A visiting judge ordered Judge John Roach recused from further proceedings in the Karmelo Anthony case as the convicted teenager seeks a new trial following his first-degree murder conviction and 35-year prison sentence in the killing of Austin Metcalf.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
A Texas court on Aug. 19 ordered Judge John Roach removed from further proceedings in the case of Karmelo Anthony, who is seeking a new trial after being convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to 35 years in prison for the fatal stabbing of 17-year-old Austin Metcalf.
Visiting Judge Sid Harle ruled that another judge must be appointed to oversee an Aug. 20 hearing that will determine whether Anthony’s request for a new trial should be granted.
Anthony, represented by a new defense team, is challenging the proceedings that resulted in his conviction for Metcalf’s April 2025 killing during a high school track meet in Frisco, Texas.
His attorneys argued that Roach demonstrated bias through his handling of the trial, including strict enforcement of courtroom rules and his prohibition on live media coverage, as well as comments the judge made after the jury returned its verdict.
Questions surrounding jury selection have also remained central to criticism of the trial.
Anthony’s former attorneys and activist organizations argued that he was denied a fair trial because prosecutors removed all African American prospective jurors from the panel.
“The absence of black jurors in this high-profile, racially divisive case involving a black defendant” and the brevity of the trial were concerning, the Collin County NAACP said in a Facebook post after the verdict.
Roach rejected a defense challenge to the jury’s composition during the trial, finding that prosecutors had given race-neutral reasons for exercising their strikes.
Prosecutors told the court that three prospective black jurors were removed because all three worked as educators and the case involved young students.
Anthony’s conviction stemmed from an altercation during an April 2, 2025, track and field meet involving students from Memorial High School and Centennial High School.
Students from Memorial High School returned to their bleacher area and found Anthony sitting beneath a tent designated for their team.
Metcalf, a 17-year-old Memorial student, asked Anthony to move back to the area assigned to Centennial High School.
Anthony refused, and the disagreement escalated as other students gathered nearby.
Several witnesses testified during the trial that Anthony was the aggressor in the confrontation.
According to local media accounts of the testimony, one witness recalled Metcalf telling Anthony, “Dude, I’m not gonna fight you at a track meet.”
“Touch me and see what happens,” Anthony told Metcalf while reaching into his bag, according to witnesses.
Metcalf then shoved Anthony.
Anthony responded by stabbing Metcalf in the chest with a knife before fleeing the scene, according to trial testimony. Authorities arrested him a short time later.
Jurors were instructed that they could convict Anthony of the lesser offense of manslaughter rather than first-degree murder.
After approximately three hours of deliberations, however, the jury found him guilty of first-degree murder.
He was subsequently sentenced to 35 years in prison.
Anthony’s new defense team is now attempting to set aside that conviction and obtain another trial, while the Aug. 19 recusal order means Roach will no longer decide the request.
Harle’s ruling does not itself overturn Anthony’s conviction or grant a retrial. Instead, a newly assigned judge will consider the defense request at the Aug. 20 hearing.
The proceeding will determine whether Anthony’s attorneys have established sufficient grounds for the murder case to be tried again.
Original article
Comments