Explosive New Turn Shocks Track Meet Murder Case

A major twist in the Carmelo Anthony murder trial.The jury will soon decide the fate of the former track athlete accused of fatally stabbing a fellow competitor at a Texas track meet.Was it murder or self -defense?We're inside the courtroom with details on the defense's final witness and the unexpected moment that unfolded just before the defense rested its case.We're on the case presented by Law & Crime.I'm Chris Stewart.

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Upside's frequent users earn an average of $254 back a year.So to start getting your cash back, click the link in the description or scan the QR code and use promo code OTC to get an extra $0 .25 bonus on every gallon on your first tank gas.Carmelo Anthony will not give us his side of the story from the witness stand.We did wonder if the defendant who is facing a charge of first degree murder would testify at his own murder trial.And today we learned that is not going to happen.The defense just rested after calling six witnesses over the course of two days.

Now, the state had called 21 witnesses when they presented their case tomorrow.Both sides will deliver their closing arguments and then it will be up to the jury to decide the verdict in one of the most high profile and emotionally charged trials that we have seen this year.Joining us nowjust was inside the courtroom.Now it's time to talk with us, Cody Thomas of Court TV.Thanks for sticking with us again on this one.

Take us inside the moment that the defense rested in this case.

Yeah, Chris.So, you know, they called, of course, they called three witnesses during the Saturday session.They did do court on the weekend, uh, two days ago, three witnesses.Then they came in today, did three witnesses this morning.And then, of course, we go on our lunch break, you know, just the regular old hour and 15 minute lunch break.Uh, pop out here, you know, do some television and go back in.

And, you know, mind you, Chris, we've talked about this.This judge has been very prompt.We're supposed to be back in at 12 .30 p .m.local time, central time here in McKinney, Texas.So we get back in there, you know, 12 .35.

All right.You know, 10 minutes, 15 minutes go by and all right, half an hour goes by.Long story short, Chris, we end up waiting for an hour and 45 minutes before something happens.And as we're sitting there, the only people we see go inside this courtroom are the Anthony family, his parents.And so, of course, you know, the the speculation starts running.Are they negotiating a plea deal?

Is he going to testify?What are we waiting for?Because this is abnormal.This judge has been very prompt.He's been very on time and very, you know, a stickler about being inside the courtroom when he says to be inside.And so we get back in there.

We're awaiting this big, imminent moment, what it might be.And then the defense says they're resting.No colloquy, no asking if he's going to testify and him responding or anything like that.We didn't hear him speak, but the defense is now arrested.The state not putting on a rebuttal.The state rest.

So that's where we're at now, Chris.And then the jury will have the case tomorrow, of course, following closing arguments in the jury instruction, and then they'll get the case and start deliberating.And the judge also pointed out that they will be sequestered, meaning they will not be able to go home for the duration of this deliberation period.They'll deliberate as late as, you know, 10 or 11 p .m., the judge said.

And then if they decide to call it quits, they go back to a hotel, to which the hotel's televisions and phones have been removed out so they can't have access to, you know, news stories and things like this.So it'll be a very interesting thing, Chris, but it was definitely a surprising moment.that they rested, you know, pretty early.We expected this trial to go through friday or saturday, which it still could.We don't know how long those deliberations could be, but here we are on monday, you know, just the fourth day of testimony and both sides have already rested.

Yeah, I think it was roughly 2021 witnesses for the prosecution and it was over like two and a half days that they presented their case.And then you have a total of six witnesses for the defense.They started to present their side of the story on Saturday in the afternoon.And then here we are.I mean, we're recording this just before three o 'clock central time and they're done and they're done.What stood out to you today?

I know they called a couple of track athletes to the stand as well as a police officer.Walk us through one of these final witnesses and what they mean for the defense in this case.

Yeah, again, three witnesses here.Chris, the police officer is really short.It was only 10 or 15 minutes, and the point that he pretty much made is that it is not.It is not illegal to carry a 5 1⁄2 or below a 5 1⁄2 inch blade knife into a stadium.While it might be, you know, against school policy, it's not criminally illegal.The blade has to be less than 5 1⁄2 inches, though, so he pointed that out, and that was pretty much the crux of his testimony.

But one of the witnesses today, Chris, one of those athletes who was there, was testifying, you know about the rain, everythin this rain and as part of as to why Carmelo was unde to get out of the rain, w sense.Um, he talked abou him, Carmelo and like tw you know, a baseball dugout that's right behind the stadium to get out of the rain.He said they're only there for a few minutes before a coach came and told them they couldn't hang out there.And then as they're walking back from the dugout, this student says that his coach, he was on the four by one relay, told them to start go warming up.And so they all go there, him, Carmelo and everybody else go down to the field to start warming up.And he says, you know, they're doing their thing, stretching

out, you know, running up and down the tracks, just warming their legs up and everything.A sees Carmelo go up into t him, he's known for a whi on the track team, a team says he's out there warm hearing some sort of commo tent.And so he says, you sure what was going on.W know, people that knew ea around?Was it, you know, a He just wasn't sure, but and enough commotion to b he eventually saw Carmelo as, you know, sort of bein uh, report is a police interrogation.The answers he gave police once this happened, he described it as being or Carmelo is being surrounded.

So he walks us through how he was walking towards the bleachers from the grass about the 40 yard line.He said he was on towards the bleachers, um, just to see what was going on.He's turning back to see if his teammates are realizing what's going on.And then he sees, you know, a bunch of students scatter.That was his testimony.And that was, of course, you know, the moment that the stabbing happens.

Now, under cross examination, the prosecutor hopped up and showed that surveillance video yet again.And he kind of challenged what the kid was saying.You know, the surveillance video had all kinds of angles.We have the angle on what happened.And then we have the angle that we actually saw of where this kid was on the field warming up.And They're playing the video and it gets to the point and the prosecutor literally goes, boom, this is the stabbing right here.

And then he paused it.And then it shows the kid and the other collection of runners not walking towards the stadium.So pretty much challenging what the kid had said.And then he talked about how he had interviewed the kid, you know, weeks before before, you know, pretrial.And he said when he showed him that video, the kid agrees that, you know, some of his accounts didn't line up.Some of them were just plain wrong.

And the kid agreed to that on the stand.So that was very interesting.And then, of course, on redirects, the defense comes back and says, well, if I told you that, you know, the timestamps of these two angles of the video didn't match up, you would have, you know, no idea of that.And the kid obviously, you know, agreed to that.He's like,I don't know about the time stamps, but that came up earlier in the trial because they said the sinks were off a few seconds.

So that's something that the jury is going to have to weigh here, chris.But you know, that was the most powerful moment to me today.As far as this student testifying his account, the prosecutor, you know, challenging that account.But then the defense coming back and being like, well, this might be a couple of seconds off anyway.

Yeah, and you go back to that video because it's surveillance video right from kind of perched up on the top of the stands of this football stadium.I know you've seen it.It hasn't been released to the public and it like at the time that it was presented, which I think was on the first day of this trial by the state.Like we were talking about it not being the most like compelling video because you don't really see a lot.But here we are so many days later, and that is something that for someone who could be a very important witness to the defense, prosecutors were able to pull that video up once again that the jury is already familiar with and actually point this witness out and say, and they're arguing that he actually maybe didn't see things the way that he thought he did.

Absolutely.And to your point, Chris, yeah, I mean, I'm looking at the video.It looks very grainy like a gas station video because it's very wide angle.And when you zoom in, you know, you're going to lose quality.You can kind of make out what's going on, but it still is.It's not the best quality video to be presenting.

But at the same time, there are identifiable characters that the prosecution is made very known that they have talked about this weeks before this trial.So they've walked through, this student understood, and not only this student, but other students as well, have walked through the key players.And then we have the forensic video analyst on the first day that, you know, had the different characters spotlighted in the video.So they made sense of what was really going on.But yeah, you would imagine, Chris, it seems like the prosecution had a better relationship with one of the defense's witnesses.So it's a very interesting thing to see play out and then have the defense case end this abruptly.

Yeah, and now they had.into closing arguments and you kind of step back and you think like, what is the defense of this case?And like one of the questions that we've talked about and it's come up a lot is like, why does he have a knife at a track meet?And it seems like just based off this police officer and I believe it's, if it, the blade was five and a half inches or more than that would be a weapon you're not allowed to have the blade in this situation, I think it was three and a half inches.And it seems like just from this testimony that the argument about it's not necessarily like, oh, well, he had a blade at a track meet.And most people have said that they don't think that a blade should be at a track meet.

It's more a question of, well, it's not really illegal to have it in his back.

Yeah, that's the ultimate question.But the thing about it, Chris, and we talked about this previously.It was never addressed as to why it was there.I mean, they could have thrown out, you know, maybe he liked to camp, you know, maybe he had a job outside of work to where, you know, he lawfully had a knife on him.They did not even address that, which I thought was a major loss for the defense.You know, tell us why this this knife was there.

We know he used it.We know he made a terrible mistake and it ended in this horrible tragedy.But I felt like addressing why the knife was even there would have been beneficial to them.But they, of course, missed that opportunity here.And, you know, all that officer did was pretty much say it's not criminal to have a knife that's under five and a half inches.So again, he was only on the stand for a few minutes.

Chris, I don't know how much that impacted the jury, how they're going to take that into deliberations, but here we are.They're going to have that case tomorrow.

I know we talked early on in the state's case, and there was some very emotional testimony, it seems, when the state was presenting their case.I mean, to just think of the body cam video that was shown, the 911 calls that were made.I know you were sitting behind Austin Metcalf's family, his father, but you also saw some emotion on the jury early on in this trial.How did it seem the jury was doing today?And really even since Saturday when we talked, when you think about just how the defense presented their case, like what type of impact did it appear?And I know it can be subjective.

when we talk about body language and what's actually going on in someone's mind, but what did it appear that the jury, how they were taking in the defense's case?

So Chris, we haven't really seen much visible emotion from the jury since when we talked previously when they were seeing the body cam.They weren't even that emotional, or at least I expect them to be more emotional when they saw photos of Austin Metcalf on the autopsy table.They saw two photos of him on the table.Then they saw two photos of his heart actually removed from his body as the medical examiner was explaining the injuries and the severity of those injuries.But since then, they've just been very, very It seems like they're laser focused on everything that the prosecution and the defense are presenting.Both narratives, no matter what the narrative is on either side, they're really laser focused.

Like I look at them, you know, I look across the courtroom to see, you know, what the vibe is among, you know, what the aura is, the atmosphere within the courtroom.But since then, for the past couple of days, Chris, they've just been very focused.honed in very serious, very stoic, just taking all the information in, which rightfully so, because I mean, this is a child's liberty at stake here, of course.Of course, we have a victim here that's no longer coming back.We have again a 17 year old liberty here at stake, a sad thing all around.So they want to take all the information in to make the most educated, fair decision that they possibly can, of course.

And I know you talked about just how stoic Carmelo Anthony seemed, that his family seemed throughout the entire trial justices family was going back into the courtroom was there any sense of emotion that you got from his family maybe today in the courtroom as well I did not.

Chris has been the same, the same story for the past four days.Today's day four of testimony and again, very serious, very stoic.You know, it's, it's of course, it's, you know, it's a, it's a grave situation that they're dealing with.You know, their son could go to go away forever.I mean, Carmelo was a son, Carmelo was a brother, that's their son that he has loved ones as well.And uh, you know, they're taking in all these, you know, these allegations against him just as in real time.

So, but them as they're walking b and they were just also v back in.I looked at him back in after that hour a still sitting over there, the mother just, you kno and then the defense of c left.We went back in fo five minutes.So I'm sure They're dealing with the gravity of what's really going on.Again, like you said, subjective.We don't know what's going on in people's minds.

I'm sure there's all kinds of mental gymnastics going through their minds as well that may not be presenting outwardly.But again, they're sitting there just stone -faced, just taking it all in like everyone else.

And we'll see what the closing arguments are for the defense, how they really present his side to the story, even though he won't be testifying himself.One thing I was thinking of today, just kind of like going through the notes, is just how many people on the state side of it bluntly said in court that they did not believe that this was self -defense.And then you look at some of the defense witnesses, and I didn't get a sense of even people who had testified that, you know, they saw commotion and all of this, and maybe they even witnessed this push and thought it was a forceful push from Austin Metcalfe.I don't know if there was ever a witness that looked to the jury and kind of similarly on the defense's side said that they believed that this was self -defense.

No, there's not one.100 % of these student eyewitnesses all said, one, they didn't think anything was going to happen.Two, all of them said the prosecutions, and actually, oddly enough, Chris, one of the witnesses on Saturday, one of the defense's witnesses, also said they felt Carmelo was in the wrong.And the thing about that witness, Chris, they got up there, they put him on the stand, and the defense attorney said, you know, we haven't talked before.We only talked for two minutes outside here in this hallway before you got on.And that was interesting to me because, you know, there's a lot of that goes into witness preparation, you know, especially with the trial is with this high magnitude intention is this one.

So I thought that was very peculiar.And then so they walk through the situation and the prosecution comes up there and the prosecutor is like, so we've talked more than two minutes.In fact, I was texting your father last night, so this would have been last Friday night.So it was odd to me that it seemed as if the prosecution had a better relationship with one of the defense's witnesses.And then that witness, defense's witness again, said that he still believed that Carmelo was in the wrong.This is in Saturday's testimony.

So I haven't heard any testimony from any of these students there so far that Carmelo you know, spoke in favor of Carmelo, which is, you know, I expected going into this, you know, maybe half and half, maybe five or six would say, yeah, you know, Carmelo was being an instigator.And then another couple would say, you know, Austin was being an instigator, which there have been some that said both of them, you know, frustrations were rising.We know how young boys get with the hormones and competitive sports and all that.Um, so we've had some of that too, but no one's really said that this was self defense.All of them have said that they don't see it as self defense.

And I wonder too, because there was this, you know, the tent culture.I mean, we've learned over the last four days, a lot about how track meets work in Texas.And, you know, the defense has people who say like, it's okay to go under a tent.And then you have the prosecution, which said, you know, at track meets, it's really uncommon for, for an athlete to go under another team's tent.And then you have, it seems like there was a variety of answers when it comes to how strong the push was from Austin Metcalf.But then it feels like we get to that point where this stabbing took place.

And it didn't seem like for the defense either that we really had a witness that was able to look and exactly see what happened kind of within that moment that may be what matters more than anything else in this entire trial.

Yeah.And the thing about it, Chris, that moment, all of the witnesses said it happened so fast.They saw, you know, scuffles going on, but they took it as nothing's not going to happen.If anything, you know, Austin will push them and he'll push them back.And then before they knew it, they didn't know somebody was stabbed until Austin lifted up his shirt and they described it as a hole in his chest.So, I mean, they might not have known.

the moment.It seems like the way they described it was in the blink of an eye.But all of them have described it as, you know, something was going on, you know, you know, emotions were running high, but you know, they said they weren't really scared.You know, they've seen, you know, boys talk trash.These are the before they've seen this kind of, you know, competitive nature come out and then all of a sudden, you know, this horrendous act happens that takes the life of Austin Metcalf.So and it happened just like that by the by the by the way they testified.

So maybe they just didn't see it, Chris.But you know, there's nothing there that again, from witness testimony that pointed toward that this was actually self -defense based on their accounts.

Yeah, and I just think too of how chaotic this moment was because you know for us in hindsight we can break down and that's what this trial is about like breaking down every step of what led up to this happening and what happened after it with Carmelo allegedly throwing the knife and running away and then you know the question of whether or not this was all self -defense but it just seems like from the variety of accounts from both state and defense witnesses about what happened it just speaks to how chaotic all of this was because it just happened so quickly.Not to put you on the spot, but I just think of these jurors now and when they get into that jury room, they're going to be going through what they heard.You know these 27 total witnesses that they heard from both sides over the past four days.Like as you kind of think back to what you took in over the past four days, like what are some of the big moments that stand out to you that the jury might have at their front of mind?

Chris, the moment that st was from day one.I belie it a few days ago.And th the jury get emotional is that testified, who was al veteran who has seen carn who did three tours in Ira and he was one of the on over and took his jacket o doing the compressions and the wound and uh, you knto which they play that 911 call.But that that coach that was the veteran said he's heard the death rattle before when somebody stops breathing and in their life or their body does one last ditch effort to bring oxygen to the brain to try to save their life.And that's what we've heard, you know, on shows and movies and stuff as the death rattle.

It's a different kind of breath, you know, your last breaths.And so he said that Austin was not breathing anymore.The coach on the phone is telling 911 that.And then you hear in the 911 call that coach on the phone says, Oh, he's breathing again.He's breathing again.But then the coach on the stand was saying, you know, me being the war veteran have seen people die before.

I knew those were those types of last breaths, but I just didn't say anything because I don't want to ruin, you know, the hope.that was surrounding because of course they wanted, it was a bad thing, but they wanted this kid to live, you know, his friends and the coaches around him.But that was the most emotionally impactful thing.And that's when he gave that testimony, they played the 911 call.And that's when I looked up and saw the jury, a few of them wiping some tears from the eyes with their Kleenex.So I'm sure they're going to take that into consideration.

Obviously, you know, pulling out the heartstrings when they go back into those deliberations as they weigh the facts of this, but there's the human part of it as well.

Yeah, and as they walk through it, you know, I think that there's still that question of, you know, a knife and a fist fight.And when it comes to self -defense laws in Texas, it appears difficult to, you know, if you're the one who has the weapon to argue self -defense, but we'll see in a closing argument what Carmelo's attorney is able to do in presenting his case.Last one for you, Cody, with, and I know Austin Metcalf's family has been, you know, in the courtroom throughout this trial.His dad was someone who did some very emotional interviews.You just, you can't imagine what that family has been going through.And then even you had the medical examiner, I think on Saturday, last time we talked, who just kind of urged the family to get out of the courtroom because that was going to be incredibly graphic testimony.

Was the Metcalf family there today?Like,what did you take away from from just how they're doing now day four after hearing all of this incredibly emotional testimony?

It's kind of the same old story, Chris.You know they're sitting there and it was less emotional today because there wasn't.There wasn't much they haven't heard already.There were still moments where Jeff would put his head down and just kind of shake his head a little bit, hearing about the last moments of his son.But today was a little less emotional because not as many witnesses, not as much gruesome testimony about the medical examiner.They weren't in the room for the medical examiner testimony as well.

The prosecutor advised.that they leave the room, which they did.But same vibe here today, Chris.They're sitting there taking it all in.Of course, arms are around each other.I'm sure, you know, obviously a very emotional time for them.

So we'll see how it plays out once those closing arguments get underway tomorrow morning.

And they'll get underway tomorrow morning, and then we'll wait to see what the jury decides.Court TV's Cody Thomas, who has been in the courtroom for the Carmelo Anthony murder trial through the four days of testimony.Thanks for being with us.

Absolutely, Chris.Happy to do it.Thanks for having me.

Closing arguments will begin tomorrow morning, and then we will wait for the 12 people of this jury to make a decision, and we will follow it every step of the way.That will do it for On the Case, presented by Law & Crime.Subscribe to us on YouTube and Spotify, and we're also now streaming on Peacock.I'm Chris Stewart, we'll see you next time.