MCKINNEY, Texas — High school track star Karmelo Anthony was asked 15 times to leave the tent for an opposing team but “refused” to — allegedly sparking the deadly stabbing of fellow teen Austin Metcalf last year, a witness testified Friday.
The witness, a 17-year-old Frisco Memorial High School student, explained that he and at least six others were under their school’s team tent when he saw Anthony in their area wearing the opposing Frisco Centennial High School gear.
Memorial students started telling Anthony, “You probably shouldn’t be here, you need to leave our tent,” recounted the witness — whose name was ordered to be withheld because of his age.
Several teammates asked Anthony, then 17, to leave around 15 times, including Metcalf.
“Touch me and find out,” Anthony responded at the Kuykendall Stadium.
During the roughly two-minute tiff, Metcalf, 17, gave Anthony a “minor pushing” and Anthony stabbed Metcalf, the teen testified.
Leading up to the fatal moment, Anthony had his hand in his open backpack on his lap but the students all thought he was bluffing, the witness said.
Anthony ditched the knife and bolted down the stands and onto the track.
Metcalf fell on his back, stood back up and lifted his shirt as he leaned on the railing — with a scared look on his face as he saw his bleeding chest, the teen claimed.
“I think he said, ‘Oh my God,’” he recalled Metcalf saying.
Jurors then heard a 911 call made by the witness in which he frantically told the operator “My friend just got stabbed. My friend is bleeding everywhere.”
The teen denied that the Memorial students “ganged up” on Anthony, instead claiming that Anthony “created a problem.”
Jalen Matthews, a second teammate of Metcalf who is 18 and has since graduated, testified during the entire exchange Mecalf’s twin, Hunter, was on his phone believing the sibling would handle the situation.
And one of the Memorial students said, “You have nothing in the backpack, you’re from Frisco,” Matthews recalled.
Anthony was looking off into the distance and he “clearly knew what he had his mind set on,” Matthews said.
He recalled that Metcalf pushed Anthony upward “like lineman drills” and at the same time Anthony moved to stand stabbing Metcalf.
Matthews said it didn’t look like the knifing was in self-defense because Metcalf wasn’t threatening Anthony.
He said Anthony was the instigator.
Earlier Friday, the jury heard Hunter sobbing and screaming on a body cam video played in court in the moments after Austin was stabbed.
Anthony’s lawyer claimed Metcalf provoked Anthony and the April 2, 2025 stabbing was in self-defense.
Anthony — who pleaded not guilty — faces up to life in prison if convicted.
