Jr. ordered that the names of teenage witnesses not be made public.

“I was hearing him say, ‘I told him not to touch me,’” the teenager said.

The parents of both Anthony and Metcalf have said they were good students who planned to go to college.

By Jamie Stengle

Associated Press writer Ed White in Detroit contributed to this report.