Less than two hours before 17-year-old Austin Metcalf was fatally stabbed at a Texas high school track meet, Karmelo Anthony’s then-girlfriend reportedly went to a school administrator with a troubling complaint.

She said Anthony was stalking her.

She said he would not accept the end of their relationship.

And that same morning, according to testimony revealed in court, Anthony allegedly sent her a photograph of a knife along with a message suggesting he was close to losing control.

Those details were not presented to the jury that later convicted Anthony of murder.

Now, more than a year after Metcalf’s death, the previously excluded evidence has become part of Anthony’s attempt to overturn his conviction and obtain a new trial.

The Allegations Surfaced During a New-Trial Hearing

The claims emerged during a hearing on Aug. 20, 2026, as Anthony’s new legal team argued that the way his original murder trial was handled violated his constitutional rights.

Anthony is now 19.

He was 17 when he stabbed Metcalf in the chest during a confrontation under a tent at a high school track meet in Frisco, Texas, on April 2, 2025.

Anthony has never denied the stabbing.

His defense has maintained that he acted in self-defense after Metcalf confronted and shoved him.

A jury rejected that explanation in June 2026, finding Anthony guilty of murder and sentencing him to 35 years in prison.

But the latest hearing shifted attention away from the brief physical confrontation that jurors heard about and toward material that both sides had agreed to keep out of the trial.

Among that evidence were allegations involving Anthony’s former girlfriend.

His Ex Reportedly Went to a School Administrator That Morning

Collin County Assistant District Attorney Bill Wirskye testified that Anthony’s girlfriend had spoken to an assistant principal on the morning of April 2, 2025.

According to the testimony, she said Anthony was stalking her and refusing to accept that she wanted to end their relationship.

The timing was striking.

Fewer than two hours later, Anthony stabbed Metcalf during the track meet.

The allegations became more disturbing when prosecutors described text messages Anthony had allegedly sent.

One message reportedly said he was “lowk on the verge.”

According to courtroom reporting cited in the source article, the message was accompanied by a photo of a knife.

Another message attributed to Anthony was even more graphic, stating that he was going to stab someone and lick blood from the blade.

The precise date of that second message was not specified.

The jury that decided Anthony’s murder case never heard any of it.

Why the Jury Never Saw Those Messages

The absence was not an accident.

Prosecutors and Anthony’s original defense attorneys had reached an informal agreement before trial to keep potentially inflammatory character evidence away from the jury.

The goal was to focus the case as narrowly as possible on what happened beneath the tent between Anthony and Metcalf.

That agreement affected both sides.

Prosecutors had evidence they said showed Anthony’s interest in guns, knives and fighting.

The defense, meanwhile, possessed evidence concerning Metcalf’s past involvement in fights and an offense report tied to racist and antisemitic graffiti.

Anthony’s trial attorney, Mike Howard, testified that the graffiti included racist slurs, references to the Ku Klux Klan, threats against Black people and the phrase “Heil Hitler.”

Because both sides possessed potentially damaging material, the agreement essentially kept those broader character issues out of the murder trial.

Jurors were asked instead to decide whether Anthony’s actions during the confrontation itself amounted to self-defense or murder.

Anthony’s New Lawyers Say That Agreement Created a Serious Problem

Anthony’s current attorneys are now challenging the way that arrangement was made and enforced.

They argue that the informal, off-the-record agreement — along with limits on public access to parts of the proceedings — violated Anthony’s constitutional rights.

His lawyers also claim the dispute surrounding the excluded evidence affected one of the most important strategic decisions of the case: whether Anthony would testify.

According to their argument, Anthony risked opening the door to questions about the excluded material if he took the witness stand.

That meant the same agreement intended to simplify the trial may also have influenced his decision not to personally explain his version of the confrontation to jurors.

The new-trial request therefore is not simply about whether the knife messages should have been admitted.

It raises broader questions about how the original trial was conducted and whether Anthony received the process required under the law.

The Original Case Centered on a Brief Confrontation

Anthony and Metcalf were both 17 when the stabbing occurred.

The encounter happened beneath a tent at the track meet.

Anthony admitted using a knife on Metcalf but claimed he did so only after being confronted and shoved.

The defense characterized the stabbing as an act of self-preservation.

Prosecutors argued otherwise.

The jury ultimately sided with the state and convicted Anthony of murder.

The sentence — 35 years in prison — ensured that Anthony, still a teenager when the crime occurred, would potentially spend decades incarcerated.

The newly revealed allegations involving his ex-girlfriend do not alter what jurors were asked to decide at trial.

Instead, they show the kind of evidence that was deliberately kept outside the courtroom narrative.

And because the evidence was so potentially damaging, its exclusion now sits at the center of the defense’s procedural challenge.

A Judge’s Public Comments Added Another Complication

The hearing came amid another major development in Anthony’s post-trial fight.

One day earlier, Judge John Roach Jr., who had presided over the murder trial, was removed from the post-trial proceedings.

Anthony’s attorneys had sought Roach’s recusal after the judge gave a television interview following the verdict and said the jury had “got it right.”

That public comment became another point of dispute.

The defense argued that the judge’s statements undermined his ability to fairly oversee Anthony’s efforts to challenge the conviction.

Retired Kaufman County Judge Michael Chitty is now handling the new-trial request.

Time is limited.

Under Texas law, any order granting Anthony a new trial must be signed by Monday because of a 75-day deadline.

That means the latest revelations have surfaced at a moment when the legal clock is already running down.

The Messages Are Powerful — But They Are Also Part of a Larger Legal Fight

The allegations involving Anthony’s former girlfriend are emotionally charged.

A young woman allegedly told a school administrator that she feared him.

A knife photograph was allegedly sent that same morning.

And another message attributed to Anthony contained an explicit threat to stab someone.

But the legal issue now before the court is not simply whether those messages make Anthony look dangerous.

It is whether the way prosecutors, defense attorneys and the trial court handled excluded evidence deprived him of a fair trial.

That distinction matters because the jury never considered those allegations when deciding his guilt.

The conviction was based on the confrontation with Metcalf and Anthony’s claim of self-defense.

The new hearing instead examines the machinery around that verdict: private agreements, evidentiary restrictions, judicial conduct and whether Anthony’s ability to defend himself was unfairly constrained.

Two Families Remain Bound to the Same Case

At the center of all the legal arguments is the death of Austin Metcalf.

He was 17.

Anthony was the same age.

One teenager died at a school sporting event.

The other was convicted of murder and sentenced to spend much of his adult life in prison.

Now, more than a year later, the case is again producing difficult questions.

What evidence should jurors have heard?

What should have remained excluded?

Did the effort to keep the trial focused actually compromise Anthony’s rights?

And if so, is that serious enough to undo a murder conviction?

The latest hearing does not erase the verdict.

But it has exposed a much broader and darker set of allegations than the jury ever saw.

For Anthony’s ex-girlfriend, the morning of April 2, 2025, allegedly began with fear that he would not leave her alone.

Hours later, Austin Metcalf was dead.

Now those two parts of the day — once legally separated — have been brought together in court, as Anthony fights for another chance to put his case before a jury.