Karmelo Anthony Transferred to Texas Prison After 35-Year Murder Sentence as Peтιтion for Pardon Surges Past 50,000 Signatures

Huntsville, Texas — Just days after his June 9, 2026, conviction and 35-year sentence for the fatal stabbing of Austin Metcalf, 19-year-old Karmelo Anthony has been transferred to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s Polunsky Unit, a high-security facility near Livingston. The swift move has coincided with a rapidly growing online peтιтion demanding a gubernatorial pardon or sentence reduction, which has already collected more than 52,000 signatures in under a week.

Anthony, a Black student from Centennial High School, was convicted of murdering 17-year-old Austin Metcalf, a white athlete from Memorial High School, during an April 2, 2025, confrontation at a Frisco ISD track meet. Prosecutors proved Anthony provoked the fight, threatened Metcalf, and delivered a deliberate, fatal stab to the chest after being shoved. The Collin County jury rejected his self-defense claim under Texas’s Stand Your Ground law in less than three hours and later imposed the 35-year term after dismissing a “sudden pᴀssion” argument.

The peтιтion, launched on Change.org and promoted heavily on social media, argues that Anthony acted in reasonable fear after Metcalf shoved him first and that the absence of any Black jurors—after prosecutors struck every qualified African American candidate from a 589-person pool—denied him a fair trial. “This verdict ignores Texas law and the racial bias in jury selection,” the peтιтion states. Anthony’s mother has repeatedly asked, “Isn’t this self-defense?” while his defense team has filed an appeal citing the jury composition and newly surfaced video footage showing Metcalf shoving Anthony before the stabbing.

Supporters point to the lightning-fast deliberation and the case’s racial dynamics as evidence of systemic unfairness, especially in a state where Stand Your Ground laws have historically protected defendants of all races. Critics counter that overwhelming eyewitness testimony—including from Black athletes—proved Anthony was the aggressor who escalated a verbal dispute into murder. Collin County DA Greg Willis has maintained, “This case has nothing to do with race. It is about evidence, the law, and accountability.”

As Anthony begins his sentence and the peтιтion climbs toward 100,000 signatures, the case continues to polarize the nation, forcing a reckoning over self-defense claims, jury fairness, and whether a 35-year term for a 19-year-old is justice or excess. The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles has not yet commented, but the public pressure is mounting.