Jury selection has begun in the trial of Karmelo Anthony, 18, who faces a first-degree murder charge after a track meet scuffle with Austin Metcalf, 17, led to Metcalf’s death.
About 200 people have been called as possible jurors, according to KDFW-TV. Potential jurors were given a questionnaire to complete, with those likely to be called expected to return Wednesday. Opening statements in the case are tentatively scheduled for Thursday.
Each potential juror was given a questionnaire and will be told via text or email if they need to return for more questions.
Anthony has claimed he acted in self-defense at the April 2025 track meet, when he reached into his bag for a knife after Metcalf told him to leave the area reserved for Metcalf’s school.
Anthony allegedly warned Metcalf “touch me and see what happens” before the stabbing took place, Fox News reported.
Texas defense attorney and legal analyst Jeremy Rosenthal said finding jurors without preconceived opinions will be hard, given the vast media publicity around the case.
“This case in particular has a lot of disturbing history when it comes to misinformation online, rumors, doxing, things like that,” Rosenthal said.
“There’s particular concern about have people already heard of this case, have they already formed opinions,” he said.
Rosenthal predicted the crux of the case will be whether Anthony’s attorneys can convince the jury he acted in self-defense.
“Self-defense is a really intricate defense that you have to sort of set up,” Rosenthal said.
“The crux of the issue is that you cannot provoke the harm and then retreat behind self-defense,” he said.
“Did Karmelo Anthony initially provoke the harm? Did he initially elevate the tenseness or the threat in the situation?” Rosenthal said. “Or did the victim provoke it?”
Rosenthal said jurors will hear conflicting accounts and could well be told to consider lesser charges such as manslaughter.
Randy Zelin, an attorney not involved in the case, also said proving self-defense will not be easy, according to the New York Post.
“You can’t be justified in killing someone with a knife and stabbing them in the chest if they were not about to immediately use deadly force on you,” Zelin, an adjunct professor at the Cornell School of Law, said.
“What the defendant was doing with a knife on him, I think, is going to be telling. So you have the absence of the ability to use deadly force versus someone having deadly force immediately on hand,” Zelin said.
Zelin said the race card — Metcalf was white, Anthony is black — could tip the scales.
“As a defense attorney… my job is to get my client off by any means, reasonably and legally necessary. So if I can play the race card and I can be the second coming of Johnnie Cochran, and my client walks out of the courthouse with me, either acquitted or with a hung jury, I’ll sleep that night,” he said.
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