Judge removed from Karmelo Anthony self-defense case
In Texas, Judge John Roach has been removed from overseeing the case involving Karmelo Anthony after defense attorneys expressed concerns over potential bias. Anthony is challenging his 35-year sentence for the murder of Austin Metcalf, insisting it was an act of self-defense. A new judge will take charge of the proceedings tomorrow to address the argument that Anthony’s constitutional rights were compromised during the original trial.
On Friday, Karmelo Anthony’s efforts to overturn his murder conviction will proceed in McKinney, Texas. This development follows allegations by his former attorney regarding an unwritten agreement that reportedly prevented Anthony from testifying on his behalf.
The case is now under the scrutiny of retired District Judge Michael Chitty, who will consider Anthony’s plea for a retrial. This shift in judicial oversight comes after Judge Sid Harle decided to remove Judge Roach from the case earlier in the week.
Judge Harle concluded that an unbiased observer might doubt Judge Roach’s impartiality, particularly after Roach publicly declared that the jury’s decision was correct and supported several of his own trial rulings.
Anthony, aged 19, was found guilty in June for the murder of Austin Metcalf, a 17-year-old. Prosecutors argued that Anthony stabbed Metcalf to death during a confrontation at a Frisco track meet. His conviction resulted in a 35-year prison sentence handed down by a Collin County jury.
Karmelo Anthony is pictured after being transferred to the custody of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. He was transported to his unit of assignment at the Pack Unit near Navasota. (Texas Department of Criminal Justice)
At the center of the new-trial hearing is an oral agreement between Anthony’s original defense team and prosecutors to keep potentially damaging character evidence about both sides from the jury.
Former lead defense attorney Mike Howard testified Thursday that he understood the agreement to allow Anthony to testify if his testimony remained focused on the confrontation under the tent at the track meet.
Howard said that changed on the final day of trial, when prosecutors told the defense the agreement would not apply if Anthony took the stand and that the defense had already opened the door to character evidence.
Austin Metcalf, 17, was stabbed to death at a Texas track meet. (Jeff Metcalf)
He said the dispute led to a heated break in the proceedings and made Anthony unwilling to take the stand.
Under cross-examination, Howard acknowledged the lawyers never expressly agreed on whether a testifying defendant was covered by the arrangement. He said he could not say whether prosecutors acted in bad faith.
Lead prosecutor Bill Wirske said the agreement was mutual and that the parties were aligned on the need to keep character evidence out of the trial. Wirske said the state did not believe the agreement applied to Anthony’s testimony.
Wirske said the agreement kept jurors from hearing allegations involving Anthony’s history with knives and violence. Anthony’s new legal team has argued it also excluded school records, social-media posts and videos that they say could have supported his self-defense claim by showing prior aggressive behavior by Metcalf and his twin brother, Hunter Metcalf.
File photo of Austin Metcalf, a junior at Memorial High School in Frisco, who was stabbed in the chest allegedly by 17-year-old Karmelo Anthony, a student-athlete from Frisco Centennial High School. (Courtesy Jeff Metcalf)
The court has not made findings on those allegations.
Anthony’s motion also argues that courtroom-access restrictions violated his Sixth Amendment right to a public trial and that jury instructions limited jurors’ ability to consider his self-defense claim.
Howard testified that the lawyers and Roach held more than a dozen off-the-record meetings before trial. He said no pretrial motions were formally filed because the parties used what he described as an “old-school” system of filing materials directly with Roach.
Judge John Roach is depicted in a courtroom sketch during the Karmelo Anthony murder trial. (Pat Lopez)
Howard also said the defense discussed waiving some public-trial access because of security concerns, but that no Sixth Amendment waiver was made on the record. He testified that the decision not to use an overflow room was tied to technology concerns, not a specific security threat.
Former defense attorney Toby Shook is expected to testify Friday. It was not immediately clear how many additional witnesses Anthony’s lawyers planned to call.
Chitty must rule on the motion by Monday under Texas rules. If he does not grant it by then, the motion will be denied by operation of law and Anthony’s direct appeal will continue.
News Media has reached out to Anthony’s defense team for comment.