Convicted killer Karmelo Anthony was sentenced on Tuesday to 35 years in prison for murdering Texas teen Austin Metcalf at a high school track meet last year.
According to the New York Post, the sentence was handed down hours after a Collin County, Texas, jury found the 19-year-old Anthony guilty of first-degree murder in the death of the 17-year-old Metcalf. The jury rejected a “sudden passion” argument put forward by Anthony’s legal team that sought to lessen his verdict from “first-degree to second-degree murder and shr[i]nk his steep punishment to a maximum of 20 years.”
Anthony will not be eligible for early release and parole until he’s served a minimum of roughly 17 years behind bars, according to local media.
As The Federalist previously reported, the fatal incident occurred last year when Anthony brought a knife to a multi-school track meet. Witnesses testified that it was after he was repeatedly asked to leave the team tent for Metcalf’s school by Metcalf and others that Anthony plunged the knife into Metcalf’s chest, killing him.
Metcalf’s family delivered impassioned remarks during Anthony’s trial in remembrance of Austin. The deceased teen’s mother, Meghan, noted that her son “didn’t just die. He was taken from us. Just as he was starting to live.”
“There was a part of him you can never take from me, the strength I still get from him every day, because I know what it was like to be loved by him,” Meghan said, addressing Anthony. “You may have just been given a sentence of 35 years, you should feel lucky because I’ve been sentenced to a life without my son.”
Anthony reportedly declined to look up at Meghan and Metcalf’s father, Jeff, who told his son’s killer that he doesn’t “belong in this community” and spoke about how Austin’s murder “destroyed the person I used to be.” Anthony only raised his head when Metcalf’s twin brother, Hunter, asked that he look him in the eye.
“You took a son, a brother, a friend, and my best friend, from this world. You took someone from me who was supposed to be an uncle, godfather to my kids. Now I want everything taken from you,” Hunter said.
Rather than espouse compassion for the Metcalfs, Anthony’s family took the path of total degeneracy. According to the Post, his mother and brother attacked his conviction and sentencing as “racist and biased” while addressing a crowd of Anthony supporters, who chanted, “Free Karmelo.”
Anthony’s family raked in hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations following his arrest last year.
