Karmelo Anthony's parents speak out after teen's murder conviction

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: Attorneys for the Texas teenager convicted of stabbing a fellow high school student athlete to death have filed a notice of appeal. A jury sentenced 19-year-old Carmelo Anthony to 35 years in prison for the fatal stabbing of Austin Metcalf earlier this week. His legal team argued it was self-defense. CBS News correspondent Jonah Kaplan sat down exclusively with Anthony's parents after the verdict came down. They spoke about the trial, their son, and the divisions in the Texas suburb. [00:00:30] Speaker 2: My son didn't intend to hurt anyone. My son was defending himself. [00:00:39] Speaker 3: It took less than three hours for a jury to reject 19-year-old Carmelo Anthony's claims of self-defense in the stabbing death of 17-year-old Austin Metcalf. Prosecutors argued Anthony intentionally killed Metcalf after being taunted and shoved by Metcalf and his teammates at a high school track meet. Take us inside that courtroom. What stuck out to you? [00:01:02] Speaker 4: What stuck out to me, number one, was the all-white jury. But I was trying to be, you know, like, oh, it's not that big of a deal. I mean, the truth is on our side. [00:01:11] Speaker 3: At the sentencing hearing, the defense called only one witness on Anthony's behalf, his mother, Kayla Hayes. What did you tell the jury? [00:01:20] Speaker 2: To have mercy on my son. [00:01:22] Speaker 4: What do you say to his grieving family? It's unfortunate to where nobody wins. We've all been hurt about this. Everybody. [00:01:32] Speaker 5: That poor boy is fixing to experience a life that I would not wish upon anyone. [00:01:41] Speaker 3: Austin Metcalf's father, Jeff, called Anthony's sentencing bittersweet. [00:01:45] Speaker 5: What it boils down to for me is this. Austin will never walk through that door again and never give me a hug. [00:01:54] Speaker 3: The case drew national attention, prompting protests in support of both teens. And both families involved say they've received threats. This morning, I've had multiple emails, texts, threatening me, calling me all sorts of names. During our interview, the Anthony's made a point to call back one man they say continues to dox them. [00:02:15] Speaker 4: Why are you calling me, man? [00:02:19] Speaker 1: Make fun of you. [00:02:21] Speaker 3: Both families urged supporters to tame their emotions. [00:02:25] Speaker 5: I forgave him. But people need to understand about forgiveness. Forgiveness was not for him. Forgiveness was for me. So I don't carry the rage, the hate, and that around. It will eat me up like cancer. [00:02:36] Speaker 4: At the end of the day, there's nothing we can say or do for people to accept it. I'm Johnny Kaplan in McKinney, Texas. [00:02:44] Speaker 1: CBS News legal contributor Caroline Polisi joins us now to break down the key aspects of this case. Caroline, good morning. Great to have you here. So many people online have deep opinions on this, despite not being where the incident happened. Everybody is brokenhearted here. But help us understand the jury selection process and the quick deliberations, and if it might be something used on appeal because of how it played out. [00:03:10] Speaker 6: Yeah, very divisive trial tore a community apart, Errol, which is why there's so much focus on this part. And I think particularly in the sentencing, they came back really quickly. Three-hour deliberation, meaning they wholesale rejected this concept that the defense put forward of some sort of self-defense. Remember, the facts are disputed, but we do know that there was potentially some sort of altercation, a push, perhaps an inciting incident that led to the lead-up of this really, really tragic death, which has now been deemed a murder. And so what you see now is Carmelo Anthony has filed a notice of appeal. We don't know the arguments that he's going to make. It's a procedural, you know, thing that he's done now, basically alerting the court that he's going to appeal. And you do note there are some issues here, I think, even leading into the trial that are not necessarily legal arguments about the evidence in the trial, but are how the jury was selected. There's what's known as a Batson challenge his attorneys made. The prosecution used some of their peremptory challenges to take out black jurors, potential black jurors on this case. There were no black jurors eventually seated on the case, and so I think that that will be an issue on appeal. I also think the defense did a disservice at the sentencing phase here for Carmelo Anthony. They only called one character witness, his mother. They had the opportunity to present a more compelling mitigation case. 35 years, you know, it's a long time. The jury didn't accept this heat of passion argument that was put forward in the instruction. So there are a lot of issues here. Legally speaking, very quick, very quick decision on the part of the jury. [00:05:05] Speaker 1: And online, you know, people have their own opinions. Both families are being harassed, as we just saw in this report. And the jury selection process, as you noted, you know, was interesting as well. But the defense didn't bring up a lot of character witnesses for Carmelo Anthony himself to help bolster this sense his side was making, that it was self-defense. Why do you think that was? [00:05:28] Speaker 6: Yeah, so two things. He didn't take the stand in the case-in-chief in his own defense. Typically, criminal defendants don't take the stand. But in self-defense cases in particular, you kind of have to. They do, because there's a subjective element. We really needed to hear him, or jurors would really need to hear him say that he subjectively was fearful of his life. These two twin brothers, as alleged, were much larger in stature than he was. They had told him to leave. There was apparently a push. So that would have been key testimony. And then on the sentencing phase, typically you would see calling potentially teachers, coaches in this young man's life to try to portray him not as a monster, but as somebody who potentially maybe deserves some mercy in the sentencing phase. So that was a failing. [00:06:16] Speaker 1: And we have to note, for the Metcalfs, they've lost their son. He is gone. And now the decision has been made that he was murdered. As we see the appeal process play out, though, what might change? Just the sentencing, perhaps? [00:06:28] Speaker 6: Well, it's a very high bar to get an appeal. You know, he filed as an indigent, meaning he doesn't have the resources to retain an attorney on appeal. He would like the state to pay for that. There are some issues whether or not that's going to have been granted. There was a GoFundMe page in this case to raise funds for his legal defense, which could play into his claim of indigence. And so this will take a long time for sure. Typically, I don't see this going well for him in the appeals process. Criminal defendants always appeal their convictions. Very difficult to get something overturned. So I think we're going to see him, you know, serve this sentence. [00:07:06] Speaker 1: And my final question to you, just as we watch this play out, it may take time as an appeal unfolds. Both families are being harassed. This has ripped up a community. And even online, folks don't agree on what happened or the outcome. Does that play a role at all in how a judge might decide how quickly to decide on things? Or is it completely irrelevant? [00:07:28] Speaker 6: I don't think so. Look, there's more of a spotlight on this. So they may feel compelled to, you know, really take a strong look at the legal arguments because they know everybody's watching. But no, really, you know, these types of issues are meant to stay outside of the courtroom. That's why our system is supposed to be inoculated from these things. The jury was going to be sequestered if they were going to deliberate overnight because you want to really keep them insulated from any of this outside noise. And there has been a lot of noise on this case. [00:07:57] Speaker 1: Yeah. Caroline Polisi, appreciate you being here explaining the key legal aspects. Thank you. Thank you so much.