The student witness testifies that Anthony said “I’m not leaving, fuck you all” before grabbing the knife in his backpack and killing Austin Metcalf.
MCKINNEY, Texas (CN) – Texas prosecutors rested their case Saturday in the murder trial of Carmelo Anthony after witnesses testified that the black teenager cursed, provoked and insulted students at a suburban meeting before stabbing an unarmed white teenager who pushed him.
Four teenage witnesses testified for the prosecution on the sixth day of the trial. Anthony, 19, of Frisco, ca pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the April 2, 2025, killing of Austin Metcalf, 17, also of Frisco.
Collin County District Judge John Roach asked the media not to identify the new witnesses. A 16-year-old Memorial High School student testified that he heard Anthony say, “I’m not leaving, damn it everybody,” after being asked to leave the school tent during a rain delay. Anthony, a member of the Centennial High School team, did not have a school tent at the track meet and was repeatedly told to leave.
The witness said Anthony called the students “a bunch of pussies” who “weren’t going to do anything about it” when he refused to leave. Defense attorneys say Anthony was talking to a friend in the tent and acted in self-defense when he was confronted by Metcalf and his twin brother, Hunter.
First Assistant Collin County District Attorney Bill Wirskye questioned whether Metcalf took the lead in the altercation.
“Yes, Carmelo put his hand in the bag and said five times, ‘touch me and see what happens,'” the witness testified. “Austin said he wasn’t going to touch the guy; he was cool.”
The witness said Metcalf “didn’t deserve” to be killed and that Anthony committed murder.
On cross-examination, defense attorney Toby Shook noted that the witness did not mention Anthony’s curse in the written statement he gave to police after the murder. The witness admitted that he did not know if other students nearby heard his remarks.
A 17-year-old male Memorial student testified that no one in the tent knew who Anthony was.
“If you’re a guest, you’re supposed to be on the other side of the stadium,” the witness said.
Wirskye asked the witness if it was “his impression that Karmelo Anthony was trying to provoke Austin Metcalf” and if Metcalf responded to the provocation.
“Yes”, testified the witness. “He put his hand on his shoulder … you don’t expect to see someone get stabbed at a track meet.”
“Was there a reason you saw Carmelo Anthony stab Austin Metcalf?” Wirskye asked. “Was Carmelo Anthony acting in self-defense?”
“No”, said the witness. “This is deadly force against non-lethal force.”
On cross-examination, Shook reminded the witness of his written statement to police that Austin put his hand on Anthony’s shoulder to scare him.
“More of a warning,” said the witness. “Actions speak louder than words.”
Prosecutors rested after calling their final witness, Collin County Medical Examiner Dr. Elizabeth Ventura. She testified that the two-centimeter-deep wound pierced Metcalf’s sternum and the right ventricle of his heart. Several people, including Metcalf’s parents, left the courtroom during her testimony.
Defense attorneys immediately moved for a directed verdict, arguing that the state failed to prove the elements of first-degree murder. Judge John Roach denied the motion.
The defense then called Centennial coach Adam Linwood, who testified that students from different schools regularly mix during track meets because of the “hours of rest” between events. He said Centennial requires a coach to be present in each tent and that students sometimes enter tents belonging to other schools.
During cross-examination, prosecutor Bill Wirskye showed Linwood a replica of the gun and asked, “That’s not a sheetrock sharpener, is it?” Linwood agreed. Wirskye also asked why Centennial didn’t have a tent at the meet, and Linwood explained that he was being transported on a later bus rather than the morning bus that Anthony took to his previous events.
The courtroom was packed with media, family supporters and the public. Neither side has publicly commented on the cause gag order.
The trial is expected to last two weeks. Anthony faces a sentence of five to 99 years or life in prison if convicted.
Anthony’s lawyers have criticized “noise” and “completely false information” about the trial, which has drawn national attention and online misinformation involving a white victim and a black defendant.
There are no black jurors on the 12-person jury, selected from a pool of over 500 people. During three days of jury selection, Judge Roach allowed prosecutors to strike three other potential black jurors. Regardless of one Batsonchallenge by Anthony’s attorneys, prosecutors successfully argued that the three were struck for the race-neutral reason of being educators of school-age children.
Subscribe to our free newsletters
Our weekly newsletter Closing arguments provides the latest on ongoing trials, major litigation and decisions in courts around the US and the world, while monthly Under the lights feeds legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.
