The Files They Buried: The Karmelo Anthony-Austin Metcalf Deal That Fell Apart | Jason Whitlock Harmony

**Jason Whitlock** (0:02)
The tent at the Frisco track meet was never the whole story. It was the frame. One boy stabbed, another arrested, and a country told to pick a side before the blood dried. What the jury never saw was the file. Thursday, the file came open. Both sides had a private, off-the-record agreement to bury the past of Austin Metcalf and Karmelo Anthony. So the murder trial would hinge on a single moment under the tent. That deal is now ash. The defense went first. 20 pages on Austin Metcalf, KKK, kill all blacks, Howe Hitler, spray painted juvenile probation, bullying records, threats.
Then the prosecution unloaded its own dossier on Karmelo Anthony. Text about punching girls in the face, carrying guns, a note full of racial slurs, and messages threatening to murder his girlfriend. How many bullets you want coming out of your chest.
Two troubled young men, two records the public was never meant to read, and a narrative built to survive only if neither file ever saw daylight.
Was it the right call to bury their past behavior? That's what we're here to unpack with journalist, Breanna Morello. Breanna, welcome back. And before we decide whether the public needed to know this, I wanna know, do you think it was just the right thing to do in pursuit of justice?

**Breanna Morello** (1:45)
Thank you for having me, Jason, as always.
I'm a little on the fence here, cause I don't know why the prosecution made this agreement. I think the victim is the victim, and it was never proven that Austin Metcalf had made any racial comments prior to the stabbing and during the altercation. But I wonder, and I have asked, and I have not received the response, if this gentleman's agreement that was reached, that you just detailed, was due to the fact that Austin Metcalf's family may have one of that information suppressed from the public hearing. And here's my other thing, too.
The crime that you're talking about here, the juvenile record regarding Austin and his brother, who apparently graffitied racial slurs and remarks, they were caught, they were arrested, they were charged. It was not expunged. What you rarely hear about, too, for children, those who are under the age of 18, that's usually something that would never make its way into a courtroom. I've seen, I mean, here in Texas, I've seen other cases where a minor is accused of robbery, and that is hidden away from the public space. So I thought that was quite interesting, but when I was reaching out to sources yesterday, they did disclose that little nugget to me.
I think, though, I think this is working against, if I could be blunt, Karmelo Anthony. I think putting this all out there for the public to hear is working against his case. I think this is bad legal advice. Right now, he's arguing that he wants a brand new trial. He's claiming that he has constitutional rights violated.
I've never seen a case, as I've spent years following criminal cases, I've never seen a case this fair. I know they threw Judge Roach off of this case during the appeals process. I think that was the right thing to do, because they are making an argument that there might have been some bias there, and just to make sure that he is getting an absolute fair trial and a fair appeal process, just take that extra measure, get Roach off, bring in a judge who is retired, which they did from another county, who's now hearing what's going on today in the courtroom for day two. I think that's fair, but I think that he's getting bad legal advice, and this is why I say that. I think if he were to make his way in front of a jury again, and they were to hear this background, the details you just described, the threats to his girlfriend, keep in mind his girlfriend went up to school officials an hour before the stabbing and said, hey, he's stalking me, this is according to the prosecution, he's stalking me, not only stalking, he's sending me these threats, and she apparently disclosed all of this to the school, and then an hour later Austin ended up dead. And if you remember, we were sitting here, you and I, we were talking about all of this, why would this kid, why would Karmelo Anthony bring a knife to attract me? It never made any sense, but now it does. Now that you have the context of the messages to his girlfriend, by the way, their relationship apparently didn't end there, they actually dated throughout his criminal trial as well, which was jaw dropping for me. But to me, it's just the whole situation is extremely strange. The only thing that could rationalize as to why this didn't make its way in front of the jury is because the family of Austin likely did not want the world finding out about his past.