The trial of a Texas teenager accused of stabbing a fellow high schooler at a track meet is set to begin Thursday.Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.Karmelo Anthony, 19, was arrested last year and charged with stabbing Austin Metcalf, 17, during an altercation at a track meet at a Frisco high school, a sprawling suburb of Dallas.Opening statements are expected Thursday morning at the Collin County courthouse, where cameras will not be permitted.Roughly 200 people lined up outside for one of the 27 seats reserved for the public.
The jury was seated earlier this week.The case has drawn national attention amid an explosive online debate along racial lines.Anthony is Black; Metcalf was white.Civil rights organization Next Generation Action Network said in a post on X on Wednesday that it was “outraged” that none of the jurors selected are Black.“The prosecution used its final strikes to remove the remaining qualified Black jurors from the jury pool, raising serious concerns about fairness and equal justice,” the group said.
“We respect the court, but we will not remain silent.”Austin Metcalf.Meghan MetcalfJeff Metcalf said his son was killed when another student armed with a knife got upset after being told he was in the wrong spot.Austin Metcalf was stabbed in the chest and died in his twin brother’s arms, his dad said.
His twin brother, Hunter Metcalf, was not the courthouse on Thursday.“They were twins, identical twins, and his brother was holding on to him, trying to make it stop bleeding, and he died in his brother’s arms,” he said at the time.“I rushed up there and I saw him on the gurney and I could tell — they said he wasn’t breathing.
I could see all the blood, and I saw where the wound was, and I was very concerned, so I had to find his brother, and we rushed to the hospital.And we prayed, and it’s God’s plan, I don’t understand it, but they weren’t able...