Karmelo Anthony stays silent as analysts warn defense faces uphill battle in track meet stabbing trial

Karmelo Anthony's defense team rested its case Monday without calling the defendant to the witness stand, setting the stage for closing arguments Tuesday morning in his murder trial in the stabbing of 17-year-old track athlete Austin Metcalf.

The case is being tried at the Collin County courthouse in Texas. Anthony faces a first-degree murder charge in connection with the April 2025 stabbing death of Metcalf, a Memorial High School athlete. The fatal confrontation took place beneath a Memorial High School team tent during a high school track meet. Anthony has acknowledged that he stabbed Metcalf but has maintained throughout the proceedings that he acted in self-defense.

Legal analysts following the trial have raised questions about whether that self-defense claim will resonate with jurors, particularly given the testimony that emerged during the prosecution's presentation.

Fox News legal contributor Joshua Ritter, a criminal defense attorney, suggested on Monday that an unexpected delay as the defense case neared its end may have reflected behind-the-scenes discussions about whether Anthony would take the stand.

"Perhaps they're talking to Karmelo Anthony about whether or not he wants to testify," Ritter said on "The Story."

No plea agreement was reached, and when proceedings resumed, the defense rested without putting Anthony on the witness stand.

Ritter speculated that the defense may have been recalibrating its approach after a prosecution case he characterized as strong. "We're hearing that the defense case may not be going as they had hoped and planned," he said. "Perhaps they're looking for some last-ditch effort to try to spare him a lifetime in prison."

His overall assessment was blunt. "The prosecution case went very strongly," Ritter said. "The defense case doesn't look like it's going well."

Fellow legal analyst Donna Rotunno, also a criminal defense attorney and Fox News contributor, expressed similar skepticism about the self-defense theory during an appearance on "America Reports."

"I never thought that this case rose to the level of self-defense," Rotunno said. "This is a sad, awful, tragic circumstance where a young person made a really horrible decision, but decisions have consequences."

Rotunno pointed specifically to testimony from student witnesses, including one who agreed under questioning that Anthony had provoked the confrontation. "That one question could really turn the tide here," she said.

She also pushed back against a line of argument from the defense emphasizing that the knife Anthony carried was legal under Texas law because its blade measured less than five inches. "Whether you could have the knife legally doesn't mean that you could use it in the way that it was used," Rotunno said.

On the question of whether Anthony had a right to be inside the Memorial High School tent, Rotunno said jurors are likely to focus less on that issue and more on Anthony's response when asked to leave. "He obviously didn't want to leave," she said. "I think they're trying to show that he knew exactly what he was doing when he put his hand inside that bag."

Prosecutors presented 21 witnesses over the course of their case, including student athletes, police officers, investigators and the medical examiner. Several students testified that Anthony was asked multiple times to leave the Memorial High School tent before the confrontation escalated. Witnesses recalled Anthony telling Metcalf, "Touch me and you'll find out" and "If you want me to move, you have to move me."

Other students described the encounter differently, saying Metcalf did not appear to be looking for a fight. One witness recalled Metcalf saying, "I'm not going to fight you at a track meet."

Defense attorneys sought to counter the prosecution's narrative by highlighting testimony that athletes from different schools commonly mingle at track meets, that Anthony was smaller than Metcalf, and that witnesses offered differing accounts of the physical interaction in the moments immediately before the stabbing.

The trial has unfolded amid ongoing demonstrations outside the Collin County courthouse. Supporters of Anthony have gathered throughout the proceedings carrying signs reading "Justice for Karmelo Anthony." On Monday, Next Generation Action Network President Dominique Alexander addressed the crowd and urged supporters not to be drawn into confrontation.

"We do not support chaos. We do not support intimidation. We do not support threats," Alexander said.

The central question now facing jurors is whether Anthony's actions on the day of the stabbing were justified self-defense, as the defense contends, or whether, as prosecutors argue, he escalated a verbal dispute into a deadly and unnecessary encounter. Closing arguments are scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. local time Tuesday.

The case has drawn national attention, in part because of questions about how Texas self-defense law applies to the facts of the confrontation, as well as broader debate over race and the competing accounts of what happened beneath the Memorial High School tent on the day Metcalf was killed.