Austin Metcalf’s grieving father admits he feels “sorry” for convict Karmelo Anthony and revealed he even forgave his son’s killer after the fatal stabbing.
“I feel sorry for him,” said Jeff Metcalf, adding that Anthony’s “life is pretty much ruined,” during an interview with ABC News broadcast Tuesday.
But he also said Anthony, 19, had “to be held accountable” for the murder of 17-year-old Metcalf at a school track meet in Frisco, Texas, on April 2, 2025.
Metcalf, 56, said he “forgave [Anthony] the first day it happened,” adding, “I had to. If I didn’t, I’d be eaten up. I’d be angry. I might go do something. I’d be looking for revenge.”
The anguished father accused Anthony’s family and defense team of bringing race into the case, and claimed they never reached out to him to show contrition or empathy in the wake of his son’s death.
“The other side brought [race] up,” Metcalf said, recalling the day he was asked to leave a press conference held by Anthony’s family and their spokesperson shortly after the murder.
“That was the day when race was really entered into [the case]. Until that point, I never looked at it as a black and white thing. It was a right and wrong thing,” he said.
Asked if he could imagine ever sitting down with Anthony’s family, he said that he didn’t think they “would be up for that.”
“I would have thought [Anthony’s family] would have reached out to me. They would have offered some sort of condolence, some sort of remorse, some sort of accountability. But that’s not the way things played out,” he said.
“We obviously are different people, and we choose to parent differently. My son is at a cemetery, and their son is in a prison cell. I don’t know what we would have to talk about, to be honest,” he added.
Metcalf was speaking after his son’s killer saw his request for a new trial denied by a judge on Saturday.
Anthony’s team brought in Texas NAACP President Gary Bledsoe, claiming their client’s trial was compromised due to strict courtroom rules, and improper instructions to the jury.
Here’s the latest on Karmelo Anthony’s appeal of his murder conviction:
- Judge makes decision on Karmelo Anthony’s request for a new trial
- Karmelo Anthony threatened to ‘shoot the school up’ in shocking text kept from jury in Austin Metcalf murder trial
- James Talarico accused of siding with teen killer after lamenting ‘there were no black members of the jury’ at his trial
- Karmelo Anthony prosecutor reveals trove of evidence jury never saw — including disturbing texts
Metcalf accused those who tried to spin the case as racial of being “sheep” who “believe whatever they’re told,” calling out attempts to portray him and his son as a racist.
Prosecutors said Friday that Anthony had previously talked about shooting up his school, while Metcalf had a juvenile criminal history involving racist graffiti — both details that didn’t come up in the trial.
But Metcalf claimed that the attorneys had “20 pages on my boy, and 75 pages on Karmelo,” adding, “If they had come out in court, I think [Anthony] would have got more [prison time].”
Anthony was sentenced to 35 years in prison in June after the jury rejected the defense’s “sudden passion” claim.
Metcalf said there was “no such thing” as justice in a case like this, adding that he and his family had been “handed a life sentence” the day Anthony stabbed Metcalf in the chest.
Neither Anthony’s lead appellate attorney, Russell Wilson II, nor the lead defense attorney during his criminal trial, Mike Howard, responded immediately to requests for comment.
