Karmelo Anthony murder trial: Closing arguments to begin as defense rests

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: I'm Andy Mack. The defense has rested their case in the Carmelo-Anthony trial as the Texas teenager is accused of fatally stabbing a 17-year-old Austin Metcalf at a high school track meet. Anthony, now 19, charged with a 2025 death in that confrontation. The case has drawn national attention featuring emotional testimony. It wrapped up today. The jury potentially has their hands on it tomorrow following closing arguments. The case began moving forward very rapidly. As prosecutors say, the stabbing was an unjustified attack stemming from an argument over whether Anthony could be under the tent of Metcalf's team. Anthony's attorneys have argued that he acted in self-defense and reacted in fear during a split-second moment after Metcalf made physical contact. Let's be joined right now, a friend of the program, criminal defense attorney met in panic. And Matt, this was slated to go a couple weeks, but now the state resting, the defense resting on Monday will be in the hands of the jury starting potentially on Tuesday. What do we make of just the swiftness of this trial so far? [00:01:12] Speaker 2: It has moved exceptionally fast for a homicide case. Both sides are asking the correct questions and succinctly, which is very important in a criminal case. That said, as it stands, I definitely think the prosecution's case is a lot stronger. When you heard the evidence, there didn't seem to be any kind of opportunity that the alleged victim, Austin Metcalf, made that would put Carmelo Anthony in serious imminent fear of serious bodily injury of death, which is required for self-defense under Texas law. [00:01:47] Speaker 1: Yeah. And obviously they made some of the cases, the defense only kept calling a handful of witnesses today. And notably no Carmelo Anthony taking the stand to share his first person perspective on how he felt, how he saw the moment in which it all went down at that high school track meet. Behind that, obviously, he doesn't have to testify. Do you think there was a reason? What did they weigh in that decision? [00:02:11] Speaker 2: When you decide whether or not your client, because the decision lies with the client alone, whether to testify in a criminal case, you have to decide what is the upside in doing so? Is your client somebody who's going to be able to sway the juries? Is he going to be able to bring sympathy? Is he going to be able to lay out what he was thinking at the time of the incident? My feeling is that that's not the case, because this is a self-defense case. You have to put the jury in your shoes at the time of the incident. They need to feel what you were feeling, your decision-making process, because the burden stays with the prosecution throughout the case. But as it stands, the prosecution witnesses and the defense witnesses didn't really paint a picture of what Carmelo Anthony's decision-making, what it was in those moments before he stabbed off Metcalfe. So if you're a juror, you're thinking to yourself, how are we supposed to acquit this person? Because I didn't see this kind of imminent fear of seriously bodily injury or death in this based on the facts and evidence presented, and that's required for, say, self-defense. [00:03:22] Speaker 1: Yeah, obviously very difficult to kind of go through all of these. And we heard so much testimony from it. And we do know closing arguments taking place on Tuesday. Then obviously the jury will have it in their deliberations and they will be sequestered if it goes beyond Tuesday. Why do they do that? Why is the judge putting it in a place where they won't be able to go home? They'll have to kind of stay [00:03:44] Speaker 2: sequestered to until they come up with a decision. So this is a high profile case. Normally cameras are allowed in a courtroom in a state case. So I think what the judge is thinking is based on the social media traffic on this case and the publicity it's gotten, that it's best to be able to keep the jurors sequestered and just base their verdict and their deliberations based on the evidence presented and ignore the outside noise. That is deafening at this point in this case throughout all major news outlets [00:04:17] Speaker 1: as well as social media. Yeah, that's so very true. So many people watching this awaiting a decision from this jury as well. We do know closing arguments taking place tomorrow. What kind of arguments might they make? What type of points will both sides be trying to get across? The prosecution is going to [00:04:37] Speaker 2: get into the fact about how, if he's claiming self-defense, he has, there has to be evidence. It shows that Carmelo Anthony was a reasonably in fear of serious bodily injury or death. What we heard, I think he touched the shoulder, maybe got shoved, neither of which are a situation where a reasonably prudent person would believe that their life was in serious bodily injury or death. That's what they're going to hammer home. They're going to talk about how he brought the knife to this track meet. That knife was not allowed on campus. The size of it, I believe it was five inches. So when you're thinking about the size of it, this is not just a little Swiss army knife that somebody would carry around with them wherever they go. This is a rather large knife. And you're thinking to yourself, why did this individual bring this to this track meet? The prosecution would be like, this, the alleged, the defendant shouldn't have been in this tent at the time of the incident. Put it all together and he should be convicted. The defense is going to say, it's like, um, he was outmanned by numerous people inside this tent. Uh, Mr. Metcalf was, uh, talking to him in a very aggressive tone. He feared that he was about to be, uh, triple teamed by numerous people. So he got the knife out to defend himself with one single knife. But the problem with that is, is there were words that were said before that he was like, just touch me and you'll see what happens. Almost egging the alleged victim on in this case to be able to do something so that he could respond. And that's definitely something that's going to be in the [00:06:12] Speaker 1: forefront of jurors minds when they go to deliberate. Yeah. They're trying to paint the picture for both sides, prosecution and defense come for those closing arguments. Obviously, Carmelo Anthony on trial facing the charges of first degree murder, which are very serious charges. Will the jury be able to weigh anything lesser if they potentially don't all agree on that one? [00:06:34] Speaker 2: Yes, they'll be able, I believe they'll be given the instruction for second degree murder and voluntary manslaughter. Um, it could be a situation where the jury might feel that first degree murder might be, um, a little over the top and they might compromise on second degree murder. Obviously, you never know what a jury is going to do. You don't know what facts they are. The composition of the jury is, um, different ethnicities, backgrounds, genders. So it'll be interesting to see what they actually come to when they make their verdict. [00:07:05] Speaker 1: What else big takeaways can you take from this trial? It went very fast, very expeditiously. What else do you [00:07:13] Speaker 2: want to know before I let you go? What I would want to know is how, uh, when the prosecution is presenting their closing argument, how are you going to convince the jurors that Carmelo Anthony is, was not acting in self-defense? What actions are you going to hammer home during your closing arguments to, to convince them to convict of some kind of murder charge? Yeah. First degree murder, obviously facing some [00:07:44] Speaker 1: significant time if convicted. All right, Matt, thank you so much for joining us. I appreciate your time, your insight. You're on live now from Vox. Thank you, Andy. [00:07:52] Speaker ?: Thank you.