Guilty of Murder. 35 Years. House Democrats Blamed the Jury.

On June 9, 2026, a Collin County, Texas jury deliberated roughly three hours before returning a murder conviction against Karmelo Anthony, 19. The following day, the same jury sentenced him to 35 years in prison for the April 2, 2025 stabbing death of Austin Metcalf, 17, at a Frisco ISD track meet. Anthony admitted he stabbed Metcalf — in the chest, perforating his right ventricle — but claimed self-defense. The jury rejected that claim.

Within hours of the verdict, several House Democrats went before cameras and microphones to declare the outcome a product of racism and an “all-White jury.” The claim was factually disputed: sources close to the trial told Fox News Digital that three of the twelve deliberating jurors were racial minorities, and six of the eighteen total jurors — including alternates — were minorities. Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) broke publicly with his party colleagues, saying he has a “hard time understanding” the racism claims.

This page documents what happened at the track meet, what the trial established, exactly which members of Congress said what — and why the jury-composition claim does not match the documented record. Two families lost something that cannot be returned. The least the political class can do is get the facts straight.

• 35 years — prison sentence handed down June 10, 2026 by a Collin County jury for first-degree murder — eligible for parole after serving half · Source: CBS Texas, ABC News
• April 2, 2025 — date of the stabbing at a Frisco ISD track meet; Austin Metcalf, 17, died of a stab wound that perforated his right ventricle · Source: ABC News, Houston Public Media
• ~3 hours — jury deliberation time before guilty verdict on June 9, 2026; additional hours for the sentencing phase · Source: Fox 4 Dallas, CBS Texas
• 3 of 12 — deliberating jurors who were racial minorities, per sources close to the trial — directly contradicting the 'all-White jury' claim · Source: Fox News Digital
• 6 of 18 — total jurors including alternates who were minorities · Source: Fox News Digital

The afternoon of April 2, 2025 was rainy. At a Frisco ISD stadium hosting a multi-school track meet, Karmelo Anthony — then 17, a student at Frisco Centennial High School — sought shelter under the tent belonging to Frisco Memorial High School, the school attended by Austin Metcalf. Multiple student athletes testified that they questioned why Anthony was there and asked him to leave. What followed, across roughly four to six minutes, escalated into a confrontation.

Trial testimony produced conflicting accounts of a push — some witnesses described a forceful two-handed shove; others called it a small shove. Anthony was heard saying, “Touch me and see what happens.” What is not disputed: Anthony pulled a pocket knife from his bag and stabbed Metcalf in the left side of the chest. The blade perforated Metcalf’s right ventricle. Metcalf bled to death at the scene. After the stabbing, Anthony told a coach: “He put his hands on me. I stabbed him.”

Anthony’s defense argued he acted in fear — that the situation was chaotic and he believed himself to be in danger. The prosecution argued the conduct was intentional murder, not lawful self-defense under Texas law. The Collin County jury, after roughly three hours of deliberation, agreed with the prosecution.

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The jury returned its guilty verdict on the afternoon of June 9, 2026, after roughly three hours of deliberation. The charge was first-degree murder. The following day, June 10, the same panel sentenced Anthony to 35 years in prison. Under Texas law, Anthony will be eligible for parole after serving half that sentence — a threshold he will not reach until he is in his mid-thirties.

Anthony was 17 at the time of the stabbing. He turned 19 before the trial concluded. The Collin County Chief Medical Examiner testified that the stab wound to Metcalf’s chest left a “gaping” two-inch wound that struck his heart directly. Austin Metcalf, also 17 at the time of his death, was an 11th-grader at Frisco Memorial High School. His father attended the trial throughout.

“He put his hands on me. I stabbed him.”

Karmelo Anthony, to a coach immediately after the stabbing · April 2, 2025 · per trial testimony

Within hours of the verdict, multiple Democratic members of Congress made public statements attributing the outcome to racial bias in the justice system. Below is a factual account of who said what, sourced to Fox News Digital’s reporting from June 13, 2026 and corroborated by TMZ, the Christian Post, and the Washington Times.

Menefee’s assertion that “preemptive strikes were used to achieve an all-White jury” is a specific legal claim. It was not corroborated in any court filing published as of this writing. Crockett acknowledged on her podcast that she could not “tell you the name of one person on this jury” — meaning her characterization of their race was, by her own admission, not based on verified information.

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The claim that the jury was “all-White” is the factual crux of the members’ argument. Sources close to the trial told Fox News Digital that the claim is false. According to those sources: three of the twelve deliberating jurors were racial minorities (described as being of Asian and Indian descent). Six of the eighteen total jurors — including alternates — were minorities. Eight of twelve were women.

Menefee invoked the use of peremptory strikes to argue the jury was deliberately shaped. Peremptory challenges — the mechanism by which prosecutors and defense attorneys can exclude jurors without stating a reason — are a standard feature of Texas criminal procedure. Any claim that they were used improperly to exclude jurors on racial grounds is a Batson challenge, a formal legal objection that must be raised and litigated in court. No such ruling appears in the publicly available trial record, and no member who raised the allegation cited a court filing.

“I have a hard time understanding why they would say that.”

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) · on fellow Democrats' claims that the Karmelo Anthony verdict was racially motivated · June 12, 2026 · Washington Times

Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA)put public distance between himself and the members’ statements on June 12, 2026. Kaine said he has a “hard time understanding” why his colleagues would characterize the verdict as racially motivated, and called the line of argument difficult to defend. His separation from Crockett and Menefee was notable: all three are Democrats, and the guilty verdict itself was not in political dispute — the question was whether the process that produced it was tainted by race.

Kaine did not defend the verdict as beyond scrutiny; he simply declined to endorse the specific claim that racism drove the outcome. That distinction matters. Criminal verdicts can be scrutinized and appealed on legitimate grounds. Anthony’s attorneys retain the right to pursue any lawful appellate avenue. What Kaine appeared to reject was the public leap from “this outcome is painful” to “this outcome was caused by White jurors who voted by race” — a leap that rests on unverified premises about who the jurors were and what motivated them.

“A young man is dead, another is going to prison for 35 years, and the response from Congress is to call the jury racist — without knowing who was actually on it.”

Greg Gutfeld, on his Fox News program, paraphrasing the congressional reaction · June 2026

The facts the trial established are not in dispute. Anthony stabbed Metcalf. Metcalf died. The wound — a two-inch gaping laceration to the chest that perforated the right ventricle, per the county medical examiner — was the cause of death. Anthony himself confirmed the act to a coach within minutes. The jury, after hearing both the prosecution and the defense’s self-defense case, deliberated about three hours and returned a murder conviction.

The political question — whether the jury was racially biased — is a separate matter. It is a serious claim when documented. When it is asserted without evidence, particularly when the underlying premise (an all-White jury) appears to be factually incorrect, the claim does a disservice to the legitimate debate about racial disparities in the criminal justice system. It also does a disservice to Austin Metcalf’s family, who sat through every day of that trial.

Karmelo Anthony has a right to appeal. Any documented evidence of juror misconduct or improper jury selection should be heard in court. That is what courts are for. What the documented record does not support — as of June 13, 2026 — is the specific charge that an all-White jury delivered a racist verdict in this case. The people who know who sat on that jury are the lawyers, the judge, and sources close to the trial. The members of Congress who went before cameras appear not to have checked.

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Last updated June 13, 2026