When Self-Defense Becomes Murder: The Karmelo Anthony Verdict

 Stand Your Ground laws exist to protect innocent people from violent threats — not to settle arguments over parking spots or personal slights. We dig into the Karmelo Anthony trial, the conviction, and the hard truth that self-defense law demands an imminent threat of bodily injury before deadly force is ever justified. If you carry, you need to understand where the legal line is — because ignorance of that line can cost you everything. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Old juice with a stuffy head. I know it's terrible. I don't know if it's allergies or what right now. You had a cold, right? Yeah, yeah. I had a terrible cold.

SPEAKER_01 0:10

Probably need some medicine. You don't take medicine though, do you? I try not to. All right. Well, so we're going to Whitewater rafting tomorrow with our church. Me and the kid are awesome. Awesome. Up in the Okoe.

SPEAKER_00 0:21

Your youngest daughter up, of course.

SPEAKER_01 0:23

We went last year and I didn't think much about it. I was like, oh, it's going to be fun. We'll float on a boat. Yeah. A little more intense than that. Really? Yeah. They said it's going to be even rougher this year because it's been raining so much. Yeah. So pretty fun though. You got a guy that, you know, they guides with you in the back. He flips you over on purpose and all this stuff.

SPEAKER_00 0:42

But yeah. The water's cold. Yeah, you enjoy that. I'll be sitting at the house chilling in my recliner.

SPEAKER_01 0:48

You're such a good swimmer.

SPEAKER_00 0:49

Yeah. No, no, I'm not. I'm a terrible swimmer. I'm not even going to try and lie and hide it.

SPEAKER_01 0:55

But you didn't go to the Marine Corps water survival course?

SPEAKER_00 0:58

No, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_01 1:00

Water survival instructor course.

SPEAKER_00 1:01

I got enough to pass through boot camp, and then the rest of the time I was sliding and gliding and skating out of the swim quals. So what did y'all do?

SPEAKER_01 1:10

I had to go to the last day. And I was the only one on the bus on the last day. Yeah. What did y'all do while the rest of us were going to do the S1, S2, and S3? I don't know. I was stuck at the pool. I couldn't swim. I was the platoon iron duck. Oh, yeah. You were done in the kitty pool for a while.

SPEAKER_00 1:25

Yes. Oh, yeah, they had the kitty in. Yes. I could not swim worth a lick. I I'm good in the pool now. Open water.

SPEAKER_01 1:31

You need to come get me. My wife hates water where she can't see the bottom. That's me. It freaks her out.

SPEAKER_00 1:37

So that's me. We did that rappel master course up in DeSoto Falls, and two guys had to come in and get me because we repelled down and I got to the bottom of the rope and I looked at them. I said, When are y'all coming to get me? And they're like, You seriously can't swim? I said, No. Need a life jacket. Yeah. They throw you one down. No. They nobody believed me this whole time through the course when I told them, Look, I can't swim like that.

SPEAKER_01 2:03

Did Israel make fun of you?

SPEAKER_00 2:05

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 2:06

Oh, it is real.

SPEAKER_00 2:09

Over the cliff, looked and went, huh? He can't swim.

SPEAKER_01 2:12

Let's leave him down there.

SPEAKER_00 2:13

Yeah. Yeah. My buddy had to come out and get me, and I told him, I said, I told you. He goes, Man, I thought you were kidding. No. Right.

SPEAKER_01 2:22

All right. We're going to talk about the controversial one, Juice. Are you ready for it?

SPEAKER_00 2:26

Oh, God. This is all over the news. I'm so ready for this.

SPEAKER_01 2:29

Carmelo Anthony murdering the Austin Metcalfe on April 2nd, 2025.

SPEAKER_00 2:35

And I I'll tell you right now, I don't care how many people make their comments they hate me and hope I die. I don't care. Right.

SPEAKER_01 2:42

I've seen it compared to a lot of things. Like if this had been a white kid, he would not have been convicted. That's not true. There's white kids convicted every day of murder.

SPEAKER_00 2:50

Yes, there is.

SPEAKER_01 2:52

The news didn't latch onto it.

SPEAKER_00 2:53

And they get convicted in their crime, their sentence is more than 35 years.

SPEAKER_01 2:58

Right. Well, still a hypothetical juice.

SPEAKER_00 3:01

Oh, I love those.

SPEAKER_01 3:03

Let's say me and you get into it right now. Yeah. And there's four people watching over here. Say my wife's here as a witness. Yep. You shove me and I start cussing you out. Mm-hmm. Maybe shove you back, whatever. Right. And you start yakking at me, calling me names and stuff, and I get mad and run a knife into your heart. Yes. Is that murder? Yes, it is. It is. Is there such a thing as delayed self-defense juice? No.

unknown 3:28

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 3:29

That's what he tried to do the self-defense thing, but there was a there was a pause between the initial hands-on. That's what his problem was.

SPEAKER_00 3:36

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 3:36

If the kid was on top of him, pounding that face, he might have got away with it.

SPEAKER_00 3:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:40

We had the incident, I forgot the kid's name in Rhode Island. He was he was getting pummeled by five or six boys. Right. And he came up slicing and dicing. Oh yeah. You can't blame him for that one. Once some intestines were hanging out. And he went on trial for murder and got acquitted. So but he was getting pummeled. Some of them had weapons in their hands. Yeah. A little different.

SPEAKER_00 4:00

To me, that was self-defense.

SPEAKER_01 4:02

He actually went on the stand too and justified.

SPEAKER_00 4:05

Where Carmelo didn't go on the stand.

SPEAKER_01 4:07

Right. And talk about how scared he was.

SPEAKER_00 4:09

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 4:10

And you can, I mean, you can you can anytime in the United States get on the stand. Yeah. They typically don't. Of course not. But you can't, you know, a shoving match and then you stab somebody in the heart is not a self-defense claim.

SPEAKER_00 4:27

No, that's that that's not stand your ground. That's that's not the castle doctrine.

SPEAKER_01 4:32

Now, if Metcalf pushed him to the ground and you said stop and he kept coming at you, pushed maybe started hitting you, that is legitimate, in my opinion.

SPEAKER_00 4:42

Still, you don't want to use a knife on him.

SPEAKER_01 4:45

Right. It must not have been that bad because people were watching and they didn't think nothing much of it.

SPEAKER_00 4:50

No, it was, I guess, a verbal, more more verbal than a maybe a shove.

SPEAKER_01 4:55

I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 4:57

But again, here's a kid. Took a knife, intentionally took a knife, a weapon to attract me.

SPEAKER_01 5:05

Why?

SPEAKER_00 5:06

A school function.

SPEAKER_01 5:07

And he went and hung out in the opposing team's tent.

SPEAKER_00 5:09

Yes, because he wanted to antagonize. There was a storm coming. That's one thing, but Right. But he went there to antagonize. Talking trash and all that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:20

So he got and he got asked to leave many times according to the transcripts I read.

SPEAKER_00 5:26

Yes. Now him, I guess these these boys had an issue with him. It's been back and forth.

SPEAKER_01 5:31

But regardless, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:33

My own assumption would be, and I've been in a lot of fights, he went in there to trash talk and tell him I ain't afraid of you. He went in there to instigate and aggravate, and that's exactly what he did.

SPEAKER_01 5:45

And Metcalf Metcalf was a pretty big dude, and I think he uh he said, Oh, I didn't mean I didn't think this guy was coming. Yeah. And decided he was gonna stab somebody. Uh now, let me see here. Did he get arrested immediately? I can't remember.

SPEAKER_04 6:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:02

But they peep but they let him out on bail.

SPEAKER_04 6:04

Yeah. If I stab somebody, you ain't getting out on bail.

unknown 6:08

No.

SPEAKER_04 6:09

How did he get out on bail? Oh, they had a liberal judge. That's what it was. Yes. Let me see, where was it? Frisco, Texas.

SPEAKER_01 6:17

He got a liberal judge that let him out on bail, right? Of course. It ain't happening in Alabama. No. If you attempt to murder somebody, you're not getting out on bail. Absolutely not. They got that law, I forgot what it's called. Automatically no bail. Yeah. So as opposed to Washington, D.C. and some other places where you attempt to murder somebody and they give you no cash bail.

SPEAKER_00 6:38

Look, we we no cash bail. We don't have the lottery and we don't have medicinal marijuana. If you attempt to kill somebody or kill somebody, you're done. You're not getting out until your trial. Right.

SPEAKER_01 6:49

We have some conservative judges. Yes, we do. You might find a few around Mobile and Montgomery that are liberal, but 99% of them are conservative. Exactly. They're like, I'm not letting this dude out or a girl out to go rampage the community. You do it, you're but yeah, that incident stabbing occurred at a track meet at the Memorial High School in David Kukendale Stadium at approximately 10 a.m. The altercation started when the track and field championship event was delayed due to thunderstorms and heavy downpours. Due to the rain, every team except Anthony's high school had a tent. One of Anthony's teammates testified that he, Anthony, and other teammates had sought shelter from the rain at a nearby baseball dugout until the baseball coach told him to leave. According to witness testimony, Anthony was called over to Memorial High School tent by Memorial student Eddie Para. Para and Anthony had friendly interaction for about five minutes. Hunter Metcalf, Austin's twin brother, approached Anthony and asked him to leave the tent. Austin then confronted Anthony during the argument that ensued. Anthony allegedly said, Touch me and see what happens, by reaching his hand into his backpack. According to witnesses, Metcalf responded, You don't have anything in that backpack. It's Frisco. Like when he, you know. Metcalf then grabbed Anthony to move him. Another witness in the Frisco police arrest report stated Austin and Anthony went back and forth, and then Austin stood up and pushed Anthony to get him out of the tent. In response, Anthony pulled out a black knife from the backpack and stabbed Metcalf once in the chest before running away. After that, so Metcalf ran down the bleachers, grabbing his chest, telling them was around him to get help. And when the police arrived, he was not, he was already dead.

SPEAKER_00 8:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:29

He bled out.

SPEAKER_00 8:30

And Carmelo was out hiding his little knifey.

SPEAKER_01 8:33

According to the resting officer, when told to keep his hands in the air, Anthony said, I was protecting myself. Good call, right? Yeah. Yeah. The affidavit states that he was emotional and crying hysterically. After he was arrested, the officer then communicated to others that he was the alleged subs suspect in custody, to which Anthony responded, I'm not alleged. I did it.

SPEAKER_00 8:55

First of all, you don't tell somebody, touch me and see what happens, and then say, I was in fear for my life.

SPEAKER_01 9:01

Right. After he was being escorted to the police car, Anthony reportedly said he put his hands on me. I told him not to. While he was sitting in the backseat of the police car, he asked of Metcalf, is he going to be okay? And the officer He asked the officer if he could be considered for self-defense. Of course, the officer's just hanging out listening, right?

SPEAKER_00 9:21

Of course. Spontaneous utterance.

SPEAKER_01 9:23

The courts approve Anthony moving to an undisclosed location due to safety concerns in a pretrial period. According to the Next Generation Action Network in GAN. Right. A nonprofit organization working with Anthony's family, the move was precipitated by an alarming increase of death threats, continued harassment, and physical intimidation, targeting him and his family's home. Metcalfe's mother and father had their home SWAT. This is the dead kid's mom and dad.

SPEAKER_02 9:51

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 9:52

With one such incident resulting in SWAT team showing up at Metcalfe's father's home with their weapons drawn. Additionally, both Metcalfe's and Anthony's fathers were forced to leave their jobs after facing harassment and doxing. So both guys are getting Angela Tucker, the judge who lowered the bond to $250,000, was doxed and received multiple threats from unknown people. The FBI and the local sheriff's office launched an investigation into these incidents. Okay. $250K, man, for attempted murder.

SPEAKER_00 10:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:24

That's in Texas, too.

unknown 10:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:25

Usually pretty conservative there.

SPEAKER_00 10:26

Well, what'd they get on the GoFundMe? $650,000 something odd dollars?

SPEAKER_01 10:31

Yeah, that's the next one. So Anthony's family set up a crowdfunding campaign, Give Sin Go, to pay for legal defenses and other expenses, raising over $615,000 by June the 4th. GoFundMe crowdfunding campaigns were launched by Metcalf's father and owner of a pizzeria and Frisco where Metcalf worked part-time, raising nearly a quarter million dollars. The founder of Go Seng Go, Jacob Wells, had compared the case to those, the Kyle Rittenhouse and Daniel Penny, stating that Anthony should be afforded the same presumption of innocence as anyone else. Okay, let's talk about those two. Way different.

SPEAKER_00 11:08

Yeah, completely different.

SPEAKER_01 11:09

Let's talk about Rittenhouse. He was trying to get away.

SPEAKER_00 11:13

Yes, he was.

SPEAKER_01 11:14

And then a guy raised the edge of his skateboard to come down on his face.

SPEAKER_00 11:17

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 11:17

And he shot him.

SPEAKER_00 11:18

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 11:19

And then left. He said, Well, I shot the guy, basically.

SPEAKER_00 11:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:23

Daniel Penny held a guy and said, stop 17,000 times. And the guy kept trying to stab and fight everybody. And then he put him in a choke. Eventually got him not to move anymore. Yeah. So let's. Two different situations. Completely different. I hear all the liberals say, well, Rittenhouse shouldn't have been there. What care? This is the United States of America.

SPEAKER_00 11:46

You can go anywhere you want in America.

SPEAKER_01 11:48

Right. And if you're legally able to carry a weapon, you can carry a weapon.

SPEAKER_00 11:51

Yeah. We we don't have an iron curtain.

SPEAKER_01 11:54

Right. He was up there doing helping with medical and those riots. Yeah. Remember that? And if you try to kill somebody with a skateboard, they have the they can kill, they can fight back. That's right. That's considered a weapon. He didn't get stand your ground either. He had to go to trial. Remember that? Oh yeah. Daniel Penny did get stand your ground, right? Yes. I believe he did. So. Because the guy was a threat to the community because he was on a subway truck or whatever. So. All right. Anthony's Gosh and Go fundraiser was taken down after his conviction. Govs and Go said the fundraiser was meant to support Anthony's pretrial needs and that the funds had been dispersed over the previous year. Okay, they didn't put it in this liberal article, obviously. Yeah, mom and dad got money. They went and partied it up. They bought a house when I've vacation. Yeah. Metcalfe's father attended this event. However, Dallas police asked Metcalf to leave because he was being threatened by the Engan attendees. Right. After Metcalf left the press conference, Engan founder and president Dominique Alexander said Metcalf was uninvited. And that his presence was disrespectful to the dignity of his son. Metcalf said he thought he would be it would be an opportunity for the two families to come together in a productive way. Right.

SPEAKER_04 13:14

I think they actually was it was pleasant. You know what I mean? I don't think it was they didn't get in a fight or anything.

SPEAKER_01 13:22

I mean that Anthony's daddy didn't do nothing wrong. But they did use that money to buy cars and a house. They went on vacation. Because they had to get permission for Anthony to go on vacation with them, right? Yeah. Carmelo to go with him.

SPEAKER_02 13:35

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 13:37

There's a bunch of misinformation that was put out. I don't know if you remember all that stuff. Yeah. He was charged, he was charged with murder and transported transported to the jail. He was charged an adult since under the Texas criminal justice system defendants at age 17 are and older are prosecuted as adults. He don't look like an adult in that picture. No, he doesn't. Scared little boy. I mean, this is unfortunate for both sides. It is. I think it ruined two lives, two families, split them up. Metcalf had a twin brother. Yes. You know how damaging that is to him?

SPEAKER_02 14:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:08

And the mom and dad. The judge, Angela Tucker. Angela Tucker said loud. Lord Anthony's bond from one million to 250,000, citing his clean criminal criminal record and his academic and athletic achievements. You would never get bailed, Jeez, because you don't have any academic or athletic achievements. Correct.

unknown 14:31

Correct.

SPEAKER_02 14:31

Or a clean record. Or a clean record.

SPEAKER_00 14:33

Yeah, I'd be sitting there.

SPEAKER_01 14:37

I would be sitting there. According to his release conditions, as an adult was required to supervise Anthony at all times. He was required to contact the judge's bailiff every Friday morning, and he's prohibited from using social media or contacting Metcalf. Family of Metcalf. He pled not guilty and claimed self-defense at his future trial. He could not have the death penalty because of his age. Right. They have like a youthful offender. Which is a shame. Like a youthful offender thing. Then the grand jury indicted him. Right. The grand jury said, yeah, he did it. So I always laugh at the grand jury. He said, You ever been seen a grand jury trial?

SPEAKER_00 15:12

Yeah, the grand jury just says there's enough evidence presented to go to a trial.

SPEAKER_01 15:16

The DA's the judge.

SPEAKER_00 15:18

Yeah. So it's it's just it's just kangaroo court, honestly.

SPEAKER_01 15:22

The jurors can ask the person on the stand questions directly and all that.

SPEAKER_04 15:25

So yeah, jury selection. Now they keep putting out bad information about the jury. Yeah. All white.

SPEAKER_01 15:36

It was not all white. No, it wasn't. They struck three black female jurors from the pool, of whom the defense considered to be similarly similarly situated to a white female jury that was not struck. The prosecution argued that the three women are struck for race neutral reasons, namely their status as teachers of school-aged children. Judge Roach sided with the prosecution and permitted the strikes. The jury was seated with no black jurors. Now the here's an issue. Your defense attorney has a say in the jurors. Absolutely. So why wouldn't there black jurors on there? They can keep saying, bring me more from the pool.

SPEAKER_00 16:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:12

You know, I I've seen it.

SPEAKER_00 16:14

It's unlimited the amount of people you can bring in on jury duty.

SPEAKER_01 16:17

Jury selection can go on for a while.

SPEAKER_00 16:20

Yes, it can.

SPEAKER_01 16:22

The jury is seated with no black juries, though several were people of color, including alternates. The jury is comprised of 11 women, seven men, big jury. Uh one of the seated jurors was an educator who did not work in a traditional setting. But they were they didn't put that in this liberal newspaper. There was Hispanics in there. Yes. And some others. And then they had opening statements. Okay. The district attorney said the killing was uh provoked, unjustified murder. That Metcalf pushed and shoved before Anthony stabbed him in a sneak attack. This is a DA, right? Using a concealed weapon. They can say the case does not concern race or self-defense. Michael Michael Howard, the defense attorney, stated there are varying accounts of what occurred. There was not. If you read the transcript, they all said kind of the same thing. Yeah. Which is amazing that they were it's identical. Which is amazing when you're talking witnesses. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:19

What do you think? Yeah, because you don't ever get the witness that sees the same thing. Right. There's how many were there? 14 or something? Yeah, there's a bunch. Yeah. Even the defense witness. They've all seen the same thing.

SPEAKER_01 17:31

Even the defense witness, the first one they called up, said, Yeah, he killed them.

SPEAKER_00 17:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:35

And then they quit calling witnesses after that.

SPEAKER_00 17:37

So there were three of them that were there were friends of this kid, Carmelo Anthony. And they said, Yeah, he's stabbing them.

SPEAKER_01 17:44

A lot of the witnesses were black.

SPEAKER_00 17:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:46

So I don't think this was a race thing at all.

SPEAKER_00 17:48

No, but they're going to make it out to be a race thing, and it's not.

SPEAKER_01 17:51

Because they got to sell news and clips.

SPEAKER_00 17:52

And I'll be honest with you, it may have had something to do with the sentencing, but I think the sentencing was too light in this case. 35 years. Had that would have been a Caucasian child that murdered an African American child. All right. There'd be riots in the streets, people would be burning stuff down, debris looting, destroying businesses in the neighborhoods. But that kid who killed the other one, had he been white, he'd have got a life sentence. Not 35 years. Right. Well, that's just my opinion. Cardi B, American rapper, said that the verdict was disgusting juice. Well, so she, but it is what it is.

SPEAKER_01 18:38

Representative Jasmine Crockett. Eyelash Queen. Yeah. I said on social media live stream that Anthony was among many people who have been over-prosecuted and given crazy sentences.

SPEAKER_00 18:50

Yeah, and she's just mad because she didn't keep her seat. She lost her seat. Too bad. So long. Bye-bye.

SPEAKER_01 18:57

So she's a lawyer, Jasmine. So that means me and you could go finish law school in Texas in a few weeks. Yeah. What is it like a weekend course there?

SPEAKER_00 19:05

Yeah, it's gotta be. She got it on a matchbook cover because she is a moron.

SPEAKER_01 19:10

I know it's not. There's some fine lawyers in Texas, but I bet they uh look at her and like, man, you may have.

SPEAKER_00 19:17

I don't know how she made it.

SPEAKER_01 19:19

Yeah. It's almost like it's an overnight online course or something.

SPEAKER_00 19:22

I I don't know, but she's a moron. I cannot believe she has a jurisdoctorate.

SPEAKER_01 19:27

Right. Republican State Representative Jared Peter Patterson. Yeah, I know him, who represents Frisco, called the murder a senseless and heartbreaking strategy. He's correct. And it is. Celebrated a verdict. And then they just get you had both sides saying, yeah, this was right, this was wrong. You had social media, they had to sell clicks, right? To get to be controversial and all that stuff.

SPEAKER_00 19:49

Oh, yeah. The race baiting is what gets me. They're not saying that he didn't do it. They're just saying he got hammered because he was African American.

SPEAKER_02 20:01

Right. Let me see here.

SPEAKER_00 20:06

And I don't care what color you are. If you murder somebody like that, I don't care what your color is. You should get the chair. You should ride that blue chain of lightning.

SPEAKER_01 20:14

You don't want to pay the piper, man.

SPEAKER_00 20:15

Yeah. Take that dirt nap. You earned it.

SPEAKER_01 20:18

I've done stuff wrong and had to pay the piper.

SPEAKER_00 20:20

Yeah. Luckily, I've never done anything wrong.

SPEAKER_01 20:24

Yeah, right. Unfortunately, I know different juice. Well, yeah. Yeah, you do. That was a controversial murder. I don't think it was Stand Your Ground. It was not. We've seen Stand Your Ground where we said it wasn't before and a guy got off. Yeah, and I still can't believe he got off. That was a guy from up the street. It was crazy that one was. I still don't get it. But this one, I don't think, because there was some shoving going around, and this kid pulled out a knife and retaliated instead of walking away.

SPEAKER_00 20:56

In my opinion, it was premeditated. He knew something was gonna go on. He had that knife in his backpack. That's the first thing that kid reached for. If he could have had his hands on a pistol, it would have been a pistol.

SPEAKER_01 21:06

I guarantee it. Absolutely. So guarantee it. But he didn't have one. So all right, Juice. Close it up for now. What do you think? All right.

SPEAKER_00 21:13

Say bye. Bye, Juice.