Convicted killer Karmelo Anthony has won his first legal battle as he seeks to have his conviction for killing Austin Metcalf thrown out.
The 19-year-old was convicted in June and sentenced to 35 years behind bars for murdering the 17-year-old athlete at a high school track meet in April of last year.
On Wednesday, the trial judge who presided over the case was removed from the case as Anthony appeals his conviction.
His legal team argued that a retrial was warranted in part because state District Judge John Roach enforced overly strict courtroom rules and gave an interview after the trial was over.
A new judge will be assigned for Thursday’s hearing on the retrial request.
Anthony attended the hearing in Collin County wearing a green jump suit. His parents and Metcalf´s parents also were in the courtroom.
After the order to remove Roach, Anthony supporters cheered in the courthouse hallways and outside the building.
Metcalf’s father Jeff told the Daily Mail on Wednesday that he never gave the decision much thought and that it had effectively restarted his grieving process.
He said: ‘I don’t control any of this, so I really don’t give it a whole lot of weight, and I know that sounds a little crazy, but I don’t, because I don’t control it. I’ll just bring my popcorn and watch the show right now.
‘It was almost healed, but rip off the Band Aid and rip off the scab with it. And it opens open a new wound again. So, it starts the healing process again from zero.
Austin Metcalf was attending a track meet inside Kuykendall Stadium when he was fatally attacked
Supporters of Anthony are seen here cheering on the steps of the courthouse on Wednesday
Supporters of Karmelo Anthony celebrate outside the Collin County Courthouse
‘[Anthony’s] a murderer. My son’s dead. Why is he [Anthony] getting all this attention.
‘Regardless of what gets decided in court, that’s the Austin Metcalf Foundation that I have created. That’s my purpose for the rest of my life. Save lives, so no other parent has this happen. You go out and educate.
Anthony is currently serving a 35 year sentence after being convicted of murder in the summer
The two teenagers were at a football stadium in Frisco, Texas, for a track meet when a verbal confrontation under a high school tent between the boys escalated.
Lee Merritt, Anthony’s spokesman, told the Daily Mail on Wednesday that the decision was a ‘great relief’ for Anthony.
‘It’s a great relief for Karmelo, because, obviously, the judge, who, we believe, put his thumb on the scale of justice, is out of the way, but the most important day for us now is tomorrow’, he said.
He added: ‘[Anthony] is glad to be here with the support of the community, his family. He was hoping for a positive outcome. He was trying to keep his spirits up.’
Prosecutors said Anthony provoked Metcalf, and witnesses testified that Anthony was the aggressor.
Anthony at one point reached inside a bag and replied: ‘Touch me and see what happens,’ according to a police report.
As Metcalf leaned in to shove the teen, Anthony stabbed Metcalf through the heart with a folding knife hidden in his backpack.
The knife pierced through his bone in the center of his chest and punctured the right side of his heart, a medical examiner testified.
Jurors in Dallas, Texas, took less than three hours to convict Anthony of murder – rejecting a lesser option for manslaughter.
Jeff Metcalf is seen here flanked by his twin suns Hunter and Austin, who lost his life last year
Judge John Roach defended the jury’s verdict in an interview with WFAA
The tent where the stabbing occurred is seen here inside Kuykendall Stadium in Frisco in April of last year
Judge Roach appeared for an interview with WFAA in the aftermath and said he believed the jury made the right decision.
He told the outlet: ‘Yes, they did, because they were picked based upon the law, they listened to the facts,’ he said. ‘It happened in this courtroom, and they got a verdict.’
The judge then went on to say he believed Anthony came off as a nice person during their brief interactions, but will have to live with the consequences of his actions.
‘He seems like a nice young man who committed a crime, and he understands today more than any day before the consequences of committing a crime like he did,’ Roach told the network.
He added that court officials began preparing for the trial eight months in advance, anticipating the extraordinary public interest in the case, and he is satisfied with how the proceedings turned out.
‘As long as I follow the law, I sleep well at night,’ he said.
Anthony had originally faced between five to 99 years in prison for the murder, but prosecutors agreed to allow the jury to consider ‘sudden passion’ as a factor when determining his sentence.
‘Sudden passion’ is a legal term in Texas that allows a criminal to argue they were in an intense emotional state when they committed wrongdoing.
It would have reduced Anthony’s sentence to that of a second-degree felony for which he could have served as little as two years behind bars.
However, the jury rejected the argument and spent less than three hours passing its guilty verdict, and another roughly two and a half hours before they handed down their sentence.
Discover more from PressNewsAgency
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.