June 7, 2026
Karmelo Anthony Murder Trial: Prosecution Rests ... On a Saturday
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RSS Feed It was a busy week one of the trial against the Texas teen accused of murdering another teen at a track meet last year. The prosecution called a total of 21 witnesses to the stand, resting their case against Karmelo Anthony Saturday afternoon. Jurors heard from coaches and other students who were in the tent at the time of the stabbing of 17-year-old Austin Metcalf. The defense ended the Saturday court session by calling its first witness to the stand.
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00:00:02
Speaker 1: Hey, that folks did. It's Sunday, June seventh, and the prosecution has already wrapped its case in the high profile and racially charged trial of teen Carmelo Anthony. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ. Rob. This is moving quickly. Trial was supposed to go two weeks and the state wrapped up after only they It wasn't even two full days of testical.
00:00:27
Speaker 2: Yea, they flew through. I was shocked because look, this was a little bit slow going. I think elections on Tuesday slowed up the trial a bit, but Monday and Wednesday were jury selection, which created a whole bunch of headlines because you had not one black juror on a case, a murder case where a black teenager could be facing the rest of his life behind bars for stabbing to death a white teenager. Now there's no racial implication in the actual crime itself, but tensions certainly were there inside and outside the court.
00:01:01
Speaker 1: So this happened on Saturday, and we should explain that. First of all, the prosecution did rapids case on Saturday. Yes, they are in court and we're in court this weekend on an actual Saturday. This does happen every once in a while. You don't hear about it that often, but every once in a while judges in some places we'll decide, hey, things are going well, I want to keep this thing moving along. We already lost a couple of days this week because of elections and things going on, so let's keep it going. So decided to have trial on a Saturday. So yesterday they were in court and Robes, it wasn't long. You went through the timeline a little bit, but the prosecution only really started its case on Thursday afternoon after opening statements, got the day on Friday, and then by two o'clock on Saturday. Two o'clock on Saturday, Robes, I have to say I was a little shocked giving how many witnesses, which it was twenty one I believe they called. But given how big of a deal this case is, how charged it is, how heated, boom boom boom, we made our case.
00:02:02
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was just one. It seemed like reading through because there were no cameras in the courtroom. This was just reporters. They're allowed to take notes. But it did appear like each witness would take the stand and pretty quickly they got through that witness they would just say what they saw, say what they heard, and next, and they whipped through, yes, nearly two dozen witnesses in less than two days.
00:02:26
Speaker 1: And we should note now that yes they wrapped up yesterday with the defense putting on its case, they've already started calling witnesses, and yes they started calling them on a Saturday. But again, this is a trial that's supposed to go two weeks. We are at the end, we say, the end of a week road. So this wasn't a full week of trial. Could they wrap it up by next week? Is that what the judge was meaning by two weeks?
00:02:47
Speaker 2: I guess. I mean it even seems like Look, usually when you say two weeks, it's still you still have days and days of testimony, and oftentimes the defense doesn't even put up much of a defense. We've seen that certainly take place. But the prosecution getting through so quickly, I feel like, yeah, we could have a verdict by next week.
00:03:06
Speaker 1: And so where this leaves us now rogues and part of the reason we should explain and a reminder of the case itself, but a part of the reason here that you don't have to prove so much as you would and normally a murder trial, because this is not a case where they're saying he didn't do it. They're trying to prove that it's self defense.
00:03:27
Speaker 2: Yes, so there's no denying by Carmelo Anthony, even at the scene with enough people around. Look, he stabbed seventeen year old at the time he was seventeen, stabbed a fellow, seventeen year old, Austin Metcalf, in the chest with a pocket knife. I think it was a two inch wound. And it's just incredibly sad and tragic to think that one move, that one knife, that one stab wound was enough to kill Austin Metcalf. But yes, he's not denying doing it, and he was there on the scene, and part of the defense is that he didn't run until we saw a lot and heard a lot from witnesses describing what happened leading up to the altercation, which apparently was around four minutes long, and then what happened after the stabbing, And that also matters when it comes to this self defense.
00:04:17
Speaker 1: So so many of what was on the stand again States giving their case first and rhobes student after student athlete after athlete got up there and refuted the self defense claim. They lay our again, this is the state doing its case, but from the case they put together so far, Robes. It flies in the face of self defense. It flies in the face really, Robes. This wasn't a you say, four minutes, but most of them in that range four to six minutes. So really the question of the timing isn't really something in debate, but Robes. There was a lot of time for this thing to de escalate. I didn't realize how far they were from each other, how much conversation was actually going on, how much Carmelo Anthony was talking to and being instructed by other people to actually leave Robes. This is getting worse. And I'm saying that as a as a parent, and as an observer, that lives are being changed, and a life was gone for something so quick, split second. Just it did not This was so unnecessary.
00:05:19
Speaker 2: It was so unnecessary yet to hear that actually a lot of the back and forth between Carmelo Anthony and the other students was actually initially between Austin's identical twin brother Hunter. They were talking, it seemed beforehand, and Austin came up. It seems like from several bleachers below to address the situation, his coach had testified that he had told Austin he had actually was angry at Austin going into this track meet because he hadn't stepped up, that he had did he leave early one time to go do something.
00:05:50
Speaker 1: And it was in his mind that he needed to be a leader and a protector for his teammates and his classmates. They're suggesting that maybe that's in his head and he saw something that was a threat and let me go get into action if that was a part and in his mind, I don't know, but road, like you said, they're at least trying to establish that.
00:06:05
Speaker 2: Yes, So that's what it seemed. The prosecution was trying to create the situation where Austin was tasked by his coach who was annoyed with him for kind of being maybe lazy or acting like, you know whatever, a typical teenager saying no, you need to take your role seriously, you need to step up, you need to be a leader, you need to be in charge of this. And so he maybe felt like he needed to come in and deal with whatever was happening, because there was clearly something going on back and forth between Hunter, and Carmelo Anthony.
00:06:35
Speaker 1: By Carmelo, according to these students in this testimony, came out a bunch of them told him to leave, asked him to leave. Now, no one is suggesting this thing was heated in any way, but Carmelo Anthony knew someone from that school. He was sitting Rhodes quite comfortably. Didn't think, well, he wasn't behaving as someone who was uncomfortable or unwanted or even felt threatened and threatened in the environment. From what they discribed, Yes, it just seemed like.
00:07:01
Speaker 2: A lot of leave. Now, dude, what are you doing here? This isn't your tend him saying you can't make me leave. I was invited in here. I'm talking to a family friend.
00:07:11
Speaker 1: You know.
00:07:11
Speaker 2: Basically this you can't make me leave, We need you to leave. And it just it's so sad that it got to the level it did as quickly as it did. Just to hear the students recount what they witnessed.
00:07:25
Speaker 1: Something that came out, I didn't realize it's another This is a damn shame situation. Five bleachers away. Yes, these two were five bleachers away from each other. They weren't in the same I mean you know what, Robes, They're not right up on each other. They had to make an effort to get closer, is what I'm saying. When all this started, Austin was the one who was five bleachers away, and so he goes up and approaches and tries to get Carmelo Anthony to lee. This is at least the stuff that's been explained, and he finally, by all accounts, Robes by the students accounts, yes, he either touched him, shoved him, put his hand on him in some way. Nobody, however, Robes describes that shove or that move as violent or necessarily anything that warranted such a defensive reaction.
00:08:16
Speaker 2: It wasn't life threatening at all.
00:08:19
Speaker 1: Like what they describe is a nothing almost.
00:08:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, what they described just Carmelo Anthony saying we can be cool basically as long as you don't touch me, don't put your hands on me. And so he kind of laid down that that ground ruled, like that line, don't cross this line. If you touch me, we're gonna have a problem. And so of course, you know, you got egos, you got young men, and Austin's like, watch me touch you, basically, and then apparently he goes like to go towards his bag, and I from what the testimony was, that's when Austin said, you ain't got nothing in that bag, or you don't have anything in that bag, and kind of basically called him on his bluff, like, oh yeah, you're a tough guy, you got something in that bag. I bet you don't have anything in that bag. And that might have been the moment.
00:09:06
Speaker 1: That's what's being described. Look the testimony, and they showed to video robes that everybody was waiting to hear el excuse me, been waiting to see that showed the incident. Say that in quotation mark because yes, there is video surveillance of the incident, but it doesn't show the incident. It's from a distance, it's grainy, you can't really make out who's doing what, So it didn't really help. But they played that the difficult part in roes. Know you saw as well. Austin Metcalf's family had to leave the courtroom for a little bit and roves what they described when the medical examiner had to go up and go through the autopsy report and go through pictures. I say it was a difficult moment in the court room.
00:09:41
Speaker 2: Oh, my god. I can't imagine any parent being able to sit through. And that's a fairly common, really sad part of all of these proceedings vs. Most parents, most family members cannot be there when the autopsy report is revealed and read and shown pictures are shown to the jury. I can understand absolutely why you would need to leave, But you had to know that the wound was just two inches deep. I've said this before, I think in another episode about this case, because it just seems so awful that he just Carmelo Anthony. It happened to stab him in the exact worst place you could possibly stab someone with a pocket knife. You know, you hear about a vicious knife attacks and stabbings where people get stabbed forty times and survive one pocket knife, one wound.
00:10:30
Speaker 1: And what the medical examiner say, hit the ventricle and he bled out. Now it's something else I didn't understand either, Robes, I hadn't heard before. Now Austin fell back and was able to get up. They say he actually after being stabbed, got up, lifted his shirt actually and was looking himself trying to examine, like what is happening, and said I think I got stabbed and folks, blood starts flowing. They can all see that. I didn't realize that. So some of this stuff robes and so much that's been out there and talked about on the internet, and that's been a big part of this case. Excuse me, not the case in the court room, but outside the courtroom is just misinformation and people talking about what's what and making assumptions about the case. And now we're getting some actual detail and some actual facts and things come out. This is just what an awful, awful tragedy the defense. So we mentioned today the prosecution wrapped up. I say today it is yesterday on Saturday, the robes and then the standard thing happened, right, prosecution finished its case, so we rest our case and sure not. The defense tried to get it all thrown out.
00:11:32
Speaker 2: Yes, they made a motion for a dismissal, which happens almost every time, and every actually a couple of recent court cases we've been shocked to see the judge said, yep, you're right, let's dismiss This case. Was just the one though, Yes, but it really stood out because it never happens. The defense attorney always tries. But that was yes, it's a very unusual thing to do to actually have the judge grant the dismissal, but they always do ask, and the judge said, no, there are absolutely grounds for this case.
00:11:57
Speaker 1: To go forward. Well, yes, so obviously they had to make that attempt. And then yes, yesterday on a Saturday, the defense started to put on its case and it became clear from the very beginning what direction they were about to try to go. Stay here, all right, we continue here on Amy and TJ with the case of Carmelo Anthony, which is going to continue tomorrow on Monday with testimony. After the first week of trial has wrapped up. With the prosecution already wrapping its case, the prosecution rested its case on Saturday. Yes, they are having Saturday court down in Texas in this wing. As the judge wanted to keep things moving along. Robes, the defense got up in a big deal. So far, Robes is trying to set the tone and the scene at a track meet because there was a suggestion, at least stuff's been talked about and argued about, is that Carmelo Anthony was in such violation by even being present at another school's tent. And I look, a lot of us ropes. We've been to hell, even college and professional track meets and even one of the Olympic girls, the wow someon bio gymnastic gymnastics. Yeah, there's a tone in meats that if you're watching on TV, you don't get how much downtime and how much interaction and how lazy of an environment it can be. They were trying to make a big point of what a high school track meet looks like.
00:13:36
Speaker 2: Yes, and also just the fact that you had this massive rain going on, talking about how even Carmelo Anthony was talking about, man, can you believe this rain? Everyone's just kind of mulling around, milling around, because yeah, they're waiting to get started, they're waiting to get going, and so it's a really relaxed atmosphere. And the first witness that the defense called was a coach at Carmelo Anthony's school. He also described why their school didn't have a tent. It was in the tent, I mean it was in the bus behind that was late, so they didn't have time to set up a rain tent. So, yes, their school had no tent for athletes to be waiting in. And he said, look, there's no policy, I guess there is one now. But before this incident, there was no policy against athletes from other schools going into other schools tents. That that was something that was standard and happened all the time.
00:14:25
Speaker 1: Yes, there's a lot of downtime at a track meet, and if you run the two hundred, your event comes up in two hours.
00:14:33
Speaker 2: You've been to several of these with even Sabine and all these different schools, You've been to this exact situation.
00:14:39
Speaker 1: In the stands, hanging out, you're interacting, you're mingling. Kids from other schools know each other. So that part of it makes sense. And I guess they have to do that brough because some people might think, oh, my goodness, he was over here with other kids. He's like, that's really really a no no, And.
00:14:54
Speaker 2: Right he's somewhere he shouldn't. He was trespassing to stay.
00:14:57
Speaker 1: Oh you know what, that's the better way to put it. It made it seem as if it was some egregious thing he was doing. So there again, at least started with that. They also made a point Ropes during cross examination of a prosecution witness that seemed to want to downplay this. Was the person that Carmelo Anthony was in the tent visiting from the opposing school. Seemed to on the stand at least downplay the relationship.
00:15:19
Speaker 2: Yes, but then the defense was ready with photos. They had a very well documented friendship.
00:15:26
Speaker 1: They knew what was coming.
00:15:27
Speaker 2: He was trying to like act like, yeah, we didn't know each other that well, like I don't really know who he was, like, I don't know him, kind of distancing himself in a lot of ways from the defense and from Carmelo Anthony. But then the defense, Yes, Hilariously, I say that because it was kind of a yeah, now what she got for us moment.
00:15:44
Speaker 1: It wasn't the smoking gun it's going to save the whole case, But it was a Perry Mason like moment when I don't know why the kid and maybe it's their understanding of the relationship with Carmelo Anthony, but really downplayed, like really really downplayed.
00:15:59
Speaker 2: Knew.
00:16:00
Speaker 1: Yes, there was a picture of the two of them at one of them mom's fiftieth birthday party. Yes, they constant, They describe picture after picture after picture, these two not just seen at a random place together, but clearly.
00:16:14
Speaker 2: Their families know each other, their families hang out together. They are and he is the friend of his girlfriend correct, so of Camalo Anthony's girlfriends. So they were around each other a lot enough for there to be plenty of pictures taken.
00:16:26
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, so that's just again that moment. But that's important at least for the prosecutor, excuse me, for the defense to establish this. But robes, they are just just getting going. How are they going to challenge this case? Now? Who can be in there and suggest that Carmelo Anthony was not the aggressor, was not feeling threatened?
00:16:47
Speaker 2: Right?
00:16:48
Speaker 1: Who can they put up? I'm waiting to see. But nobody was in there robes except for the victim's friends for the most part, rist teammates last.
00:16:56
Speaker 2: And the only one who you could say was his friend or potentially could be considered his friend who might come to his defense is the one who kind of said, don't really know him, wasn't me, please don't connect me with him? So that that would have been the only person I would have thought they could have yeah said or would have testified in his defense to the jury that would have actually had some weight to it because he was there right next to him. He's the reason why Carmelo Anthony was even in the tent in the first place, and.
00:17:25
Speaker 1: Even he was distancing correct himself and folks, everybody that's been on the stand. It's been a couple of coaches, we had to talk about the medical examiner. But these are children. All of these are children who witnessed a crime of some kind and now the jury is deciding just how severe that crime was. But they all witnessed a stabbing that led to the death of a seventeen year old kid. These are kids who've been Most of them have not graduated. Some are kids who've already graduated, but a lot of these are still high school kids.
00:17:54
Speaker 2: A lot of the kids we couldn't even know their names because they were minors. They're sixteen, seventeen getting up on the stand, and I'm sure scared to death about just the process and what they witnessed and dealing with all of that aftermath. I was taken by I wonder if you were too, and imagining the coach of Austin and Hunter Metcalf he wasn't in the tent. If he had been in the tent, my guess is this would never have happened. And I'm sure that's weighing heavily on him as well. He left for ten minutes to go get a crock pot from another tent to be heating up some whatever they were feeding the guys in there before their meat. And to think it was those ten minutes he went to go get a damn crock pot that this all happened. He talked about. He testified about looking across the way as he was making his way back to the tent, seeing commotion and thinking what the hell is going on? Now, never in a million years imagining the scene he was going to walk up on.
00:18:50
Speaker 1: You think of all the little things that went wrong and could have been different. And yes, that's one thing. I mean, I go back to why does he have a knife in his backpack?
00:19:00
Speaker 2: And that's a question that was brought up because there is a zero tolerance policy for any kind of weapon being brought into an event like that.
00:19:09
Speaker 1: Having it, he used it, or at least the suggestions that he was prepared and knew it was in there for protection in some way, or he immediately started threatening as soon as he was told to leave. And all this is I've seen this countless times and stories I've covered in certain communities and certain schools. Your capital, like your reputation is all you got. I've seen foods get into full fights in hallways just because you accidentally bump each other on the shoulder walking past each other. So who's gonna apologize who's faulted? Why? Why? Why it's that kind of reputational capital that happens, And now you throw in egos. I have seen this scenario and people have been killed over this type of stuff. Just you can't be man enough to walk away, be mad enough to take an ass whipping. That's manhood. And we talk about it's just I hear now hearing this testimony, I see, I heard this exact stupid scenario that's led the gunfire just over some bullshit, just over reputation. You ain't gonna tell me what to do. No, I'm gonna tell you what to do. Now, we got a crowd around us, so now we got approve to everybody robes. This is just sick. But why why is there a knife in a backpack at a track meet? Why if he didn't have that, Austin belive.
00:20:36
Speaker 2: It's true, they might have thrown punches.
00:20:39
Speaker 1: You know what, you know what, he probably would have left.
00:20:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, because he's a lot. He was a lot smaller than he said.
00:20:44
Speaker 1: Got eighty pounds on him, and he's six.
00:20:45
Speaker 2: One Austin six one, he's five eight five n.
00:20:50
Speaker 1: Got eighty pounds on him. So yes, ro You're right, a crock pot of a knife in the backpack if it wasn't raining that day. I know, to all of this.
00:21:02
Speaker 2: The only thing that you can hope that comes out of this is that there are lessons learned that someone sees this, someone hears this and says, holy hell, I gotta do better, or I got to teach my kids better.
00:21:12
Speaker 1: But what are we looking for now, Robes, is a verdict that one side probably is not, you know what, nob who's going to accept.
00:21:22
Speaker 2: It because there's not a black juror on the jury. That's going to cause obvious issues.
00:21:29
Speaker 1: But if he's found of guilty of a lesser charge or found acquid it for some reason, the other side is never going to accept that and going to say that this jury bowed to the public pressure. You gonna what are you supposed to do?
00:21:41
Speaker 2: The sad thing is that, let's the sad thing is that the adults who are now you know, overseeing this justice or just coming to the truth of what happened and making sure the proper people are punished. The hope is that the adults inside the courtroom, the adults outside the courtroom protesting, can main calm and they can actually maybe just show that you can disagree and not have it lead to violence.
00:22:06
Speaker 1: I'm here we go again, but folks, yes, they'll be back in try back in court tomorrow on Monday in ropes. Like you said, jury might have this in there, and given the pace right now, jury could have it this week. I just wanted to give you this update. Folks. We always appreciate you spending a little time with us on TJ on behalf of my dearremmy robot will talk soon.
Speaker 1: Hey, that folks did. It's Sunday, June seventh, and the prosecution has already wrapped its case in the high profile and racially charged trial of teen Carmelo Anthony. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ. Rob. This is moving quickly. Trial was supposed to go two weeks and the state wrapped up after only they It wasn't even two full days of testical.
00:00:27
Speaker 2: Yea, they flew through. I was shocked because look, this was a little bit slow going. I think elections on Tuesday slowed up the trial a bit, but Monday and Wednesday were jury selection, which created a whole bunch of headlines because you had not one black juror on a case, a murder case where a black teenager could be facing the rest of his life behind bars for stabbing to death a white teenager. Now there's no racial implication in the actual crime itself, but tensions certainly were there inside and outside the court.
00:01:01
Speaker 1: So this happened on Saturday, and we should explain that. First of all, the prosecution did rapids case on Saturday. Yes, they are in court and we're in court this weekend on an actual Saturday. This does happen every once in a while. You don't hear about it that often, but every once in a while judges in some places we'll decide, hey, things are going well, I want to keep this thing moving along. We already lost a couple of days this week because of elections and things going on, so let's keep it going. So decided to have trial on a Saturday. So yesterday they were in court and Robes, it wasn't long. You went through the timeline a little bit, but the prosecution only really started its case on Thursday afternoon after opening statements, got the day on Friday, and then by two o'clock on Saturday. Two o'clock on Saturday, Robes, I have to say I was a little shocked giving how many witnesses, which it was twenty one I believe they called. But given how big of a deal this case is, how charged it is, how heated, boom boom boom, we made our case.
00:02:02
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was just one. It seemed like reading through because there were no cameras in the courtroom. This was just reporters. They're allowed to take notes. But it did appear like each witness would take the stand and pretty quickly they got through that witness they would just say what they saw, say what they heard, and next, and they whipped through, yes, nearly two dozen witnesses in less than two days.
00:02:26
Speaker 1: And we should note now that yes they wrapped up yesterday with the defense putting on its case, they've already started calling witnesses, and yes they started calling them on a Saturday. But again, this is a trial that's supposed to go two weeks. We are at the end, we say, the end of a week road. So this wasn't a full week of trial. Could they wrap it up by next week? Is that what the judge was meaning by two weeks?
00:02:47
Speaker 2: I guess. I mean it even seems like Look, usually when you say two weeks, it's still you still have days and days of testimony, and oftentimes the defense doesn't even put up much of a defense. We've seen that certainly take place. But the prosecution getting through so quickly, I feel like, yeah, we could have a verdict by next week.
00:03:06
Speaker 1: And so where this leaves us now rogues and part of the reason we should explain and a reminder of the case itself, but a part of the reason here that you don't have to prove so much as you would and normally a murder trial, because this is not a case where they're saying he didn't do it. They're trying to prove that it's self defense.
00:03:27
Speaker 2: Yes, so there's no denying by Carmelo Anthony, even at the scene with enough people around. Look, he stabbed seventeen year old at the time he was seventeen, stabbed a fellow, seventeen year old, Austin Metcalf, in the chest with a pocket knife. I think it was a two inch wound. And it's just incredibly sad and tragic to think that one move, that one knife, that one stab wound was enough to kill Austin Metcalf. But yes, he's not denying doing it, and he was there on the scene, and part of the defense is that he didn't run until we saw a lot and heard a lot from witnesses describing what happened leading up to the altercation, which apparently was around four minutes long, and then what happened after the stabbing, And that also matters when it comes to this self defense.
00:04:17
Speaker 1: So so many of what was on the stand again States giving their case first and rhobes student after student athlete after athlete got up there and refuted the self defense claim. They lay our again, this is the state doing its case, but from the case they put together so far, Robes. It flies in the face of self defense. It flies in the face really, Robes. This wasn't a you say, four minutes, but most of them in that range four to six minutes. So really the question of the timing isn't really something in debate, but Robes. There was a lot of time for this thing to de escalate. I didn't realize how far they were from each other, how much conversation was actually going on, how much Carmelo Anthony was talking to and being instructed by other people to actually leave Robes. This is getting worse. And I'm saying that as a as a parent, and as an observer, that lives are being changed, and a life was gone for something so quick, split second. Just it did not This was so unnecessary.
00:05:19
Speaker 2: It was so unnecessary yet to hear that actually a lot of the back and forth between Carmelo Anthony and the other students was actually initially between Austin's identical twin brother Hunter. They were talking, it seemed beforehand, and Austin came up. It seems like from several bleachers below to address the situation, his coach had testified that he had told Austin he had actually was angry at Austin going into this track meet because he hadn't stepped up, that he had did he leave early one time to go do something.
00:05:50
Speaker 1: And it was in his mind that he needed to be a leader and a protector for his teammates and his classmates. They're suggesting that maybe that's in his head and he saw something that was a threat and let me go get into action if that was a part and in his mind, I don't know, but road, like you said, they're at least trying to establish that.
00:06:05
Speaker 2: Yes, So that's what it seemed. The prosecution was trying to create the situation where Austin was tasked by his coach who was annoyed with him for kind of being maybe lazy or acting like, you know whatever, a typical teenager saying no, you need to take your role seriously, you need to step up, you need to be a leader, you need to be in charge of this. And so he maybe felt like he needed to come in and deal with whatever was happening, because there was clearly something going on back and forth between Hunter, and Carmelo Anthony.
00:06:35
Speaker 1: By Carmelo, according to these students in this testimony, came out a bunch of them told him to leave, asked him to leave. Now, no one is suggesting this thing was heated in any way, but Carmelo Anthony knew someone from that school. He was sitting Rhodes quite comfortably. Didn't think, well, he wasn't behaving as someone who was uncomfortable or unwanted or even felt threatened and threatened in the environment. From what they discribed, Yes, it just seemed like.
00:07:01
Speaker 2: A lot of leave. Now, dude, what are you doing here? This isn't your tend him saying you can't make me leave. I was invited in here. I'm talking to a family friend.
00:07:11
Speaker 1: You know.
00:07:11
Speaker 2: Basically this you can't make me leave, We need you to leave. And it just it's so sad that it got to the level it did as quickly as it did. Just to hear the students recount what they witnessed.
00:07:25
Speaker 1: Something that came out, I didn't realize it's another This is a damn shame situation. Five bleachers away. Yes, these two were five bleachers away from each other. They weren't in the same I mean you know what, Robes, They're not right up on each other. They had to make an effort to get closer, is what I'm saying. When all this started, Austin was the one who was five bleachers away, and so he goes up and approaches and tries to get Carmelo Anthony to lee. This is at least the stuff that's been explained, and he finally, by all accounts, Robes by the students accounts, yes, he either touched him, shoved him, put his hand on him in some way. Nobody, however, Robes describes that shove or that move as violent or necessarily anything that warranted such a defensive reaction.
00:08:16
Speaker 2: It wasn't life threatening at all.
00:08:19
Speaker 1: Like what they describe is a nothing almost.
00:08:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, what they described just Carmelo Anthony saying we can be cool basically as long as you don't touch me, don't put your hands on me. And so he kind of laid down that that ground ruled, like that line, don't cross this line. If you touch me, we're gonna have a problem. And so of course, you know, you got egos, you got young men, and Austin's like, watch me touch you, basically, and then apparently he goes like to go towards his bag, and I from what the testimony was, that's when Austin said, you ain't got nothing in that bag, or you don't have anything in that bag, and kind of basically called him on his bluff, like, oh yeah, you're a tough guy, you got something in that bag. I bet you don't have anything in that bag. And that might have been the moment.
00:09:06
Speaker 1: That's what's being described. Look the testimony, and they showed to video robes that everybody was waiting to hear el excuse me, been waiting to see that showed the incident. Say that in quotation mark because yes, there is video surveillance of the incident, but it doesn't show the incident. It's from a distance, it's grainy, you can't really make out who's doing what, So it didn't really help. But they played that the difficult part in roes. Know you saw as well. Austin Metcalf's family had to leave the courtroom for a little bit and roves what they described when the medical examiner had to go up and go through the autopsy report and go through pictures. I say it was a difficult moment in the court room.
00:09:41
Speaker 2: Oh, my god. I can't imagine any parent being able to sit through. And that's a fairly common, really sad part of all of these proceedings vs. Most parents, most family members cannot be there when the autopsy report is revealed and read and shown pictures are shown to the jury. I can understand absolutely why you would need to leave, But you had to know that the wound was just two inches deep. I've said this before, I think in another episode about this case, because it just seems so awful that he just Carmelo Anthony. It happened to stab him in the exact worst place you could possibly stab someone with a pocket knife. You know, you hear about a vicious knife attacks and stabbings where people get stabbed forty times and survive one pocket knife, one wound.
00:10:30
Speaker 1: And what the medical examiner say, hit the ventricle and he bled out. Now it's something else I didn't understand either, Robes, I hadn't heard before. Now Austin fell back and was able to get up. They say he actually after being stabbed, got up, lifted his shirt actually and was looking himself trying to examine, like what is happening, and said I think I got stabbed and folks, blood starts flowing. They can all see that. I didn't realize that. So some of this stuff robes and so much that's been out there and talked about on the internet, and that's been a big part of this case. Excuse me, not the case in the court room, but outside the courtroom is just misinformation and people talking about what's what and making assumptions about the case. And now we're getting some actual detail and some actual facts and things come out. This is just what an awful, awful tragedy the defense. So we mentioned today the prosecution wrapped up. I say today it is yesterday on Saturday, the robes and then the standard thing happened, right, prosecution finished its case, so we rest our case and sure not. The defense tried to get it all thrown out.
00:11:32
Speaker 2: Yes, they made a motion for a dismissal, which happens almost every time, and every actually a couple of recent court cases we've been shocked to see the judge said, yep, you're right, let's dismiss This case. Was just the one though, Yes, but it really stood out because it never happens. The defense attorney always tries. But that was yes, it's a very unusual thing to do to actually have the judge grant the dismissal, but they always do ask, and the judge said, no, there are absolutely grounds for this case.
00:11:57
Speaker 1: To go forward. Well, yes, so obviously they had to make that attempt. And then yes, yesterday on a Saturday, the defense started to put on its case and it became clear from the very beginning what direction they were about to try to go. Stay here, all right, we continue here on Amy and TJ with the case of Carmelo Anthony, which is going to continue tomorrow on Monday with testimony. After the first week of trial has wrapped up. With the prosecution already wrapping its case, the prosecution rested its case on Saturday. Yes, they are having Saturday court down in Texas in this wing. As the judge wanted to keep things moving along. Robes, the defense got up in a big deal. So far, Robes is trying to set the tone and the scene at a track meet because there was a suggestion, at least stuff's been talked about and argued about, is that Carmelo Anthony was in such violation by even being present at another school's tent. And I look, a lot of us ropes. We've been to hell, even college and professional track meets and even one of the Olympic girls, the wow someon bio gymnastic gymnastics. Yeah, there's a tone in meats that if you're watching on TV, you don't get how much downtime and how much interaction and how lazy of an environment it can be. They were trying to make a big point of what a high school track meet looks like.
00:13:36
Speaker 2: Yes, and also just the fact that you had this massive rain going on, talking about how even Carmelo Anthony was talking about, man, can you believe this rain? Everyone's just kind of mulling around, milling around, because yeah, they're waiting to get started, they're waiting to get going, and so it's a really relaxed atmosphere. And the first witness that the defense called was a coach at Carmelo Anthony's school. He also described why their school didn't have a tent. It was in the tent, I mean it was in the bus behind that was late, so they didn't have time to set up a rain tent. So, yes, their school had no tent for athletes to be waiting in. And he said, look, there's no policy, I guess there is one now. But before this incident, there was no policy against athletes from other schools going into other schools tents. That that was something that was standard and happened all the time.
00:14:25
Speaker 1: Yes, there's a lot of downtime at a track meet, and if you run the two hundred, your event comes up in two hours.
00:14:33
Speaker 2: You've been to several of these with even Sabine and all these different schools, You've been to this exact situation.
00:14:39
Speaker 1: In the stands, hanging out, you're interacting, you're mingling. Kids from other schools know each other. So that part of it makes sense. And I guess they have to do that brough because some people might think, oh, my goodness, he was over here with other kids. He's like, that's really really a no no, And.
00:14:54
Speaker 2: Right he's somewhere he shouldn't. He was trespassing to stay.
00:14:57
Speaker 1: Oh you know what, that's the better way to put it. It made it seem as if it was some egregious thing he was doing. So there again, at least started with that. They also made a point Ropes during cross examination of a prosecution witness that seemed to want to downplay this. Was the person that Carmelo Anthony was in the tent visiting from the opposing school. Seemed to on the stand at least downplay the relationship.
00:15:19
Speaker 2: Yes, but then the defense was ready with photos. They had a very well documented friendship.
00:15:26
Speaker 1: They knew what was coming.
00:15:27
Speaker 2: He was trying to like act like, yeah, we didn't know each other that well, like I don't really know who he was, like, I don't know him, kind of distancing himself in a lot of ways from the defense and from Carmelo Anthony. But then the defense, Yes, Hilariously, I say that because it was kind of a yeah, now what she got for us moment.
00:15:44
Speaker 1: It wasn't the smoking gun it's going to save the whole case, But it was a Perry Mason like moment when I don't know why the kid and maybe it's their understanding of the relationship with Carmelo Anthony, but really downplayed, like really really downplayed.
00:15:59
Speaker 2: Knew.
00:16:00
Speaker 1: Yes, there was a picture of the two of them at one of them mom's fiftieth birthday party. Yes, they constant, They describe picture after picture after picture, these two not just seen at a random place together, but clearly.
00:16:14
Speaker 2: Their families know each other, their families hang out together. They are and he is the friend of his girlfriend correct, so of Camalo Anthony's girlfriends. So they were around each other a lot enough for there to be plenty of pictures taken.
00:16:26
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, so that's just again that moment. But that's important at least for the prosecutor, excuse me, for the defense to establish this. But robes, they are just just getting going. How are they going to challenge this case? Now? Who can be in there and suggest that Carmelo Anthony was not the aggressor, was not feeling threatened?
00:16:47
Speaker 2: Right?
00:16:48
Speaker 1: Who can they put up? I'm waiting to see. But nobody was in there robes except for the victim's friends for the most part, rist teammates last.
00:16:56
Speaker 2: And the only one who you could say was his friend or potentially could be considered his friend who might come to his defense is the one who kind of said, don't really know him, wasn't me, please don't connect me with him? So that that would have been the only person I would have thought they could have yeah said or would have testified in his defense to the jury that would have actually had some weight to it because he was there right next to him. He's the reason why Carmelo Anthony was even in the tent in the first place, and.
00:17:25
Speaker 1: Even he was distancing correct himself and folks, everybody that's been on the stand. It's been a couple of coaches, we had to talk about the medical examiner. But these are children. All of these are children who witnessed a crime of some kind and now the jury is deciding just how severe that crime was. But they all witnessed a stabbing that led to the death of a seventeen year old kid. These are kids who've been Most of them have not graduated. Some are kids who've already graduated, but a lot of these are still high school kids.
00:17:54
Speaker 2: A lot of the kids we couldn't even know their names because they were minors. They're sixteen, seventeen getting up on the stand, and I'm sure scared to death about just the process and what they witnessed and dealing with all of that aftermath. I was taken by I wonder if you were too, and imagining the coach of Austin and Hunter Metcalf he wasn't in the tent. If he had been in the tent, my guess is this would never have happened. And I'm sure that's weighing heavily on him as well. He left for ten minutes to go get a crock pot from another tent to be heating up some whatever they were feeding the guys in there before their meat. And to think it was those ten minutes he went to go get a damn crock pot that this all happened. He talked about. He testified about looking across the way as he was making his way back to the tent, seeing commotion and thinking what the hell is going on? Now, never in a million years imagining the scene he was going to walk up on.
00:18:50
Speaker 1: You think of all the little things that went wrong and could have been different. And yes, that's one thing. I mean, I go back to why does he have a knife in his backpack?
00:19:00
Speaker 2: And that's a question that was brought up because there is a zero tolerance policy for any kind of weapon being brought into an event like that.
00:19:09
Speaker 1: Having it, he used it, or at least the suggestions that he was prepared and knew it was in there for protection in some way, or he immediately started threatening as soon as he was told to leave. And all this is I've seen this countless times and stories I've covered in certain communities and certain schools. Your capital, like your reputation is all you got. I've seen foods get into full fights in hallways just because you accidentally bump each other on the shoulder walking past each other. So who's gonna apologize who's faulted? Why? Why? Why it's that kind of reputational capital that happens, And now you throw in egos. I have seen this scenario and people have been killed over this type of stuff. Just you can't be man enough to walk away, be mad enough to take an ass whipping. That's manhood. And we talk about it's just I hear now hearing this testimony, I see, I heard this exact stupid scenario that's led the gunfire just over some bullshit, just over reputation. You ain't gonna tell me what to do. No, I'm gonna tell you what to do. Now, we got a crowd around us, so now we got approve to everybody robes. This is just sick. But why why is there a knife in a backpack at a track meet? Why if he didn't have that, Austin belive.
00:20:36
Speaker 2: It's true, they might have thrown punches.
00:20:39
Speaker 1: You know what, you know what, he probably would have left.
00:20:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, because he's a lot. He was a lot smaller than he said.
00:20:44
Speaker 1: Got eighty pounds on him, and he's six.
00:20:45
Speaker 2: One Austin six one, he's five eight five n.
00:20:50
Speaker 1: Got eighty pounds on him. So yes, ro You're right, a crock pot of a knife in the backpack if it wasn't raining that day. I know, to all of this.
00:21:02
Speaker 2: The only thing that you can hope that comes out of this is that there are lessons learned that someone sees this, someone hears this and says, holy hell, I gotta do better, or I got to teach my kids better.
00:21:12
Speaker 1: But what are we looking for now, Robes, is a verdict that one side probably is not, you know what, nob who's going to accept.
00:21:22
Speaker 2: It because there's not a black juror on the jury. That's going to cause obvious issues.
00:21:29
Speaker 1: But if he's found of guilty of a lesser charge or found acquid it for some reason, the other side is never going to accept that and going to say that this jury bowed to the public pressure. You gonna what are you supposed to do?
00:21:41
Speaker 2: The sad thing is that, let's the sad thing is that the adults who are now you know, overseeing this justice or just coming to the truth of what happened and making sure the proper people are punished. The hope is that the adults inside the courtroom, the adults outside the courtroom protesting, can main calm and they can actually maybe just show that you can disagree and not have it lead to violence.
00:22:06
Speaker 1: I'm here we go again, but folks, yes, they'll be back in try back in court tomorrow on Monday in ropes. Like you said, jury might have this in there, and given the pace right now, jury could have it this week. I just wanted to give you this update. Folks. We always appreciate you spending a little time with us on TJ on behalf of my dearremmy robot will talk soon.