Police have released the first mugshot of Karmelo Anthony since his murder conviction and 35-year sentence, showing the 19-year-old staring blankly into the camera on his first night in prison — hours after he sobbed through the verdict and kept his head bowed as the family of the teenager he killed delivered devastating victim impact statements in court.
Anthony, who was convicted of first-degree murder for the stabbing death of 17-year-old Austin Metcalf at a high school track meet in Frisco, Texas on 2 April 2025, appeared stone-faced in the booking photograph, dressed in a black jacket, in stark contrast to the emotional scenes that had unfolded in the Collin County courtroom just hours earlier, according to the New York Post.
The sentencing hearing was defined by the testimony of Metcalf’s twin brother Hunter, who stepped up to the podium to address Anthony directly. “You took a son, a brother, a friend, and my best friend, from this world,” Hunter said through tears. “You took someone from me who was supposed to be an uncle, godfather to my kids. Now I want everything taken from you.” Anthony, who had kept his head down throughout the family’s impact statements, raised it to look at Hunter as he spoke. The Metcalf family left the courtroom when Hunter finished. Anthony was officially remanded into custody and removed from the court moments later.
The case, which divided America along racial lines almost from the moment of the stabbing, drew national attention throughout the trial. Anthony had claimed self-defence, arguing that Metcalf — who was white — had pushed him first during a confrontation under a rival school’s tent at the district-wide track meet. Prosecutors successfully argued that Anthony had provoked the encounter and produced the knife deliberately, with witnesses describing him as the aggressor who told Metcalf “touch me and see what happens” before drawing the blade and stabbing him once in the chest, puncturing his heart.
Anthony sobbed as the 35-year sentence was handed down and his mother wept in the gallery. He now faces the possibility of a further legal challenge over the “sudden passion” argument his defence team raised during sentencing proceedings — a doctrine that, if accepted by the judge, could reduce the conviction to a second-degree felony and significantly lower the term he serves.
