Karmelo Anthony is asking a newly appointed Texas judge to grant him a retrial after he was sentenced to 35 years in prison for murdering Austin Metcalf last year.
Anthony’s new attorney, Russell Wilson, told the court that the judge who presided at trial, Judge John Roach, had allowed a “shadow docket” that didn’t grant full transparency when he presided over the trial earlier this year.
“Everything was done off the record, at an astonishing clip,” Wilson told Judge Michael Chitty during an Aug. 20 hearing.
They pointed to a statement Roach made during an interview after the trial, showing the court footage where the judge was asked if jurors “got it right” when they rendered a guilty verdict.
“Yeah, they did,” Roach responded. “Whatever they say, they got it right.”
Texas prosecutor Bill Wirskye told the court Thursday that Anthony’s previous attorneys had agreed to the previous trial’s procedures, and that the young man had received a fair trial.
The hearing to determine if a retrial is warranted is expected to continue on Friday, Aug. 21.
The killing took place at a track meet in Frisco, Texas, last April. It was raining, and 17-year-old Metcalf and his teammates returned to a tent in the bleachers to find Anthony—who was on an opposing team and the same age as Metcalf—standing there.
Metcalf and others asked Anthony to leave, but he refused. According to witnesses, the pair began to argue; Anthony was the aggressor and wanted to fight, but Metcalf refused, they said.
Anthony dared Metcalf to “touch me and see what happens.” After Metcalf shoved him, Anthony pulled a folding knife from a bag, stabbed Metcalf in the chest, and fled. Police apprehended him shortly after.
Anthony’s attorneys at the trial argued that he acted out of fear, and in self-defense. He did not take the stand.
Jurors convicted Anthony of first-degree murder in June after three hours of deliberation. They opted to reject a lesser charge of manslaughter.
Though it isn’t apparent that race was a motivating factor, the case has been cast in that light following national attention. A local chapter of the NAACP complained that in a “high-profile, racially divisive case involving a black defendant,” it was concerning that there were no black jurors.
“This was not a race thing,“ Metcalf’s father said during an interview with Fox News. “This is not a political thing. Please do not comment if you do not know what happened.
“This is a human being thing. This person made a bad choice and it affected both his family and my family forever.”