WFAA NEWS 8:
2:30 p.m.
The defense has rested its case. Karmelo Anthony did not take the witness stand.
Closing arguments are set for tomorrow.
The lawyers on both sides will now negotiate on the set of instructions given to jurors as they go into deliberations after closings.
If they do not finish their deliberations by the end of the day tomorrow, they will be sequestered at a local hotel, Judge Roach said in court. In a moment of levity amid tough testimony, the judge told the jury: “Pack a bag. Ladies, one bag.” The gallery laughed.
2 p.m.
Jobin Panicker files this update while we wait on next steps:
Proceedings still have not resumed since the lunch break. Lawyers are conferring behind closed doors. Prosecutor Bill Wirskye has walked in and out of the courtroom. The Anthony family walked in 20 minutes ago, then walked out.
1 p.m.
The lunch break has come and gone, and court is still in recess, Jobin Panicker reports.
The wait for the next witness continues.
11 a.m.
Jobin Panicker reports:
The next witness is a 17-year-old Frisco HS athlete. He walks in chewing gum. Judge John Roach Jr. told him, “Throw it out or swallow it.”
Defense attorney Mike Howard is questioning him.
“Track meets are vey social,” the witness said. He said kids from other schools would come to the tent, that wasn’t unusual. He said “everybody was standing or congregating” under the Memorial tent. He told jurors it looked to him like someone got “pushed or punched” but does not really know. According to a statement he gave to a detective a year ago, he described it as a “push or hit,” testimony today showed.
The witness said he recalls after the “kid” (Karmelo Anthony) got hit, he saw a “swing-type motion down.” The witness said he recalled hearing someone got stabbed and he ran out of the stadium and into the bus.
(We have heard now several different recollections of Karmelo Anthony’s actions with the knife that day. One witness testified he used an upward movement, and this witness said it was a downward motion.”)
The withess said he he did not want to come to court today. He said he does not know Anthony and has no personal knowledge of what happened.
Court is on a mid-morning break.
10:30 a.m.
Jobin Panicker reports:
The defense’s next witness is Frisco PD Detective Beau Riley, of the Crimes Against Children Unit. Defense attorney Toby Shook asked him if he found any deleted photos on the phone of an earlier witness, a former Memorial HS student who was friends with both Anthony and Metcalf and who testified he pretended to make a video of the April 2, 2025, confrontation. Riley told jurors he is not sure.
Shook asked him if knives with blades under 5.5 inches or pocket knives are against the law to carry. Riley said they are generally not disallowed but he said he is not aware if it against school policy.
9:30 a.m.
The same 17-year-old witness is still on the stand. according to Jobin Panicker:
The witness told jurors “I saw a push,” referring to Austin Metcalf’s push of Karmelo Anthony. He continued: “I saw the arms go out and make contact with ‘Melo,'” referring to Anthony by his nickname.
The witness said he did not see the contact but saw the arms in the push. He admits to jurors he does not have any context for what was happening. “It got super loud and it was like, ‘Woah, what happened?'”
This witness thought it may have been a bee in the tent and that someone may have been stung. He told jurors that he did not see the stabbing. He said Anthony was standing during the push. He said the next thing he remembers, Metcalf lifted up this shirt and said he was stabbed. The witness saw Anthony go into a “light jog” and recalled he was “moving across the bleachers.”
The witness said Anthony “was crying and there was a coach comforting him,” adding that Anthony “was distraught.” The witness said he could hear Anthony crying and overheard him saying, “I told him not to touch me.”
Defense attorney Mike Howard: Do you know if Anthony was justified or not? Do you know if Anthony was provoking it? A: “No, sir.”
On cross examination, prosecutor Bill Wirskye asked the witness about them being kicked out of the nearby baseball dugout that morning.
“If someone asks you to leave, you leave, right?” “Yes, sir.”
Wirskye asks the witness questions about where he was standing when the stabbing happened.
“Have you ever brought a knife to a track event?” Wirskye asked him. “No, sir.”
