Karmelo Anthony filed his notice of appeal less than 24 hours after his conviction. Now he has a team of six attorneys ready to fight it — and none of them are charging him a dime.
According to TMZ, a coalition calling itself the Stand With Karmelo Coalition announced Monday that six attorneys have taken over Anthony's case pro bono to conduct an independent review of the trial record and pursue every available avenue of appeal. The team includes Russell Wilson II, a former Dallas County prosecutor who will serve as lead counsel; Michael L. Ware, director of the Innocence Project of Texas, serving as second chair; Texas NAACP President Gary Bledsoe as third chair; Brooke Cluse of Ben Crump Law; Sean Daredia of Daredia Law Firm; and Justin A. Moore of Stafford Moore PLLC.
Cluse's involvement carries particular weight. She joined Ben Crump Law in 2023 as Chief of Staff and Executive Liaison to Crump, the civil rights attorney who has represented the families of George Floyd, Trayvon Martin, Breonna Taylor, and Michael Brown. Before that, she worked as a public defender in Harris County.
Anthony, 19, was convicted June 9 by a Collin County jury of first-degree murder in the fatal stabbing of 17-year-old Austin Metcalf during a confrontation at a Frisco track meet in April 2025. He was sentenced to 35 years in prison hours after the verdict. Anthony maintained throughout the trial that he acted in self-defense; jurors rejected that argument.
It's worth being clear about what an appeal actually means here — it is not a new trial. An appellate court will instead review the trial record for legal errors that may have affected the outcome. The current conviction and sentence remain in effect unless a court rules otherwise.
Following the sentencing, Collin County District Attorney Greg Willis said "justice was served," thanking jurors, prosecutors, witnesses, and Metcalf's family.
This isn't the first time Anthony's case has touched a national nerve. Every qualified Black juror was struck from the jury pool during selection, a detail that fueled intense public debate throughout the trial. A Texas court has also recently unsealed a large volume of additional evidence — including bodycam footage, surveillance video, 911 calls, and crime scene photos — some of which captured Anthony's emotional exchange with police in the moments after the stabbing.
The case isn't over. Anthony's next move depends entirely on what his new team finds when they dig back into the record.
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