By Natalie Sandoval
Karmelo Anthony, 19, was found guilty Tuesday of murdering 17-year-old Austin Metcalf at a Texas track meet in April 2025.
Anthony was sentenced to 35 years in prison for stabbing Metcalf to death, but he will be eligible for parole in only half that time.
Democratic Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett held a livestream to discuss the verdict.
“Black women, especially black women who have black, male children, live in fear and agony every single day. A fear and agony that I promise you, the Metcalfs probably never spend a day living that way. And we’re gonna have to have just some real conversations about race in this country,” Crockett said. (RELATED: Karmelo Anthony Found Guilty Of Murder, Sentenced to 35 Years)
Crockett’s narcissism knows no bounds. A savvier politician would refrain from casting herself as the victim opposite a family whose son was murdered.
Karmelo Anthony stabbed Metcalf in the heart. The two had a brief dispute, with Metcalf asking Anthony, who was from a different school, to leave his team’s tent. Anthony reached into his backpack and pulled out a knife before fatally stabbing Metcalf, who died in his twin brother’s arms. Multiple witnesses in the tent where Metcalf was stabbed testified for the prosecution that Anthony refused repeated requests to leave and escalated the dispute. “Karmelo put his hand in the bag and said five times, ‘Touch me and see what happens.’ Austin said he’s not going to touch this guy. He was calm,” one witness recounted.
Crockett questioned whether Anthony’s actions were unlawful: “But like, to stab, puncture, hit, one time, however it was described, with something that isn’t considered to even be unlawful. Like I have more questions than answers now.”
Congresswoman Crockett said that a true “jury of one’s peers” means one’s co-ethnics:
“One of the reasons you want a jury of your peers is because [of] your actual lived experiences. Like, today, I’m fighting because, you know, Republicans are telling me that like, they are the warriors for making sure they can get rid of racism. Like, what? Like what are you talking about? Like, and then you gonna tell me, as a black woman, what ain’t racist. Are you serious right now? I don’t think whether you were the Asian women or whether you were the white men that you understand what it is to be black in America. And to be a black boy. And frankly, I don’t know what it is to be a black boy, but I have had more lived experiences with black boys and black men to at least have some frame of reference.”
Crockett also justified Anthony’s response as self-defense:
“If a 300 pound man is beating me, like on top of me, and beating me down, I, I’m not limited to fist … You know, I would argue that even, the only time that we go into things like people’s hands being considered deadly weapons, is typically like if they’re a professional boxer or that kind of stuff, but I think, by the time you start getting to like football player, good argument, good freakin’ argument. We’re not talking about, like the golfers, we’re talking about football players, right, like this is what they are trained to do, is to inflict, like, serious physical contact.”
Crockett promoted the livestream on her Instagram, which was awash with supportive comments bemoaning the verdict.
Rapper Cardi B expressed her outrage on X, writing, “Wow! Just freakin wow! DISGUSTING… This is not justice, this is trying to make an example!!!”
BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA – JUNE 21: (L-R) Cardi B and Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett attend the 4th Annual Hollywood Unlocked Impact Awards at The Beverly Hilton on June 21, 2024 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Arnold Turner/Getty Images for Jason Lee/Hollywood Unlocked Impact Awards)
The entertainer shared several posts by other users supporting Anthony, including a video montage of Anthony’s non-murderous moments.
The rapper also reposted a post by “THE BLACK VANGUARD SOLDIER,” which reads, “Almost 4 years ago Karmelo Anthony save someone life dont allow these trolls or mainstream media tell you otherwise. They are trying to do character assassination against his image like the dominate society always do.” (RELATED: Protesters Attempt To Incite Race Riot Over Karmelo Anthony Verdict)
Sunny Slaughter, who describes herself as a “criminal behavior analyst and profiler,” joined Court TV to discuss the verdict.
“I was not expecting the top charge, I really was thinking that they would see, um, manslaughter, still guilty, but manslaughter, different sentencing, but um, guilty of murder, so. You know. That’s heavy.”
Slaughter appeared visibly disturbed by the verdict.
Court TV regular Michael Jaafar repeatedly called the jury’s decision “dumb.”
“This is just dumb, this is stupid. I can’t believe that this jury came back in three hours with guilty. I’m totally stunned. On top of that, this judge as well, not letting cameras in the court room. I mean, good, good job, good job your honor, really, really good job, you handled it really, really well. You have this community that’s about to get lit on fire, you don’t allow cameras to go into a courtroom, the community already believes that this kid is being railroaded, and then look at what happened. Your jury came back within three hours for a guilty verdict for a kid who used a four-inch knife one time, didn’t use it multiple times. Was it wrong? Yes. But was it murder beyond a reasonable doubt? No … This is insane, this is dumb.”
A representative for the Anthony family, Dominique Alexander, spoke to reporters outside the courthouse after the guilty verdict.
“I speak on behalf of myself as president of the Next Generation Action Network. The Next Generation Action Network wanted to respect this process, to be able to make sure that nobody said that the Next Generation Action Network obstructed this process, interfered in this process. But what this process did, it’s shown that black lives do not matter in Collin County.”
Again, the narcissism is astounding. A black person being held responsible for murdering a white person is indicative of broad mistreatment of black people?
“It showed us, that time and time in American history, it has shown us to remove emotions from get the law,” Alexander babbled.
“This trial shows that it put emotions over the law. After Trayvon Martin and so many countless names, it has shown us that black life is not safe in Collin County. It showed us that they did not listen to the law. It showed clearly that a judge interfered in this process. It showed very clearly that a black boy was allowed not one black soul on a jury. An all, all-white jury, convicted him in two to three hours.”
The jury was not all-white, according to CBS News. It included whites, Middle Easterners, and Southeast Asians. It included Hispanics, Asians, and a Muslim.
Regardless, Alexander and Crockett’s insistence on this point — that justice is not blind, but race-conscious — is indicative of the sort of racial bias which resulted in black prospective jurors being struck from the jury. At least one prospective juror explicitly brought up race during jury selection, according to WFAA.
“I don’t know if I feel right putting a brother in jail,” he said. Prospective black jurors were not chosen for the jury “because they admitted during voir dire that they didn’t think they could send a black man to jail. They admitted that they could not follow the evidence if it pointed to a guilty verdict.”
A black crowd gathered outside the Collin County Courthouse to support Karmelo Anthony. There was a “tense scene in and around Collin County Courthouse. More than 2 dozen deputies outside the courtroom alone. Outside a crowd” chanted “‘Free Karmelo.’”
Black activists denounced the conviction of Karmelo Anthony, ignoring the evidence, while falsely claiming the jury was all-white.
