MCKINNEY, Texas — The trial of 18-year-old Karmelo Anthony continues today in Collin County, after last year’s fatal stabbing of 17-year-old Austin Metcalf during a Frisco ISD track meet.
Jury selection began Monday, June 1. A jury was seated Wednesday, June 3. Opening statements took place Thursday, June 4, followed by the state’s first witnesses. To expedite the trial, the judge has ordered testimony continue on Saturdays. The trial is expected to last about two weeks.
New to the case? Watch this overview.
WFAA will stream updates with analysis after the trial each day at 8 p.m. on our free streaming app WFAA+. Here’s how to download it for free.
Frisco track meet stabbing trial: Timeline of the case
The timeline of the case begins April 2, 2025. See a full timeline of the case here.
Anthony, a former student at Frisco Centennial High School, is charged with murder in the April 2, 2025, killing of Metcalf, a student-athlete at Frisco Memorial High School.
Background: Who is Austin Metcalf? Who is Karmelo Anthony?
Investigators say that morning, at a track meet at Kuykendall Stadium, a confrontation began under a team tent where athletes gathered during inclement weather. It ended when Metcalf was stabbed in the chest. Anthony was arrested and has claimed self-defense.
The case quickly drew intense national attention, fueled by social media debate centered on the races of the two young men, public protests, online threats and allegations of doxxing involving people connected to the proceedings.
Because Anthony was 17 at the time of the incident, Texas law allows him to be tried as an adult, and he faces a possible sentence ranging from five years to life in prison if convicted. Because the death did not meet the qualifications to be charged as a capital murder, and because of Anthony’s age, the death penalty was never an option in the case.
Trial rules
Security at the courthouse will be tight.
Judge John Roach Jr. has banned cameras, livestreams and audio recording inside the courtroom. He also designated a security perimeter around parts of the courthouse grounds barring the public — and potential demonstrators — from gathering in those areas. The judge has also issued a gag order limiting public comments about the case from attorneys, witnesses, investigators and others directly involved in the proceedings.
With public seating limited, developments in the case will come from live reporting from inside the courtroom. WFAA has a team covering the case. Collin County reporter Jobin Panicker will be inside the courtroom each day, alongside a courtroom sketch artist. Senior crime and justice reporter Rebecca Lopez will also be at the courthouse each day, both in and out of the courtroom, chronicling case developments. WFAA has also arranged for a legal expert to sit in on the proceedings each day to help provide context and analysis on the WFAA+ daily evening wrap-up.
Background: A visual tour of the actual courtroom.
Archive:
Day Five: June 6, 2026 – testimony continues
9:30 a.m.
Jobin Panicker filed this report:
Prosecutors have called a seventh young witness. Judge Roach has asked that none of the young witnesses be identified publicly.
This witness, from Memorial HS, was at the April 2, 2025, track meet at Kyukendall Stadium in Friso where Austin Metcalf was stabbed to death under a team tent following an altercation involving Karmelo Anthony.
The witness told jurors he knows not to bring weapons to a track meet. He was under the tent at the time of the incident. He testified that it “threw me off” to see Karmelo Anthony in the Memorial tent. Referencing a demonstrative exhibit showing the tent in relation to the bleachers, he said that Anthony arrived at the top right side of the tent. The witness said Austin Metcalf was asking Karmelo Anthony to leave the tent, and that Anthony was provoking Metcalf. The witness said Austin Metcalf put his hands on Anthony’s shoulders.
AT some point, the witness told jurors he heard yelling, “he stabbed me!”
“You don’t expect someone to get stabbed at a track meet,” the witness told jurors.
9 a.m.
Good morning. We have reporters Jobin Panicker and Rebecca Lopez inside the 296th district court today in McKinney to hear testimony, which will begin shortly. Judge John Roach Jr. is seated, and we’re waiting on the jury to enter.
The families of Austin Metcalf and Karmelo Anthony are in the courtroom, as are about two dozen members of the public.
Here’s a sketch from courtroom artist Pat Lopez, who is helping us cover the trial, showing Judge Roach yesterday.
8 a.m.
Testimony resumes this Saturday morning. Here’s a fresh update from WFAA reporter Jobin Panicker who arrived, with other WFAA staff, before dawn at the Collin County courthouse in McKinney, where folks were already lining up for a seat:
