Texas teen Karmelo Anthony was sentenced to 35 years in prison Tuesday, just hours after being found guilty of murder in the death of a fellow high school student at a track meet.

The 19-year-old had faced a maximum of 99 years imprisonment for the April 2025 fatal stabbing of 17-year-old Austin Metcalf.
Even though Anthony was just 17 at the time of the incident, Texas law allowed him to be charged as an adult.

READ: Texas teen Karmelo Anthony found guilty of murder in death of Austin Metcalf

According to Yahoo News, during the sentencing Tuesday evening, the jury did not consider defense arguments that Anthony’s attack was carried out under “sudden passion,” which could have reduced his time.

It reported that some people in the courtroom, including Anthony’s mother, reacted to the 35-year sentence with cries.

According to the Associated Press, Prosecutors had argued that the stabbing of Metcalf was an unjustified attack related to a dispute over whether Anthony could be under the tent of Metcalf’s team during a rainy track meet.

Defense attorneys, however, insisted that Anthony felt threatened and believed he needed to defend himself when physical contact was made, the AP report stated.

Metcalf’s death drew wide attention, in part because of social media posts that amplified the case in racial terms, according to the AP. Anthony is black while Metcalf was white.