McKinney, Texas– Closing arguments are set for Tuesday in the trial of a Texas teen By fatal stabbing A 17-year-old high school athlete meets during a confrontation that students said quickly escalated in the stadium stands.
Carmelo Anthony, now 19, did not testify in his own defense in the killing of Austin Metcalf, whose death stunned a prosperous Dallas suburb where the two students attended different schools.
If convicted, Anthony faces life imprisonment.
Over the course of the nearly week-long trial, Anthony’s attorneys sought to convince jurors that Anthony was forced to defend himself under a tent belonging to the track team at Frisco Memorial High School, where Metcalf was a senior. Several schools were competing at a rainy track, and Metcalf and others repeatedly asked Anthony to leave, witnesses testified, leading to an escalating confrontation.
Trial witnesses who were in the tent described Anthony as the aggressor. According to the arrest report, Anthony once told Metcalfe: “Touch me and see what happens.”
Several students told jurors that Metcalf pushed Anthony, who then pulled out a knife and stabbed him in the chest.
Prosecutors described the stabbing as… Unprovoked attack It is not a case of self-defense.
Testimony at trial relied heavily on the recollections of teenagers who described their shock at the tragedy at a community sporting event. Many of the questions focused on the team culture at track meets and showdowns in the tent.
One of his colleagues told jurors that Anthony was “distraught” after the stabbing. Judge John Roach Jr. ordered that the names of the teenage witnesses not be published.
“I could hear him saying, ‘I told him not to touch me,'” the teen said.
Vincent Huber, an area track coach who approached Anthony, asked him what happened. Anthony responded that he stabbed someone who “put his hands on me,” Hooper recalled last week.
Death last year The case quickly attracted widespread attention, in part due to social media posts that exaggerated the issue in racist terms. Anthony is black. Metcalf was white.
After the stabbing, Jeff Metcalf, Austin’s father, condemned those who appropriated the teens’ race. Prosecutors also opened the trial by saying race was irrelevant to the case.