“Your Name Will Be Forgotten. My Brother’s Memory Will Live On.” — The Metcalf Family’s Devastating Victim Impact Statements After Karmelo Anthony’s 35-Year Sentence

He asked him to look him in the eye first.

Hunter Metcalf — the twin brother of Austin Metcalf, the 17-year-old stabbed and killed at a Frisco, Texas track meet in April 2025 — stood in a Collin County courtroom on Tuesday and addressed the man who took his brother from him. Not through a written statement read by someone else. Not through tears alone. But directly, face to face, with the kind of clarity that only comes from a year of carrying something that cannot be put down.

“You took a son, a brother, a friend, and my best friend from this world,” Hunter said. “You took someone from me who was supposed to be an uncle, godfather to my kids.”

He paused. Then came the six words that stopped the room.

“Your name will be forgotten. But my brother’s memory will live on.”

35 Years

Karmelo Anthony, now 19, was sentenced to 35 years in prison on Tuesday, hours after a Collin County jury found him guilty of murder. He will be eligible for parole after serving half of his sentence under Texas law.

Anthony had claimed self-defense throughout the trial, arguing that he acted out of fear after Austin physically attempted to move him from beneath a tent designated for Austin’s track team at a district meet. A prosecutor called it a sneak attack. The jury deliberated and came back with one word.

Guilty.

When the verdict was read, Hunter leaned forward in his seat. Anthony broke down in tears. His mother wept. His grandmother was filmed shouting outside the courthouse as she left.

Inside, the Metcalf family stood and delivered the statements they had been carrying for over a year.

A Father Who Told Him Not to Look Away

Jeff Metcalf, Austin’s father, turned to Anthony directly and told him not to look down as he spoke.

“You can’t even look me in the eye right now,” he said, “but you can stab my son in the heart.”

He called Anthony despicable. He told him he had failed his parents, failed himself, and failed society. And then, in the middle of all of that anger, he did something harder — he remembered his son.

He talked about Austin catching his first fish. Taking his first buck. A young man he described as a leader, someone with athletic gifts and a future that would never arrive.

“The saddest part is we don’t get to see you achieve all your goals,” Jeff said. “We were robbed.”

A Mother Sentenced to Something Worse

Meghan Metcalf spoke last. She described the daily reminders of her son’s absence — his empty bedroom, the bed where he used to sleep, the mornings she still wakes up and feels the shape of what’s missing.

She called Austin a morning kid. A hugger. Someone who always had a way of bringing people together.

Then she turned to Anthony and said the line that will outlast this trial in the memory of everyone who heard it.

“You may have just been given a sentence of 35 years,” she said. “You should feel lucky. Because I’ve been sentenced to a life without my son.”

She closed with something that sounded less like a statement and more like a promise — to herself, to Austin, to everyone watching.

“There was a part of him you can never take from me. The strength I still get from him every day. Because I know what it was like to be loved by him.”

What Hunter Said at the End

Hunter ended his statement the way he began it — looking directly at the person responsible for the door in their house that never opens anymore.

He said he had leaned on his faith. He talked about loyalty, respect, and kindness — the values he and Austin had shared. And then he left Anthony with the truth that no sentence, no appeal, and no amount of time will ever change.

Austin Metcalf’s name will be remembered.

The other name will fade.

Source: Compiled from various sources