McKINNEY, Texas — The Texas prosecutor who oversaw Karmelo Anthony’s conviction in a deadly stabbing at a high school track meet said Thursday that both sides had agreed to hold back evidence that risked further inflaming a case already boiling with racial tensions and death threats.
That agreement is at the center of whether a judge will order a retrial for Anthony, who was sentenced to 35 years in prison over the killing of 17-year-old Austin Metcalf last year during a confrontation in the bleachers of a high school stadium near Dallas.
Anthony, 19, sat at the defense table as his attorney argued that the pact ultimately marred the June trial, which ended with jurors rejecting his claims of self-defense. Prosecutor Bill Wirskye defended the trial as fair.
The hearing was set to continue Friday, and it was not clear when the judge will rule on Anthony’s retrial request.
Anthony is Black; Metcalf was white. Among the details that jurors never heard, according to attorneys on both sides, were that Anthony once sent a text message fantasizing about stabbing someone and Metcalf had a history of fighting and using racist language.
During the trial lawyers on both sides told jurors the tragedy had nothing to do with race, but social media posts amplified the killing nationwide in racial terms.
“All of us wanted the temperature on this, so to say, to be turned down,” said Mike Howard, who was Anthony’s lead attorney.
Prosecutor says Anthony was angry before meet
In addition to citing the off-the-record agreement, defense attorney Russell Wilson also told the judge a new trial should be allowed because of errors that limited access to the proceedings.
Wilson said the case’s original judge allowed a “shadow docket” that shielded character information about both sides. “Everything was done off the record, at an astonishing clip,” said Wilson, who didn’t represent Anthony at the criminal trial.
Wirskye said Anthony’s original attorneys agreed to everything done during the trial.
“Witness after witness came in” and said Anthony did it and it was not self-defense, Wirskye said.
The prosecutor said he agreed not to use evidence that showed Anthony had an obsession with guns and knives and that he was angry on the morning of the stabbing.
“He went there that day spoiling for a fight,” Wirskye said about the day of the track meet.
The defense team had information showing that Metcalf used racial slurs in the past and bullied Black classmates, according to Howard and documents shown during Thursday’s hearing.
As Howard spoke in the court, Metcalf’s parents sat quietly in the gallery. There was no immediate response to an email seeking comment from them through a court spokesperson.
Karmelo Anthony case spurred a wave of threats
As national attention intensified last year, the families of both Metcalf and Anthony said they had been targets of harassment.
The prosecutor said there were threats against a judge who granted Anthony bond, fake autopsy reports circulating online and attempts to intimidate witnesses.
“The lawyers on both sides were worried about their lives in this case,” Wirskye said.
New judge deciding whether Anthony will get a new trial
Anthony already won a legal victory on Wednesday when the judge who presided over his trial was removed from the case. Judge Michael Chitty was then assigned to consider the motion for a retrial.
Anthony’s attorneys had asked for state District Judge John Roach to be removed in part because of a TV interview in which Roach said jurors “got it right” when they delivered a guilty verdict.
Students who took the stand described a heated exchange over Anthony’s refusal on a rainy spring day to leave a tent that belonged to Metcalf’s team.
Several schools were competing at the track event when Anthony sat under a tent in the bleachers. Metcalf and others repeatedly told Anthony to leave, witnesses testified, leading to a confrontation.
Prosecutors said Anthony provoked Metcalf, and witnesses testified that Anthony was the aggressor.
Anthony at one point reached inside a bag and replied: “Touch me and see what happens,” according to a police report.
Metcalf pushed Anthony, according to witnesses, who said Anthony then pulled out a knife and stabbed him in the chest.
