💔⚖️ “YOU SHOULD FEEL LUCKY IT’S ONLY 35 YEARS…” Austin Metcalf’s mother told Karmelo Anthony in court: “You should feel lucky it’s only 35 years, because I had to serve a life sentence without my son by my side.” Her words left the courtroom stunned and highlight the unimaginable grief she continues to carry. 📌 Full courtroom drama and reaction in comments 👇
Austin Metcalf’s parents read victim impact statements to Karmelo Anthony after sentencing
“You should feel lucky you got 35 years because I’ve been given a life sentence without my son,” Metcalf’s mother told Anthony in court.After being sentenced to 35 years in prison for the murder of Austin Metcalf, the victim’s parents read emotional impact statements to Karmelo Anthony in court.
Investigators say that morning, in April 2025, 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 argued it was 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.
Meghan Metcalf, Austin Metcalf’s mother, addressed the defendant, who had slightly raised his head from the table.
“We will never know what our future could have been,” Mrs. Metcalf said, crying. Jeff Metcalf was also crying. “For journalists, activists, this is a story. For our family, this is our reality.”
“My house is now quiet,” she said.
She said she hopes to wake up one morning and find out this was all a nightmare.
She said that now, all her conversations with her son are at his grave. She looks at Anthony a few times as she speaks these words.
“He didn’t just die,” she said. “He was taken from us.”
Addressing the defendant directly, her tone rising with anger, Austin Metcalf’s mother said: “You should feel lucky you got 35 years because I’ve been given a life sentence without my son.”
She then snatches her paper up, and walks right past Anthony back to her seat in the gallery.
Jeff Metcalf, Austin Metcalf’s father, then made his own statement.
“We were robbed!” he said directly to Karmelo Anthony. “Don’t look down!”
“This was never about race,” the father said. “It is about right and wrong.”
Jeff Metcalf was looking and talking directly to Anthony, who still had his head down.
“My boys weren’t bullies,” he said. “I’ve been swatted six times,” referring to harassment by activists and others targeting the Metcalf family.
“My son’s death destroyed the person I used to be,” the father said. “He does not exist anymore.”
“People think grief is sadness, it is not. It is rage. Pure unfiltered rage,” he said as he slammed his fist on a table, his voice rising.
“You don’t belong in this community!” he told the 19-year-old defendant. “A piece of me died with my son, and I’m expected to keep living.”
“You’re going to prison. I forgave you the day it happened. I don’t forgive what you did,” he told Anthony. “You can’t look me in the eyes but you can stab my f—— son!”
After he finished speaking, Jeff Metcalf stared at his son’s killer the entire time he walked by, passing two feet from Anthony.
