Nils Grevillius - Was justice served in the Karmelo Anthony case?

A Texas jury sentenced a teenager to 35 years in prison for a fatal stabbing at a high school track meet. Does the sentence fit the crime, or will it leave both sides dissatisfied?

Nils Grevillius is a crime expert, author of The Last Lawman, and a U.S. Army veteran. He joins the show to discuss the Karmelo Anthony sentencing, how juries weigh violent crimes involving young offenders, and what the case could mean for future criminal prosecutions.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:05

Ah, welcome back to the Lawrence Larson Show. It's a pleasure to be with you, and I was glad to see that a Texas jury convicted Carmelo Anthony for stabbing a teenager to death at a track meet for absolutely nothing. And then he got 35 years for stabbing that teenager to death. Was justice served, or does the sentence somehow miss the mark? I thought we'd ask that of Nils Gravelius, who's our crime expert, author of The Last Lawman, and a U.S. Army vet who completed three tours in Korea with a DMZ service. Nils, welcome back to the program.

SPEAKER_00 0:40

Well, I'm very grateful to be on, Lars. I was gratified to see that Carmelo Anthony was convicted, and there wasn't much political hoopla in Texas about going after this young man for killing uh Austin Metcalfe in an unprovoked attack. I'm going to say that Carmelo Anthony probably didn't stand a chance growing up in a family where aggression was rewarded and expected. I think his parents are absolutely reprehensible. That is my my opinion.

SPEAKER_02 1:20

I think I I agree with you, Nils. I think they're reprehensible, and especially so, because now they're questioning well, did he get a fair jury? Well, he had a jury that was made up of both men and women, uh people of color and white people. Uh and he was convicted in a way where it it would have been difficult to imagine a jury saying, So you stuck the knife in the young man, Austin Metcalfe, you did it with no provocation that would have justified use of deadly force against somebody who at most shoved you, pushed you a little bit. Uh, and and so if there was no justification and there was no doubt of who stuck the my knife in whom, uh, and it wasn't that this happened in the dead of night with no witnesses, it was it was in broad daylight with plenty of witnesses. So how in the world did they expect that he would have been cleared from a murder conviction in a case like this?

SPEAKER_00 2:16

Well, it's incredible arrogance, Lawrence. Uh apparently his family believed, and this lawyer believed, with this Kakamami story about Austin Metcalf falling on the knife, potentially, that sort of thing, that they would actually create enough reasonable doubt to sway one or two jurors, if not uh all of them, like as if they were a Los Angeles jury, perhaps. But uh I think justice has been served. I I might have given him a few less years with the proviso that if he doesn't behave well in prison, I can double it up for him. Start him out at 20 years, and if he if he learns something from from some penal servitude, that sort of thing, maybe parole after 15, 20 years. But if he's just going to be aggressive, uh like his family is aggressive and looking for a reward for bad behavior, let him let him ride the lightning.

SPEAKER_02 3:16

And by the way, Niels, uh, as I understand the family raised a lot of money. I don't know if it was a GoFundMe or one of those mechanisms, but they got a lot of money. They made money on this, even though a family member that they spent mostly on luxuries, didn't they?

SPEAKER_00 3:36

They spent it on luxury cars and some expensive rental or something like that. I don't think they hired a competent lawyer. A competent lawyer would have told them, plead this thing out. You don't take this to trial.

SPEAKER_02 3:50

No, because because i i you know, in that case, if you've got a really, really bad case, you might be able to get a prosecutor to say, I will offer a plea deal, but you're gonna have to plea to the crime you committed, and uh you're gonna have to take some substantial time in prison. Otherwise, the the prosecutor has you know no incentive to give you a plea deal. And you're right, you had the same thought I did. I was telling uh my producer Joel uh Maha, I said, Joel, for 600 grand, um you could have hired a a really great attorney. You could have hired extra legal investigators who might have looked into all kinds of things. It might not still have cleared you, but you could have done that. But that competent attorney would have said, cut a deal with the prosecutor, um uh plead guilty, uh be remorseful, uh, tell the judge that you understand that you did wrong and that you're gonna go to prison and try to be a a solid citizen, and maybe you get a c a decade or so less than you would have received under this sentence of thirty-five years. As it is, he can i even if he does nothing else, he can walk out when he's still about 55 years old, can't he?

SPEAKER_00 5:02

That that that is correct. That is correct. But uh his family doesn't appear to be the kind of people who take responsibility for anything, loss. So he will be in prison, and uh his family and those capering outside the courthouse will make as if Carmelo Anthony is the victim here.

SPEAKER_02 5:24

Well, and consider this. Have you seen the comments of J uh is it Jasmine Crockett, the member of Congress who's She's ridiculous? She is she is absolutely crazy. She's saying he didn't get a fair jury. What kind of jury could have looked at that fact situation and said, this man does not deserve to be found guilty? I don't I don't know who could.

SPEAKER_00 5:47

Lawrence, one of the lesser known uh attributes of the psychopath is the need to be treated specially just to feel normal in ever-escalating amounts. In other words, that was sufficient that which was sufficient on Monday is wholly uh lacking by Wednesday.

SPEAKER_02 6:06

Sadly true. Niels, it is always a pleasure to have you on the program. Thanks so much for the call. Let me go to Jason in Idaho. Jason, thanks for listening on KIDO. Time is short. What's on your mind?

SPEAKER_01 6:18

Well, um, I didn't hear all of your social security uh spew, but I wanted to be sure that what was covered, that the 12.4 percent, you know, we pay about six percent, our employer pays uh about six percent. Yep. But that's only up to uh around $170,000.

SPEAKER_02 6:37

185%, I think, is the top end.

SPEAKER_01 6:39

But yeah. Okay, 185%.

SPEAKER_02 6:41

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 6:41

So the well, I'm gonna call them ultra-rich. The ultra-rich only pay that 12.4 percent total on their first $185,000.

SPEAKER_02 6:49

And they only get a benefit that is that is commensurate with that. Because one of the things people miss when they say, well, what if you make five million dollars a year and you don't pay on most of it, you only pay on the first $175,000 or $185. The maximum check is somewhere around $4,000 or $5,000. So in other words, if you want to say we want to tax every dime of somebody's income up to, say, two million dollars or five million dollars, or take the cap off altogether, would you also then give them a Social Security check based on that greater contribution?

SPEAKER_01 7:22

No, it would still cap at the same amount. Well, hold on a second, hold on, Jason. Jason, if you have a 401k.

SPEAKER_02 7:36

Oh, so in other words, Social Security is not a pension, it's a welfare program. Is that what you're telling me?

SPEAKER_01 7:44

I think that that's fair. Shouldn't shouldn't our taxes be progressive and not regressing?

SPEAKER_02 7:50

Well, I would say progressive would say if I'm gonna pay more, I should get more. If you and I were both 21 years old and you said, I'm gonna put 10 bucks a paycheck into my 401k, and I said, I'm gonna put in $75 a paycheck. If we both do that for the next 40 years, who's gonna have the bigger 401k? My point is large than You're gonna ignore me and not answer the question. The answer is if you're gonna make a bigger contribution to your 401k, you deserve the fatter retirement. If I'm gonna make a smaller one, then I deserve the shorter end of that equation. You want it to be different, you want it to be a welfare program.