The jury that convicted Karmelo Anthony of murdering 17-year-old Austin Metcalf never saw the full picture prosecutors had assembled of the teenager sitting at the defense table.
That’s because of a backroom deal. Now, we can see exactly why they kept these stunning documents from the jurors.
A stunning 75-page prosecution filing released through an open-records request lays out a sprawling collection of alleged threats, assaults, weapons incidents, violent messages and other misconduct attributed to Anthony in the months and years before he plunged a knife into Metcalf's chest at a Texas high school track meet on April 2, 2025.
The court filings, formally titled the state's “Notice of Intent to Use Extraneous Offenses,” were obtained from Collin County and released in redacted form this week by Texas activist Sarah Fields.
Fox News, the New York Post and the Daily Mail have since reported extensively on its contents.
And what is contained in those 75 pages is startling. According to prosecutors, Anthony repeatedly threatened people with shootings, discussed robberies, was accused of assaulting his girlfriend, talked about bringing weapons to school and appeared in photographs and videos holding firearms.
One video cited by prosecutors allegedly shows Anthony pointing what appears to be a gun toward a house before running away. There are also messages attributed to Anthony describing what happened when he became angry.
• “When I get mad i see red.”
• “When I get mad i blackout.”
• “When I get mad i cant control myself.”
• “When I get mad my eyes change color.”
Those messages were sent more than a year before the confrontation with Metcalf that ended in murder.
The same December exchange allegedly included Anthony describing an assault on someone who had posted online about “smoking” his cousin.
“He posted where he was at and we pulled up and got em,” Anthony wrote, according to the filing.
By May 2024, according to prosecutors, the rhetoric had escalated into explicit threats involving guns.
“im shooting her,” Anthony allegedly wrote about one woman.
Then came an alleged threat against his girlfriend, Valeria Torres Perez.
“how many bullets uu want coming out of ur chest.”
Six days later, prosecutors say Anthony threatened her again: “imma beat ur a--.”
And it didn't stop there. The filing alleges that Anthony made additional gun threats that September, used the phrase “gun to the head,” discussed cutting someone's brake lines and later referenced “shooting something up,” gloves, rope and getting his hands on a “switch.”
A November 2024 video allegedly showed Anthony holding what appeared to be a firearm.
Then came January 4, 2025. According to the court filing, a video from that day appears to show Anthony aiming what looks like a gun toward a residence before running away.
The allegations continued to pile up as the date of Metcalf's killing approached.
Prosecutors said Anthony discussed committing robberies in January. He was suspended for fighting in February. That same month, he allegedly discussed buying a gun and extended magazine and separately discussed carrying a firearm.
Then, less than a month before Metcalf was killed, prosecutors say Anthony sent Torres Perez one of the most disturbing messages in the entire file.
“imma f------ murder u … yo friends go die … sho them ts.”
The notice further alleges that Anthony assaulted Perez on March 14 and threatened her with a deadly weapon less than two weeks later.
And then came April 2. Hours before Anthony stabbed Metcalf, Torres Perez reportedly went to school staff and accused Anthony of stalking her. She said he had been driving past her house and refusing to accept the end of their relationship.
Meanwhile, shortly before 1 AM that morning, Anthony had sent another cryptic message:
“im lowk on the verge.”
Roughly 35 minutes later, he repeated and emphasized it. The filing doesn't establish what Anthony meant by “on the verge.” But its timing — hours before the killing and amid the other alleged conduct prosecutors catalogued — is striking.
A Collin County jury rejected Anthony's self-defense argument in June and convicted him of murder. He was sentenced to 35 years in prison.
But the jury reached that decision without hearing much of the extraordinary history prosecutors had collected.
During Anthony's subsequent effort to win a new trial, attorneys revealed that prosecutors and the original defense team had reached an informal “gentleman's agreement” before trial.
Both sides agreed to avoid introducing damaging character and background evidence and instead concentrate on what happened “under the tent” immediately surrounding the stabbing.
In return for keeping that material away from the jury, prosecutors largely kept Anthony's history away from jurors as well.
Prosecutor Bill Wirskye later explained the arrangement succinctly:
“Let's stay away from historical character and stick to the facts — what happened under the tent.”
And the jury didn't need any of it to convict him.
The 75-page filing doesn't change that verdict, but it does provide damning context for those who came out to “support” Karmelo Anthony in the aftermath of the brutal killing — all simply because of the color of his skin.
Right and wrong isn’t about skin color. And the Karmelo Anthony case is yet another demonstration of that irrefutable fact.
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