Karmelo Anthony Found Guilty in Austin Metcalf Murder Trial

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
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**Branson Quirk** (0:38)
Hey, welcome to The TMZ Podcast. I'm Branson Quirk.

**Tony Smith** (0:42)
And I'm Tony Smith.

**Branson Quirk** (0:43)
And, you know, typically our podcasts are lively and we have fun stories, but today- It's a tragic one. It's a tragic story.

**Tony Smith** (0:52)
It's a very sad one.

**Branson Quirk** (0:54)
And I mean, I was shocked how short this trial was.

**Tony Smith** (0:58)
Yes.

**Branson Quirk** (0:59)
Which you've been following this for the better part of a year. If you don't recall, if you're not up to date on this entire thing, Karmelo Anthony was charged with murder all the way back on April 2nd, stemming from when he had stabbed Austin Metcalf in the chest. And there's so much between that point, April last year, and now with the family of Karmelo as well as Austin. But today, the verdict came.

**Tony Smith** (1:32)
And he was found guilty of murder in the death of Austin Metcalf, that being Karmelo Anthony.

**Branson Quirk** (1:37)
Right. A Collin County, Texas jury found him guilty of murder.
And the verdict came just hours after jury deliberations. The jury rejected Anthony's claim of self-defense. That was the question whether or not...

**Tony Smith** (1:52)
Was this self-defense or was this murder?

**Branson Quirk** (1:55)
Yeah. Like, was it just like straight up he provoked it?

**Tony Smith** (1:58)
Yes.

**Branson Quirk** (1:58)
But witnesses say that Karmelo Anthony went into the tent while it was in the rain. And they went to completely different schools, by the way.
And this was at a track meet in Frisco, Texas. And so yeah, Karmelo entered the tent. And then at some point there was a verbal and physical altercation after Austin Metcalf told Karmelo he needed to leave the tent. And then during the scuffle, they say Karmelo pulled out a knife from his backpack and stabbed Austin in the chest. And it's a really heartbreaking case because we do hear the final words. We know the final words from Austin. I won't read them directly, but it's really hard to hear.
We heard from his mother back then as well and how heartbroken she was saying, my son is not here anymore. Karmelo Anthony's mom, however, was actually on the stand today.

**Tony Smith** (2:58)
Yes.

**Branson Quirk** (2:59)
And did you want to take a look?

**Tony Smith** (3:00)
Yeah. So she took the witness stand during the sentencing phase of her son's murder case, and she was pleading for mercy from the jury. Her testimony came minutes after Karmelo Anthony was found guilty of murdering Austin Metcalf. And the sentencing is going to go under way to determine his sentence, which he faces up to from five to 99 years in prison. That's what he's facing.
Kayla Hayes, who is Karmelo Anthony's mother, she told jurors that her son is remorseful, and he's very sorry for what he did. And Kayla Hayes was the only defense witness to testify during sentence proceedings.
Prosecutors asked Kayla whether she still loved her son despite conviction during questioning. She was asked, regardless of what happens, you realize he will still get to be part of your life. And Kayla responded, yes, I do. So it's just an overall very tragic and very sad story. This was a really big national case, and it was getting a lot of coverage everywhere. Everybody was talking about it.

**Branson Quirk** (4:03)
How old is Karmelo exactly now?

**Tony Smith** (4:05)
He is now 18

**Branson Quirk** (4:06)
He's now 18, so he was tried as an adult.
Yeah, this is not great. What a whole life ahead of you you had. And then to do something like this out of anger and how that one reaction can ruin your entire life. Now he's facing the rest of his life behind bars. I forgot who said it exactly, but in the court, it was said to the mother of Karmelo that regardless of what happens to your son, sentence wise, he's still going to be a part of your life.

**Tony Smith** (4:39)
Right, that's what I was saying.

**Branson Quirk** (4:40)
When it comes to Austin, yeah, he's not. So 5 to 99 is a very large, very large difference of time, big, big range of time.