Karmelo Anthony’s claim that he stabbed a Texas teenager in self-defense is facing serious trouble after a witness called by his own lawyers acknowledged key inconsistencies on the stand.
Anthony, 19, is on trial in Collin County over the fatal stabbing of 17-year-old Austin Metcalf during an April 2025 high school track meet.
Prosecutors rested their case Saturday after calling 21 witnesses in the untelevised trial, according to multiple reports from inside the courtroom.
Those witnesses painted Anthony as the aggressor in the confrontation, saying he entered a school sports team’s tent where Metcalf was sitting, refused to leave, cursed at students and taunted those who tried to remove him.
The deadly confrontation ended after Metcalf pushed Anthony and Anthony stabbed him with a knife, witnesses reportedly testified.
Anthony’s defense team began calling witnesses Monday, including one whose testimony appeared to shift under questioning from prosecutors.
The witness had initially told police Anthony was surrounded by a mob when the stabbing happened, CBS News reported. But on the stand, the witness admitted that surveillance video later showed the crowd formed after the stabbing, not before.
“You know you’re wrong?” the prosecutor reportedly asked.
”Yes, sir,” the witness replied.
Defense attorneys have argued Anthony was visiting a friend in the tent and acted in self-defense when he pulled a knife from his backpack and killed Metcalf, according to Courthouse News.
But prosecutors have used student testimony to argue Anthony was not cornered or threatened before the stabbing.
One 16-year-old Memorial High School student testified that Anthony told people inside the tent, “I’m not leaving, fuck you all,” according to Courthouse News.
The student also testified that Anthony called the crowd “a bunch of p*ssies” who were “not going to do nothing about it” and began reaching toward his backpack in a threatening way.
“Karmelo put his hand in the bag and said five times, ‘touch me and see what happens,’” the witness reportedly told jurors. “Austin said he was not going to touch the guy; he was calm.”
Another teenage student testified that no one in the tent knew who Anthony was.
HOLY CRAP! Karmelo Anthony’s own witness just THREW A WRENCH in his “self defense” claim during the Austin Metcalf murder trial on the stand
Before the stabbing of Metcalf, the teen claimed: “Karmelo was surrounded!”
Then prosecutors REPLAYED the footage.
The witness… https://t.co/T7U4pnWIfR pic.twitter.com/nCU1dcKEgS
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) June 8, 2026
One witness said Anthony was asked to leave the tent 15 times, according to the New York Post.
RELATED: Jury Selection Begins In Murder Trial Of Karmelo Anthony, Who Raised $600K After Stabbing Texas Teen
The case has drawn national attention and inflamed racial tensions because Anthony is black and Metcalf was white.
During jury selection, one prospective juror raised race in court and said, “I don’t know if I feel right putting a brother in jail,” before being dismissed, CBS News reported.
Attorneys also questioned prospective jurors about whether Anthony’s age or skin color could affect their ability to reach a fair verdict.
Several jurors in the trial are minorities, though none are black, NBC News reported.
The defense is trying to convince jurors that Anthony feared for his safety and acted to protect himself.
But the prosecution’s case, backed by witness testimony and the defense witness’s own walk-back, has pushed a different narrative: that Anthony entered a tent where he did not belong, refused repeated requests to leave and escalated the confrontation before Metcalf was fatally stabbed.
For jurors, the question now is whether Anthony’s self-defense argument can survive the testimony already heard in court.
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