Karmelo Anthony trial: Inside the courtroom as victim's friends testify

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: You're watching live now from Fox. It's great to be with you on this Friday evening here. We are going to stay in Texas for our next story as the courtroom on the second day of testimony in the Carmelo Anthony trial has adjourned. The former Frisco Independent School District student is accused of fatally stabbing another student at a high school track meet. Carmelo Anthony faces a murder charge in the death of 17-year-old Austin Metcalfe. Police say Anthony and Metcalfe got into an argument over seating and the stadium stands on April 2nd, 2025, which escalated when Anthony stabbed Metcalfe in the chest with a pocket knife. Here to break it all down for us, day two in the courtroom, Fox 4's Amelia Jones. Amelia, what can you tell us? [00:00:53] Amelia Jones: Hi there, Alex. The prosecution called multiple students to testify during the afternoon session of court. Those students were there at the track meet that day. They were either under the Memorial High School tent or nearby. Now, many of these students are minors, so this was really difficult for them to describe and recall, relive what happened. Many of the students also interviewed with police detectives for the initial investigation and the defense brought those police transcripts of those interviews up multiple times during cross-examination. Friday afternoon's testimony consisted of students recalling what they saw and heard at the track meet last April. Most of the students are minors under the age of 17, so their names cannot be shared. Much of the teenager's testimony was consistent. A few described seeing Anthony, a Centennial student, say hi to a student under the Memorial tent and sit by him. They testified that 17-year-old Austin Metcalfe verbally told Carmelo Anthony, 17 at the time, to leave the Memorial tent multiple times. They also testified that Anthony did not move and kept his hand inside his backpack. Multiple witnesses told the court they heard Anthony say "touch me and see what happens." The description of the physical altercation between Metcalfe and Anthony differed between witnesses. Some witnesses demonstrated to the jury they saw Metcalfe use one hand. Others testified they saw Metcalfe use both hands when he touched Anthony. Some used lighter terms such as "nudge" and "touch." Others used "grab" and "shove" to describe the force behind the physical confrontation. It's not unreasonable that these [00:02:38] Allison Richardson: teenagers would have differing views. They were probably all in fight or flight and having trouble, [00:02:45] Amelia Jones: you know, processing what happened at that time. Allison Richardson is a principal trial consultant, not involved in the case. She says the jurors are going to consider what a reasonable person would do in the situation. But the testimony from the students is something the prosecution could bring up again [00:03:02] Allison Richardson: in closing arguments. There's no doubt in my mind the prosecution will address this testimony because it's vital in considering whether or not he acted in self-defense or not. In cross-examination of the [00:03:15] Amelia Jones: witnesses, Anthony's defense team asked the teenagers to indicate their location on a diagram of the bleachers at Kirkendall Stadium, then indicate where Metcalfe and Anthony were. The defense honed in on the physical comparison between Metcalfe and Anthony. One witness testified Metcalfe had "50 to 60 pounds on Anthony." [00:03:36] Allison Richardson: But we don't know the other side of the story yet. And what these jurors have agreed to do is to listen to both sides of the story. And so we may see some surprises in that testimony when the defense opens, and we may not. [00:03:51] Amelia Jones: Friday morning, the jury watched multiple police body camera videos. Frisco ISD school resource officer Eduardo Cortez took the stand and testified he was the one who took Anthony into custody. The jury watched his body camera video that showed Cortez radio to dispatch that he had "the alleged suspect in custody." Then you hear Anthony on the video tell Cortez "I'm not alleged, I did it." Anthony appeared to get emotional in the body camera video and goes on to say "he put his hands on me, I told him not to." The jury was also shown pictures of the knife used in the stabbing. It was found three to four rows from the crime scene tape in between some bleachers. But the most gut-wrenching moment was when the jury saw another police officer's body camera video that captured first responders doing CPR on Metcalfe at the bottom of the bleachers. Calfe's twin brother Hunter is seen sobbing on the ground of the track field. He's heard on one of the body camera videos yelling, "that's my best friend, that's my brother." A very difficult and emotional moment for those in the court, especially Metcalfe's family. The prosecution ended each testimony of the students with a similar set of questions. Did the witness believe the stabbing was self-defense? Did Austin Metcalfe look like he wanted to fight? And who was the aggressor? From my notes in court today, the witnesses were consistent in their answers. They testified that they did not believe the stabbing was self-defense, they did not believe Metcalfe wanted to fight, and they identified Anthony as the aggressor. Court will resume tomorrow. Testimony is set to begin at 9 a.m. [00:05:37] Speaker 1: Back to you. Amelia Jones with Fox 4 Dallas. We appreciate your reporting as always. In this case, there are no cameras in the courtroom, so these reporters have really served as the eyes and the ears in this case. At this point here on Live Now from Fox, we do want to bring on some expert voices into this. Let's bring on defense attorney Jeremy Rosenthal to discuss what happened in the courtroom today. Hey, Jeremy, thanks for joining us here on Live Now. Thank you for having me. So we know that today Metcalfe's teammates testified in the courtroom. How did they describe the moments leading up to the [00:06:17] Speaker 4: staff? You heard a really consistent story. I think we heard from roughly six witnesses who were there under the tent. And functionally, Carmelo Anthony comes underneath the tent. There was a lot of rain that day, and so there had been a delay. Carmelo Anthony comes and takes a seat. He greets a friend, is sitting with a friend by all accounts, not doing anything, not bothering anybody. And he was asked to leave multiple times. It was not his team's tent. The coach had instructed the other team members, you know, that we're not going to let anybody else sit under here. And everybody's testimony was consistent that Austin Metcalfe sort of took exception to it. There were varying accounts of how Austin Metcalfe approached Carmelo Anthony. Carmelo Anthony was sitting down at all times. Nobody testified really any differently, at least until after the stabbing. And there was a lot of testimony that Carmelo Anthony had his hand in a bag. And was essentially threatening and saying, if you, you know, touch me and you'll find out. And there was some discussion, too, about whether or not he had something in the bag. One witness testified that he thought that there might be something in the bag and told Austin Metcalfe to leave Anthony alone. But most people said they didn't believe anything was in there. In fact, one person testified that Austin Metcalfe said, this is Briscoe. And so I know you're not carrying anything in there. Then the testimony, again, varied just like the reporter said, varying accounts of how Austin Metcalfe made contact with Carmelo Anthony. It was described as a push, as a shove, kind of a linebacker drill, if you will, where one player pushes the dummy, the tackle dummy sort of up and out. So there were varying degrees of force from what it sounds like. But Austin Metcalfe, everybody agreed, was standing. Carmelo Anthony was sitting. And then Carmelo Anthony reacted by [00:08:38] Speaker 1: by stabbing Austin Metcalfe. And we've known that defense is trying to argue that Anthony was acting in self-defense. Describe to us the approach, the approach from the defense attorneys trying to argue this during [00:08:54] Speaker 4: cross-examination today. I think the prosecution scored a lot of emotional victories today. But in doing so, they make themselves, I think, really vulnerable to a lot of legal attack. And you can see the defense sort of, they care about what they care about and they don't care about what they don't care about. We saw a knife. We saw the knife that was recovered and there's blood on the knife. But we're not debating how much blood was on the knife because it doesn't really matter when you're talking about self-defense. So the defense was very particular in setting up, where was Austin Metcalfe? Where was he standing? Where was he going? Was he standing? Was Carmelo Anthony sitting? They're trying to make the danger that Carmelo Anthony was facing real. That's their entire challenge here. At one point they sort of demonstrated through a law enforcement school resource officer. What they did was they asked, can hands be a deadly weapon? Can hands cause serious bodily injury? Elevating the danger through just an assault. And the police officer had to agree with them. So they're able to sort of keep their trial theory intact. That's what you try to do in a case that's sort of where the facts are really so confined, where everybody sort of testifies about the same. [00:10:17] Speaker 1: And Fox for Dallas did write that the defense team is seemingly trying to point out some inconsistencies between the testimony in the courtroom today and previous statements that some of the witnesses have given to police. But I do want to move on here to some other witness testimony that we have not touched on quite yet. Of course, Jeremy, there is no cameras in the courtroom. So the folks sitting in the courtroom for us are really the eyes and the ears in this case. What happens with these legal proceedings? Jeremy, jurors watched body camera video of Anthony's arrest. What stood out to you in that [00:10:53] Speaker 4: video and as the officer who arrested Anthony testified? The main debate when it came to the arrest video was Carmelo Anthony's emotional state. And that has a direct correlation because there's probably going to be a debate in this case between manslaughter, unintentional murder or first degree murder. So Carmelo Anthony's and his excitement, his state of mind, I think is really, really important. And what we saw on the video was that it really varied. At one point at the very beginning of the video with the officer, you can hear Carmelo Anthony almost sort of hysterically say he touched me. And so he was really kind of in a panicked state. This would be maybe less than a minute after the stabbing that the officer actually made contact with him. And so the prosecution tried to point out that his affect might have been sort of flatter somewhat quickly thereafter, more flat while he was in the squad car. So sort of the game within the game when it came to his, to that, to that particular piece of video was sort of the defense trying to show that look, he was really hysterical before he asked, was this guy okay. And then he was still hysterical in the car. The prosecution did their best to try to flatten that out and sort of make it sort of less emotional. Right. But again, that all sort of relates to the charge of manslaughter as as compared to a first degree homicide case. We don't pay as much attention to that. We're all paying attention to the, to the self-defense charge. But that was sort of the main takeaway from that initial video. [00:12:43] Speaker 1: And Jeremy, you've talked quite a bit about the emotion that jurors are seeing from some of this video and some of this evidence from that day in 2025. But I'm curious about today and yesterday, what has Anthony's demeanor been like in the courtroom? [00:12:57] Speaker 4: There's not been a lot of emotion there from him. I think he's been coached probably pretty well. He's wearing a suit that looks sharp on him. He's, he's been very well composed. There's not been a whole lot of emotion during the time when, when some of the video was playing that showed Austin Metcalf receiving CPR, some very dramatic video. Uh, there were his, his, his hands were kind of up and his lawyers were consoling him. Uh, his hair is not the same as it was, uh, in, in his mugshot. Uh, so, uh, the, the, the defense has been very careful to sort of manicure his appearance. [00:13:39] Speaker 1: And just a couple of moments ago, you briefly mentioned that pocket knife, um, images of that shown to jurors, that weapon recovered at the scene. Uh, talk to us a little bit more about that evidence. What, what did everyone see in the courtroom today? [00:13:54] Speaker 4: That, that was a very interesting point. Um, so it, it's a folding knife and it's about three and a half inches long. It's perfectly legal in the state of Texas, although it was not authorized to go into the stadium. The stadium prohibits, uh, uh, really any, any type of, of, of, of knife like that. Um, and what was interesting about it was that it was recovered in a folded position. That knife, the folding knife has an option to either lock out, um, or it can be folded in and, and it was recovered really kind of at a 45 degree angle, if you will. Uh, he, he discarded it as he was leaving. He threw it and it was raining pretty heavily. So a lot of the blood had already washed off of it. Um, but, uh, after when, when they recovered it, uh, the prosecution sort of pointed out that, that it was sort of folded. My impression of it and, and some of the other people in the courtroom, our, our sort of impression was that it may actually help, uh, a self-defense charge or a manslaughter charge, because that would show that, that, that Mr. Anthony didn't have it locked out. Uh, that he didn't have it necessarily locked out in time to use it. In other words, he wasn't premeditating this, uh, and that this might've been reactive. Maybe he was fumbling, uh, for, for the knife at the time that he used it. Maybe the knife wasn't in full locked position, uh, when the stabbing occurred, he also had a, a, a, um, uh, a bit of a nick, if you will, on, on one of his fingers that, that there was some blood that was trickling out. And we saw some photographs of that. So the recovery of the knife really brought an interesting point in. Um, and candidly, I, I think it probably helped the defense, uh, a lot more than it helped the prosecution. [00:15:38] Speaker 1: Yeah. Evidence that we will, uh, certainly continue to follow and get your analysis on. Jeremy, my last question for you, race and fairness has been a major part of this trial. What did you hear about racial dynamics today, either in the courtroom or even outside of the courtroom? [00:15:55] Speaker 4: Uh, well, it's a very different scene to be sure. Uh, I've been practicing Collin County, Texas for, uh, 20 years plus now. And I don't know that I've seen an environment quite like this. Uh, and, and the, the security measures are, are extremely tight to get our seat in the courtroom. I had to be there at 5:30 in the morning. Um, and, uh, so that part of it is, is, is very manicured. Um, that said, uh, there were certain pieces of testimony that when they came out, you heard an audible gasp, uh, from, from African American jurors. There was one, uh, there was one moment where one of the witnesses testified that, you know, he thinks that Frisco is a perfectly safe place and he can't see why anybody would need a knife or something like that. And that, that drew an audible gasp, um, from, uh, from, from, from a lot of the, uh, uh, Carmelo Anthony family. Um, so you, you have a little bit of that. Now I will say this, um, the, the, the prosecution called four witnesses. Uh, they called six overall students. Four of those witnesses were African Americans. Four students testified that were African Americans. Um, I don't know if that was intentional or unintentional. The prosecution did address an open court, the race issue through one of the witnesses. Um, if there's an issue here, uh, if, if, if as a lawyer, I have any concerns, um, day one of the trial, uh, several days ago, uh, there were three challenges for, for, for under what, what's called Batson versus Kentucky. That's the case that says that you cannot exclude a juror because of race. Um, when you challenge another lawyer on that, that's, that's just, there's just no nice way to put it. That's a middle finger to another lawyer. Um, when, when you, when you make a Batson challenge against them. Um, that's a very serious charge that you're, that you're essentially taking racist actions in the courtroom. Um, the judge overruled those objections, but you have a jury that is diverse. However, there are no African Americans on that jury. And if I have a concern about the public perception of the proceedings, it's that, um, I I I'm concerned that a certain, I I'm concerned that some folks might. Undermine the, the outcome, regardless of what it is at this point for that reason alone. Um, but race is really certainly at the forefront. I think of a lot of people's minds when it comes to this case. [00:18:24] Speaker 1: We've certainly covered a lot of ground here. I'm sure you have a very full, a notebook, as I mentioned before, no cameras in the courtroom. So we really do appreciate you coming on the show before we end. Is there anything else that piqued your interest today in the courtroom that you think we missed and you'd like to share with our audience? [00:18:42] Speaker 4: Um, the, uh, the prosecution still is on direct examination and, uh, they're, they're, they're doing an effective job. I think they're very polished in their approach with a lot of these witnesses. We're sort of getting to the point of redundancy with a lot of these witnesses. Um, they're, they're really all sort of saying the same thing or close to it. Um, if somebody says something that's out of step, the jury sort of sees that and the defense lawyers, a lot of times are just afraid not to call every witness that they could possibly call and to give as thorough cross-examination as they can possibly give. But I think the, the, the, the, what happened out there, I think is certainly congealed for the jury. Uh, so the further and further you get into these trials, the, the, the more and more, or the less and less likely it is that some, some surprise testimony comes out that really changes perceptions. Uh, Carmelo Anthony is almost certainly going to testify in this case. That's going to be the make or break day. Uh, but, uh, but yeah, it, it, it's fascinating stuff. And, and again, uh, my takeaway today was that I think the prosecution won a lot of emotional victories, uh, but they left a lot of doors open for the defense, uh, strategically. [00:19:54] Speaker 1: All right. Defense attorney, Jeremy Rosenthal, we appreciate you coming on the show with your insight and analysis. You are sitting in the courtroom. You have a seat in that courtroom. So you are helping us, uh, be our eyes and ears in this case. We appreciate you. [00:20:08] Speaker ?: Thank you. [00:20:08] Speaker 1: Thank you.