Jurors in the Karmelo Anthony trial on Thursday heard a frantic 9-1-1 call from a Frisco ISD track coach after the stabbing of 17-year-old Austin Metcalf.
Anthony, who was 17 at the time of the killing, faces first-degree murder charges in Collin County Court for stabbing Metcalf at a track meet last year. The case has drawn national attention and controversy over the role of race in the attack. Anthony is Black and Metcalf was white.
Jurors learned more details about what happened from Frisco ISD coaches who were there at the track meet. In the 9-1-1 call.
Teenagers can be heard shouting in the background as Robert Thayer, a Frisco ISD track coach, describes to the 9-1-1 operator what’s happening. Coach Joshua Redman from Liberty High School in Frisco ISD can be heard encouraging Metcalf in the background of the call.
“C’mon Austin, fight,” he said.
Redman was the first person to provide Metcalf aid. An army veteran who served in combat, his training kicked in. He and some Frisco ISD athletic trainers performed CPR. Metcalf had stopped breathing but later took a gasping breath.
“He’s breathing,” Thayer told the 9-1-1 operator.
Redman shook his head when listening to that on the witness stand. He told the jury the breathing Thayer heard was agonal breathing, a last gasp for air when the brain is deprived of oxygen. Redman said he recognized it from his time in the army.
Anthony’s defense attorney, Mike Howard, told the jury in his opening remarks the killing was in self-defense. Several witnesses said Anthony told them Metcalf “put hands on me,” confirming what was in the arrest report.
The Frisco Police Department have previously said race wasn’t a factor in the killing. And Metcalf's father has condemned those who seized on the race of the teenagers after the killing.
“This was not a race thing. This is not a political thing. Please do not comment if you do not know what happened,” Jeff Metcalf said on Fox News' “America Reports.”
The defense on Thursday questioned witnesses about Metcalf’s physical size, asking about his height and weight. Robert Starr, Metcalf’s track coach at Memorial High School, estimated he was over 200 pounds, bigger than Anthony.
Witnesses said Anthony didn’t try to flee or resist. An athletic trainer told Coach Benson Hooper to stop Anthony from leaving after a student told Anthony had stabbed someone.
Robert Starr, Metcalf’s track coach at Memorial High School, was praying with Austin’s brother, Hunter Metcalf, when Austin died.
Starr told the jury the drizzling rain suddenly became a downpour.
“I just knew Austin was gone,” he said.
Hooper told the jury Anthony said he didn’t think Metcalf was going to die.
“If he dies, you just changed your life for the rest of your life,” Hooper told Anthony.
Anthony, he said, began to cry. In response, Hooper embraced him.
The trial is expected to last through at least June 12.
Got a tip? Email Caroline Love at clove@kera.org.
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