Judge calls Karmelo Anthony a nice young man, but defends murder conviction and banning courtroom cameras: I sleep well at night

The Texas judge who presided over Karmelo Anthony’s murder trial described him as a “nice young man,” but stood firmly behind the jury’s stiff prison sentence in the high-profile case.Veteran Judge John Roach Jr.drew frequent criticism throughout Anthony’s trial.

Some accused him of censoring the press through his ban on cameras in the courtroom, while others theorized that he had a personal relationship with the family of slain high school football jock Austin Metcalf.Metcalf, 17, was fatally stabbed by Anthony, now 19, who also played high school football, during a dispute over seating at a track and field meet in Frisco on April 2, 2025.The murder case went viral as the as heightened tensions escalated over race, with some trying to paint Metcalf, who was white, as a bully who targeted Anthony, who was black.Anthony’s defense claimed self-defense, but the teen didn’t take the stand during the trial.Roach told WFAA Thursday that he tuned out most of the external noise.“As long as I follow the law, I sleep well at night,” he admitted.The jury, which didn’t feature a single black member, also came under fire for the 35-year prison sentence it doled out to Anthony.Jurors rejected a proposed “sudden passion” argument that would’ve downgraded his verdict from first-degree to second-degree murder and shrunk his steep punishment to a maximum of 20 years.Roach told the outlet, however, that the jury reached the correct verdict.“Yes they did because they were picked based upon the law, they listened to the facts, it happened in this courtroom, and they got a verdict,” he said.Still, Roach thought Anthony seemed “like a nice young man” who now has a better understanding of “the consequences of committing a crime like he did.”A devastated Anthony burst into tears when the jury read the guilty verdict on Tuesday.

And he kept his head down when Metcalf’s distraught family addressed him during his sentencing later that evening.He only r...