A courtroom sketch shows Karmelo Anthony, center, at the defense table Thursday in McKinney, Texas, during his murder trial in the fatal stabbing of 17-year-old Austin Metcalf at a track meet last year. Closing arguments are set for Tuesday.

A courtroom sketch shows Karmelo Anthony, center, at the defense table Thursday in McKinney, Texas, during his murder trial in the fatal stabbing of 17-year-old Austin Metcalf at a track meet last year. Closing arguments are set for Tuesday.
Pat Lopez/AP

AP — 

A teenager who fatally stabbed a competitor at a Texas high school track meet was upset immediately after the confrontation and said he had warned the victim “not to touch me,” one of the last trial witnesses testified Monday.

Karmelo Anthony, now 19, is charged with murder in the death of Austin Metcalf, 17, at a school stadium in Frisco, a Dallas suburb, in April 2025.

After a midday break that lasted three hours, the prosecutor and defense lawyers said they had no more evidence to offer on the fourth day of trial. Anthony did not testify in his own defense, and closing arguments were set for Tuesday.

Prosecutors say the stabbing of Metcalf was an unjustified attack related to a dispute over whether Anthony could be under the tent of Metcalf’s team during a rainy track meet. Defense attorneys insist Anthony felt threatened and believed he needed to defend himself when physical contact was made.

One of Anthony’s teammates, testifying Monday for the defense, said Anthony was “distraught” after the stabbing.

“I was hearing him say, ‘I told him not to touch me,’” the witness said.

Judge John Roach Jr. has said young witnesses can’t be publicly identified.

Metcalf’s death drew wide attention, in part because of social media posts that amplified the case in racial terms. Anthony, who attended Frisco Centennial High School, is Black, while Metcalf, who attended Frisco Memorial High School, was white.

Prosecutors rested their case Saturday in Collin County court. Jurors last week heard from a number of people who were at the track meet, including students who said Anthony had been asked to leave the tent and was the aggressor in the confrontation.

The courtroom was packed again Monday with spectators, including the parents of Anthony and Metcalf, and younger people.

The jurors will be sequestered in a hotel if they don’t reach a verdict Tuesday and return to court Wednesday. The judge told them not to discuss the case with anyone, and “for God’s sake do not go on social media.”