Closing arguments are expected Tuesday as jurors are sequestered in their hotel and have been instructed to stay off social media.

Karmelo Anthony leaves jail on April 14, 2025.NBC Dallas-Fort Worth
Anthony, 19, has claimed self-defense. Heβs been charged with murder, which carries a sentence of five years to life in prison. Although Anthony was 17 at the time of the stabbing, Texas law considers 17-year-olds to be adults.
Closing arguments in the case are slated for Tuesday morning, after which the jury will start deliberations.
State District Judge John Roach Jr. has ordered the jury to be sequestered from the βoutside worldβ at a hotel, with no access to television or phones and only an emergency number for family members.
The past few days of testimony were often emotional,Β as prosecutors played 911 calls and showed videos of the altercation and the aftermath, as well as graphic photos of Metcalf and his wounds. Family members of both Metcalf and Anthony were in the courtroom.
The defense has focused on inconsistencies in some witnessesβ testimony.
Metcalfβs attorneys have downplayed race as an issue in the case β Anthony is Black and Metcalf white. Both were student athletes at crosstown rival schools with high grade-point averages.
But race has been at issue on social media, inΒ protests outside the courthouseΒ and after no Black jurors were selected for the trial.
A string of witnesses, largely classmates and teammates of Metcalf, gave accounts during the trial.
Their testimony depicted a rainy-day dispute after Anthony, an athlete at Centennial High School in Frisco, sat underneath the tent of Memorial High School, where Metcalf was a student and athlete.
Anthonyβs track coach testified over the weekend that his team didnβt bring its own tent to the track meet at David Kuykendall Stadium, an athletic facility that serves all of Friscoβs school district.
Most prosecution witnesses said Anthony was the aggressor in the fight that preceded the stabbing. But there were conflicting details in their testimony. While some said Metcalf gave a hard, two-handed push to Anthony before the stabbing, others said it was one-handed, a jab or a tap.
The witnesses said things got heated when Metcalf or others ordered Anthony out of the tent. But they disagreed on whether Metcalf was joined by others, including his twin brother, in trying to get Anthony to leave.
Anthony knew one of the athletes in the tent, 18-year-old Edwin Parra, whom prosecutors called the βcommon denominatorβ between Anthony and Memorial High School.
Although Parra tried to distance himself from Anthony in his testimony Saturday, defense attorneys showed photos of him with Anthony at family gatherings, as well as text and other social media messaging between the two.
Roach, the judge, issued a court order prohibiting using the names of any witnesses who were minors.
In Monday testimony, a 17-year-old teammate of Anthonyβs said that his team had sought refuge from the rain under the fieldβs baseball dugout, but soon was ordered to leave by a baseball coach. The rain stopped briefly. But when it restarted, Anthony headed to the Memorial tent, the witness, a Centennial High School rising senior, testified.
At the trial, a string of witnesses gave accounts of the events leading to Austin Metcalfβs fatal stabbing.Β Meghan Metcalf
The witness said he was on the field testing his spiked track shoes when yelling suddenly broke out, catching the teenβs attention.
βWhen I looked up … I heard a sound not like yelling, but louder voices than usual and when I looked over, people were looking back, and so it caught my attention at that point,β he said.
The commotion worried him enough that he told police his friend might need help.
After slowly walking closer, he saw a push between people and arms and elbows flailing, louder yelling and more people standing. He said he thought someone had been stung by a bee, causing the chaos.
When he next saw Anthony, he was crying and a coach was holding him and comforting him, he said. The witness said he overheard Anthony say, βI told him not to touch me.β
Earlier in the trial other witnesses had said Anthony made similar warnings to Metcalf before things escalated.
Under prosecutorsβ questioning, the witness agreed that his previous belief that Anthony was surrounded when the stabbing happened was incorrect. That narrative has been circulated on social media.
But on cross-examination, the teen also agreed that people were sitting all around Anthony under the tent.
He also acknowledged when he was requestioned by the defense that he did not see a large part of what happened and did not know whether Anthonyβs actions were justified.
Prosecutors tried to show Anthony should have been warming up with his teammates and could have stood under the bleachers when it began raining. State prosecutor Bill Wirskye underscored that when the Centennial coach told team members to leave the track because of the rain, they followed his instructions.
βSomeone asks you to leave, you leave, right?β Wirskye said. βYes, sir,β the teen witness responded.
Earlier, a 17-year-old Frisco High School student also entering his senior year said track-and-field athletes tend to be more social and itβs not uncommon for students to enter another teamβs tent.
Police at the scene after the stabbing in Frisco, Texas, on April 2, 2025.NBC Dallas Fort Worth
After that witness said he did not recall seeing someone pushed or hit, defense attorney Mike Howard noted that the witness had said in a statement to police after the stabbing that βthe kid that got hit, does a βswing-like motion.ββ The teen witness agreed he had made that statement, but said on Monday he couldnβt remember whether it happened.
Before releasing jurors for the evening, Roach admonished them not to discuss the case outside of deliberations and warned them not to look up anything online, including social media, because βthey donβt know anything.β
The judge said the charge to the jury β instructions on the charges, legal questions to answer and burden of proof needed to reach a verdict β will be long and will be given Tuesday morning.
Suzanne Gamboa reported from Austin, Texas, and Maria Guerrero and Meredith Yeomans from McKinney.
News
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