Defense attorneys on August 20, 2026, used a motion for a new trial hearing in the Karmelo Anthony case to put Austin Metcalf’s background under the courtroom spotlight. For the first time in open court, they discussed reports that had been kept from the jury and the public during the murder trial.
The hearing matters now because it pushed new material into a case that is already being tested on appeal and in post-trial motions. Mike Howard spent more than 20 pages walking through Metcalf’s behavioral history, including school records, prior accusations, and disciplinary actions that had not been part of the jury’s view. That history included claims that Metcalf and Hunter Metcalf were caught spray painting graffiti with “KKK kill all blacks,” “Heil Hitler,” and the N-word, along with reports that the brothers later said they had done “some dumb stuff” and “some vandalism.”
The same records described several incidents of racial slurs in school, an allegation in 2023 that Metcalf bullied a Black student in class, and a 2018 case in which he and his brother were accused of bullying and assaulting a female while still in elementary school. Court records also show he was arrested after that 2018 allegation, and later, in 2024, he allegedly knocked a female student to the ground and punched her in the stomach during an argument. In another episode that year, he was kicked out of a football game and then texted someone that he was “about to beat the (expletive) out of those kids.”
That is where the defense’s argument runs into the hardest friction. On one side, it has said efforts to combat threats and disruptions kept Karmelo Anthony from getting an open and fair trial. On the other, the hearing laid out violent and disruptive conduct attributed to Austin Metcalf, including a previous track meet remark — “Kill that mf” — after he was told someone not on his team was talking wild behind their bench. School records also show he received in-school suspension twice during the 2023-2024 school year, was banned from basketball games for a season in 2021 after yelling profanity at a player, and told a school official he “couldn't control it and wasn't aware that it was coming out of his mouth.”
The hearing did not produce a ruling on the new-trial request. What it did do was make clear that the fight over Karmelo Anthony is now about more than the fatal encounter at the track meet; it is also about what the court was allowed to hide from the jury, and whether that private off-record agreement can survive the next decision the judge has to make.
