McKINNEY, Texas (AP) — A judge on Thursday will consider whether to grant Texas teenager Karmelo Anthony a new trial following his murder conviction earlier this summer in the stabbing death of a 17-year-old athlete at a high school track meet.
In a legal victory for Anthony, the judge who presided over his trial was removed from the case Wednesday. Judge Michael Chitty was then assigned to consider the motion from Anthony’s attorneys asking for a retrial in killing of Austin Metcalf.
Anthony, now 19, was sentenced to 35 years in prison in the case. He attended Wednesday’s hearing wearing a green prison jumpsuit. His parents and Metcalf’s also attending the hearing.
Anthony’s attorneys had asked for state District Judge John Roach to be removed in part because of a TV interview in which Roach said jurors “got it right” when they delivered a guilty verdict.
In seeking a new trial, Anthony’s attorneys have argued that the June proceedings were marred by strict courtroom rules and improper jury instructions. They have also said Anthony’s decision to not testify came after a dispute with prosecutors over an agreement to focus the trial on the events leading up to the stabbing.
Jurors in the trial had rejected Anthony’s claims he acted in self-defense during a confrontation with Metcalf in the stadium bleachers last year. Students who took the stand described a heated exchange over Anthony’s refusal on a rainy spring day to leave a tent that belonged to Metcalf’s team.
The case attracted national attention in part because of a flood of social media posts that amplified the killing in racial terms. Anthony is Black; Metcalf was white. Lawyers on both sides, however, told jurors the tragedy had nothing to do with race.
During the recusal hearing Wednesday, Anthony’s legal team focused on comments Roach made to a Dallas TV station after the trial had ended. In the interview, which was played as the hearing began, Roach was asked if the jury got “it right.”
“Yeah, they did,” Roach said, adding: “Whatever they say, they got it right.”
During the interview, Roach also defended his courtroom rules and spoke about the onslaught of online postings about the case.
As national attention on the killing intensified last year, the families of both Metcalf and Anthony said they had been targets of harassment.
Several schools were competing at the track event when Anthony sat under the Memorial High School tent that was perched in the bleachers. Metcalf and others had repeatedly told Anthony to leave, witnesses testified, leading to an escalating confrontation.
Prosecutors said Anthony provoked Metcalf, and witnesses testified that Anthony was the aggressor.
Anthony at one point reached inside a bag and replied: “Touch me and see what happens,” according to a police report.
Metcalf pushed Anthony, according to witnesses, who said Anthony then pulled out a knife and stabbed him in the chest.
