A major procedural shift has occurred in the legal proceedings surrounding the fatal 2025 stabbing of 17-year-old Austin Metcalf. Defense attorneys representing 19-year-old Karmelo Anthony successfully secured a motion to recuse State District Judge John Roach Jr. from presiding over post-conviction motions. Following a formal hearing on Wednesday led by Judge Sid Harle of the Fourth Administrative Judicial Region, the request to remove Roach was granted. Consequently, retired Kaufman County Judge Michael B. Chitty has been selected to step in and oversee the upcoming appellate arguments.
The petition to replace the trial judge came as Anthony’s legal team launched its effort to secure a new trial. During Wednesday’s proceeding, defense counsel presented an 18-minute video featuring audio clips from a post-trial interview given by Roach. In the recordings, Roach reflected on taking the case out of a sense of duty, describing his judicial posture as “strict, no-nonsense, fair” while offering his perspective that the jury had ultimately reached the correct decision. Anthony’s post-conviction team, composed of prominent civil rights and appellate lawyers working pro bono, cited potential procedural errors and questioned the former judge’s impartiality during post-conviction reviews.
This legal milestone follows Anthony’s conviction in June 2026, when a Collin County jury found him guilty of first-degree murder. The conviction stemmed from an April 2025 confrontation under a seating tent at Kuykendall Stadium in Frisco during a high school track meet. Anthony maintained throughout the proceedings that he acted strictly in self-defense, but jurors rejected that argument and subsequently sentenced him to serve 35 years in state prison.
Among the key grounds expected to be raised in the motion for a new trial are allegations regarding trial management and trial-level representation. Defense filings assert that a broad unwritten agreement between counsel regarding the exclusion of certain character evidence was breached, and that time constraints during critical pre-trial consultations unfairly impacted defense strategy. Though outside legal analysts note that securing a new trial presents a steep challenge, Anthony’s appellate counsel plans to present these arguments before Judge Chitty as the formal appeals process moves forward.
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