Karmelo Anthony's defense rests after dispute over unwritten deal kept him off witness stand

Karmelo Anthony’s defense rested Friday in McKinney, Texas, after former lawyers disputed whether an unwritten trial agreement kept him from testifying in his effort to overturn his murder conviction.

Retired District Judge Michael Chitty is hearing Anthony’s request for a new trial. Judge Sid Harle removed Judge John Roach, who presided over Anthony’s murder trial, from the remaining trial-court proceedings earlier this week.

Harle found that a reasonable outside observer could question whether Roach appeared impartial after the judge publicly said the jury "got it right" and defended several of his trial decisions.

Anthony, 19, was convicted in June of murdering 17-year-old Austin Metcalf, whom Anthony was convicted of fatally stabbing during an altercation at a Frisco track meet. A Collin County jury sentenced Anthony to 35 years in prison.

Karmelo Anthony is pictured after being transferred to the custody of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. He was transported to his unit of assignment at the Pack Unit near Navasota. (Texas Department of Criminal Justice)

At the center of the new-trial hearing is an oral agreement between Anthony’s original defense team and prosecutors to keep potentially damaging character evidence about both sides from the jury.

Former lead defense attorney Mike Howard testified Thursday that he understood the agreement to allow Anthony to testify if his testimony remained focused on the confrontation under the tent at the track meet.

Howard said that changed on the final day of trial, when prosecutors told the defense the agreement would not apply if Anthony took the stand and that the defense had already opened the door to character evidence.

Austin Metcalf, 17, was stabbed to death at a Texas track meet. (Jeff Metcalf)

He said the dispute led to a heated break in the proceedings and made Anthony unwilling to take the stand.

Under cross-examination, Howard acknowledged the lawyers never expressly agreed on whether a testifying defendant was covered by the arrangement. He said he could not say whether prosecutors acted in bad faith.

Lead prosecutor Bill Wirske said the agreement was mutual and that the parties were aligned on the need to keep character evidence out of the trial. Wirske said the state did not believe the agreement applied to Anthony’s testimony.

Former defense attorney Toby Shook testified Friday that the original defense team understood the agreement to allow Anthony to testify about the confrontation under the tent at the Frisco track meet.

Shook said prosecutors raised the issue on the final day of trial, arguing that a reference to Anthony’s chess club in opening statements had opened the door to character evidence and that the agreement did not cover Anthony taking the stand. Shook said he was taken aback because the defense had always expected Anthony to testify in support of his self-defense claim.

File photo of Austin Metcalf, a junior at Memorial High School in Frisco, who was stabbed in the chest allegedly by 17-year-old Karmelo Anthony, a student-athlete from Frisco Centennial High School. (Courtesy Jeff Metcalf)

Howard also said the defense discussed waiving some public-trial access because of security concerns, but that no Sixth Amendment waiver was made on the record. He testified that the decision not to use an overflow room was tied to technology concerns, not a specific security threat.

Wilson also introduced a training presentation that Wirske had used in continuing legal education courses on self-defense. One slide advised defense lawyers that the client "(probably) needs to testify," and Shook agreed that a defendant’s testimony is often important in a self-defense case.

Shook said the defense updated Anthony about the dispute during a break and explained that Roach said he could not enforce the unwritten agreement. Shook testified that Roach said he would rule on any objections based on the evidence presented at trial.

The former defense attorney said that left Anthony unsure whether taking the stand would allow prosecutors to introduce the character evidence the agreement was meant to keep out. Shook said Anthony ultimately decided not to testify because he feared prosecutors would "find a reason to open the door" to that evidence.

Judge John Roach is depicted in a courtroom sketch during the Karmelo Anthony murder trial. (Pat Lopez)

Under cross-examination, Wirske said the lawyers never discussed the details of what the agreement would allow if Anthony testified. He said both sides knew Anthony might take the stand in a self-defense case, but prosecutors believed they would first need to work through the limits of his testimony.

Shook maintained that the defense understood the original agreement to include Anthony’s testimony about events under the tent. He acknowledged, however, that the lawyers could have had different understandings of the deal.

Chitty questioned both sides about whether the agreement remained in place when Anthony was considering testifying. Wirske said prosecutors were still willing to honor it but feared that testimony from Anthony or his mother could inadvertently open the door to character evidence.

The defense rested its case shortly before noon Friday.

Wirske said the agreement kept jurors from hearing allegations involving Anthony’s history with knives and violence. Anthony’s new legal team has argued it also excluded school records, social-media posts and videos that they say could have supported his self-defense claim by showing prior aggressive behavior by Metcalf and his twin brother, Hunter Metcalf.

The court has not made findings on those allegations.

Anthony’s motion also argues that courtroom-access restrictions violated his Sixth Amendment right to a public trial and that jury instructions limited jurors’ ability to consider his self-defense claim.

Howard testified that the lawyers and Roach held more than a dozen off-the-record meetings before trial. He said no pretrial motions were formally filed because the parties used what he described as an "old-school" system of filing materials directly with Roach.

Chitty must rule on the motion by Monday under Texas rules. If he does not grant it by then, the motion will be denied by operation of law and Anthony’s direct appeal will continue.