How stand-your-ground laws could shape Karmelo Anthony murder trial
(NewsNation) — Texas teen Karmelo Anthony, accused of fatally stabbing another student at a high school track meet in 2025, is set to go to trial Monday, where his defense team is expected to argue he acted in self-defense.
Anthony was charged with first-degree murder in the death of Austin Metcalf, who was also 17 at the time, following the stabbing at a track meet in Frisco, a suburb of Dallas, last year.
Authorities said Anthony had acknowledged the stabbing and asked officers whether his actions could be considered self-defense. Under Texas law, 17-year-olds are considered adults in the criminal justice system.
What is legal self-defense in Texas?
While Texas does not have a formal “stand your ground” law, it has laws involving self-defense, no duty to retreat and the “castle doctrine” that together allow someone to use force if they reasonably believe they face an imminent deadly threat, Texas defense attorney Todd Shapiro, who is not involved in the case, told NewsNation.
Self-defense laws, which are called stand-your-ground laws in some states, generally remove the duty to retreat, allowing people to use deadly force without first trying to escape if they reasonably believe they face an imminent threat of death or serious bodily harm.
Anthony’s lawyers will likely have to show he faced an immediate deadly threat and had no other option but to use deadly force, Shapiro said.
Texas law prohibits weapons on school grounds, and Shapiro said Anthony having a knife could make his defense challenging.
“You’re not allowed to bring a knife to a fistfight,” he said. “If you’re about to get in a fistfight with somebody, you can fight them, you don’t have to wait for them to hit you, but you can’t pull out a knife and stab them without anything else going on.”
Prior threats or verbal confrontations alone likely would not justify deadly force unless the danger were immediate, he added.
According to police reports, Metcalf told Anthony he needed to move out from under their team’s tent at the track meet.
Anthony allegedly then grabbed his bag, reached inside and told Metcalf, “Touch me and see what happens.”
A police report states Metcalf grabbed Anthony to tell him to move. Anthony then allegedly pulled out a knife and stabbed Metcalf once in the chest before running.
Investigators say Metcalf did not have a weapon on him.
“Just from a practical standpoint, I think it’s going to be very difficult to prove simply because the fact is we know Karmelo shows up at the track meet and he’s got a knife in his bag and there’s no indication of any weapons ever being in the hands of the victim ever,” Shapiro said.
Anthony’s defense attorney, Mike Howard, did not immediately return a request for comment from NewsNation.
In a previous statement, Howard said the “prosecution will not be able to rule out the reasonable doubt that Karmelo Anthony may have acted in self-defense.”
A representative for Anthony’s family previously told NewsNation they believe their son is innocent and that the reason he brought a knife would be “answered in a court of law and jury.”
What are stand-your-ground self-defense laws?
As of 2025, about 35 states have stand-your-ground laws or expanded self-defense protections beyond the home, according to the Rand Corporation think tank.
About 29 states, including Missouri, broadly remove the duty to retreat in public. Others, including New York and Minnesota, still require retreat if a person can safely escape in some circumstances. Some states, including California, recognize similar protections through court rulings rather than statutes.
Cynthia Ward, a law professor at William & Mary Law School, previously told NewsNation the public’s understanding of stand-your-ground laws has increasingly strayed beyond what the statutes were intended to do.
Ward stressed that stand-your-ground laws do not erase the core requirements of self-defense, including a reasonable belief of imminent death or serious bodily harm. She said self-defense remains a narrow legal exception, not a broad permission to use deadly force whenever someone feels afraid.
“Reasonableness” remains a key part of self-defense law, Ward said. A judge or jury must determine whether a reasonable person in the same situation would have believed deadly force was necessary.
But several recent high-profile killings suggest some people now wrongly believe stand-your-ground laws allow deadly force anytime they feel threatened, she noted.
While the Anthony case has drawn national attention, Shapiro does not expect it to create major new legal precedent because prosecutors and juries in Texas regularly handle murder cases involving self-defense claims, he said.
He also said Anthony’s age is unlikely to affect the legal analysis of self-defense, though it could matter during sentencing if he is convicted.
Anthony faces up to life in prison if convicted.
