Karmelo Anthony’s bid for a new trial was denied, and newly surfaced documents and text exchanges have deepened questions about his conduct before the fatal stabbing of 17-year-old Austin Metcalf at a Frisco, Texas track meet in April 2025.

The appellate court turned away the push for a retrial after Anthony was convicted of murder in June and handed a 35-year sentence, and his defense still says it will keep fighting the verdict. Early claims that the jury was all-white proved to be incorrect, and the case has shifted toward the newly revealed material that was not shown to jurors during the trial. Those documents paint a picture of a young man who had become increasingly violent and fixated on weapons in the months before the killing. As investigators and the public pore over these materials, the prosecution argues they confirm worrying behavior that preceded the attack.

Media reports and court filings describe a dossier of material that includes messages, images, and video screenshots suggesting a fascination with firearms and escalating threats. According to those records, Anthony had been photographed flashing a handgun in a video recorded in November 2024, roughly five months before Austin Metcalf was killed. Other items in the files reportedly detail alleged criminal acts and boasts that point to a pattern of dangerous conduct rather than an isolated misstep.

The defense contends that not all of this should factor into post-conviction appeals, arguing issues with disclosure and the fairness of how evidence was handled. Prosecutors counter that the newly unearthed material demonstrates motive and prior violent tendencies relevant to how the case unfolded. That dispute over what jurors should have seen played a central role in the appeal, but the court ultimately rejected the request for a new trial. The legal fight is not necessarily over, but the immediate bid was dismissed.

Karmelo Anthony posed with guns and went on racist, violent rants over text messages before he fatally stabbed Austin Metcalf, according to a trove of newly unearthed documents.

The 75-page dossier offers insight into Anthony’s disturbing past — and was never revealed to jurors during his murder trial as part of a “gentleman’s agreement” between prosecutors and his defense team.

Photos show Anthony flashing a handgun in a screenshot of a video he recorded in November 2024, just five months before he killed Metcalf in a tent at a high school track meet in Frisco, Texas.

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Just one week before the killing, Anthony, who is black, also sent multiple racist texts to his girlfriend, Valeria Perez, in which he espoused hatred for other black people.

“I f—king despise black bitches,” he said, according to a screenshot of the message exchange.

“F—king n—ers,” he wrote, according to the docs. “They need to go die.”

In a separate homophobic rant about gay people in June 2021, Anthony told a friend that “These f—king gay people are f—king everything up.” He said he hated then-president Joe Biden because he’s “Gay ASB [as balls],” according to the document.

The text messages also revealed Anthony’s alleged criminal activity and his increasingly violent behavior before the stabbing.

In one text from October 2024, he told Perez he “might gt [go to] jail” after claiming he broke into a neighbor’s home and stole a watch. The next month, he bragged to his girlfriend about bringing a gun and knife to school.

Those passages, reproduced in full in court filings and reporting, have fueled public outrage and made it harder for critics to argue the conviction was the result of a narrow or incomplete record. Defense lawyers have pushed back, suggesting that the full context of communications and the timing of disclosure matter when weighing prejudice against procedural missteps. Still, the explicit language and threats in the messages are hard to ignore, and they figured prominently in prosecutors’ portrayal of Anthony’s state of mind leading up to the April 2025 incident.

The timing and content of the messages also raise questions about escalation. The files include a series of exchanges spanning months, with alleged admissions of crimes, boasts about weapons, and chats that swing from menacing to violent. Law enforcement sources say those items help trace a trajectory of behavior that culminated at the track meet, while defense representatives stress that allegations and raw messages are not the same as convictions for other offenses.

Friends and family of the victim have expressed frustration that materials like these were not part of the jury’s deliberations, and they view the newly available documents as confirmation of what prosecutors argued throughout the trial. Community responses in Frisco and beyond have reflected anger and grief, and those sentiments have resurfaced as the court weighed the appeal. The court’s denial of a new trial does not erase the questions raised, but it closes the immediate chapter on retrying the case.

Legal analysts note that appeals courts are cautious about second-guessing jury verdicts unless there is clear proof of procedural error or withheld evidence that would have changed the outcome. The balance between finality for victims and fairness for defendants is central to those deliberations. For now, Anthony remains sentenced to 35 years, and the disputed documents remain part of the public record as the legal process continues to play out around them.

Families and advocates on all sides will likely keep pressing for answers as the case moves forward through the system. New filings, motions, or appeals could reopen aspects of the dispute, but any future court will have to weigh the same tough questions: what evidence should have been seen by jurors, what was properly disclosed, and how much weight these communications should carry in the broader picture of a tragic, violent episode.