The Texas prosecutor who handled Karmelo Anthony’s conviction in the fatal stabbing at a high school track meet said Thursday that both sides had agreed to withhold evidence that could have further heightened racial tensions and death threats surrounding the case.
The agreement is now central to Anthony’s bid for a retrial. Anthony was sentenced to 35 years in prison for killing 17-year-old Austin Metcalf during a confrontation in the bleachers of a high school stadium near Dallas last year.
Anthony, 19, was seated at the defense table as one of his lawyers argued that the agreement was one of several errors that compromised his June trial.
open image in galleryThe hearing is expected to continue Friday, with no indication yet of when the judge will rule on Anthony’s request for a new trial.
Anthony is Black; Metcalf was white. Anthony once sent a text fantasizing about stabbing someone, and Metcalf had a history of fighting and using racist language, prosecutor Bill Wirskye said. Both were details that did not come up during the trial.
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 during the trial.
Prosecutor says Anthony was angry before meet
Defense attorney Russell Wilson told the judge Thursday that a new trial should be allowed because of errors that limited access to the proceedings. He cited the off-the-record agreement between the legal teams.
He 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.
But the prosecutor argued that Anthony received a fair trial and said his original attorneys had agreed to everything done during the trial.
open image in galleryWirskye said he agreed not to use the character evidence because he wanted to focus on the moments leading up to the stabbing.
“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.
Howard, Anthony’s trial attorney, said the defense team had information showing that Metcalf had used racial slurs in the past and had bullied Black classmates. As Howard spoke in the courtroom, Metcalf’s parents sat quietly in the gallery.
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 the trial judge, fake autopsy reports circulating online and attempts to intimidate witnesses. They once had to sneak Anthony into the courthouse because they were so concerned about his safety, Wirskye said.
“The lawyers on both sides were worried about their lives in this case,” he 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.