Austin Metcalf's father blasts 'moral decay of society' and challenges The View as son's killer Karmelo Anthony prepares to launch new freedom bid

Published: 06:33, 23 June 2026 | Updated: 06:59, 23 June 2026 Slain high school football star Austin Metcalf's father blasted the 'moral decay of society' as he asserted that The View's Sunny Hostin has 'no idea' about the facts of the case as she 'spews' her opinion live on television. Karmelo Anthony, 19, was found guilty earlier this month of fatally stabbing Metcalf, 17, at a high school track meet last year and was sentenced to serve 35 years behind bars. He is already seeking to appeal the decision, and has even assembled a powerful new legal team to review the trial record in hopes of getting his conviction overturned. Critics have previously claimed Anthony was treated unfairly at his trial because he is black, and there were no black members on the jury.  But as the scrutiny over the trial continues, Metcalf's father, Jeff Metcalf, hit out at those who have spewed 'multiple lies and mistruths' about the case. 'People had their own opinions without even seeing the facts, and that's the part I have trouble with,' Jeff told Fox News' Will Cain on Monday. 'Unfortunately, in today's moral decay of society that we've witnessed, people believe that if they have their own voice, they scream loud enough, they're right,' he continued. When he was then asked how he would respond to The View's Sunny Hostin declaring that the jury should have ruled Anthony was acting in self-defense, Jeff suggested she and other members of the media who have made similar claims do not know what they are talking about. Slain high school football star Austin Metcalf's father hit out at those who have spewed 'multiple lies and mistruths' about Karmelo Anthony's trial His son Austin, 17, was fatally stabbed at a high school track meet last year  'They don't know me. They don't know Hunter, Austin. They don't know Karmelo. They're looking for their 15 minutes of fame or their clickbait,' the heartbroken father claimed. 'They're looking to monetize the death of my son,' he added. 'I really wish they wouldn't speak about it at all.'  Jeff said he now hopes newly-released footage from the stabbing in Frisco, Texas showing Anthony confronting Metcalf inside his tent, the fatal blow and Anthony running away in the aftermath will 'clear up a lot of the misinformation that was provided throughout the entire year before the trial came to light.' The heartbreaking footage also caught the moments after police arrived on the scene, when officers handcuffed Anthony - and he corrected a cop who referred to him as an 'alleged suspect.' 'I'm not alleged. I did it,' Anthony could be heard saying in the footage. In another clip, Anthony sounded as if he were sobbing as he was escorted from the scene. 'He put his hands on me,' the killer claimed. 'I told him not to. He put his hands on me.'  Anthony, 19, was found guilty earlier this month of Metcalf's murder Anthony is pictured being arrested at the scene of the track meet on April 2, 2025 Witnesses at the trial described how Anthony entered another team's tent and provoked Metcalf before he pulled a knife on the teenager At the trial, Anthony and his lawyers claimed he stabbed Metcalf in an act of self-defense after they got into a confrontation during a rain delay at the sporting event. They also implied that Metcalf may have impaled himself on the knife.  But prosecutors destroyed the self-defense claim with video evidence and witness testimony. Witnesses said Anthony was the aggressor, testifying how he entered the other team's tent that day and told Metcalf: 'Touch me and see what happens,' provoking Metcalf to push Anthony, who then pulled out a knife and stabbed him in the chest. The knife pierced through his bone in the center of his chest and punctured the right side of his heart, a medical examiner testified. Prosecutors said Metcalf's twin brother, Hunter, rushed to his aid as Anthony ran from the scene and later tried to blend into groups of kids who were exiting the stadium. Still, when the verdict was read, those who had shown up to the courthouse in Collin County, Texas, to support Anthony crumbled to the ground. Ousted Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett also told TMZ in the aftermath that Anthony was wrongfully convicted of murder - calling it 'evidence of a broken [justice] system.' Critics have previously claimed Anthony was treated unfairly at his trial because he is black, and there were no black members on the jury  A knife pierced through Metcalf's bone in the center of his chest and punctured the right side of his heart  She noted that Anthony, a black teenager, only struck Austin, who was white, once but will now be in prison for at least 17 and a half years before he is eligible for parole. 'Thirty-five years for a kid who decided to go under a tent that was not his team's tent as it was raining and simply didn't want to be put out in the rain by some random kid that he didn't know who was larger than him?' Crockett said incredulously of the jury's sentencing verdict. The congresswoman also argued that 'it wasn't against the law' for Anthony to have the knife. 'It may have been prohibited by school rules, which he wasn't at his school at the time, but it definitely wasn't against the law.' When Crockett was then asked whether she believed race played a role in the verdict, she said: 'Oh my God, I know Collin County, so absolutely. 'And unfortunately that was not the county for a black boy.' Jeff Metcalf has repeatedly denied that race was a factor Jeff Metcalf was kicked out of a press conference Anthony's parents gave in the days following the fatal stabbing At that point, the journalist asked Crockett whether she believed a white teenager who committed the same crime against a black teenager would have received the same sentence. 'I would guarantee you, it wouldn't have happened,' she insisted. 'I don't even know if he would have been convicted, because if a white boy would have said they were afraid of a black boy, something tells me that that jury that didn't have any black people on it, they would have believed him in his fear.'  But Jeff Metcalf has repeatedly denied that race was a factor, noting in the interview with Will Cain on Monday that half the members of Metcalf's football team were black. 'I don't care what color you are, I want to judge you [on] how you treat people, what's your character like,' he said. 'Your color makes no difference, it doesn't determine your IQ, it doesn't determine your faith, it doesn't determine how much money you have. But your character shows who you are truly and that's how I judge people.' 'For a person to not able to objectively look at something, use common logic, common sense, to come to a determination just based on merely the facts, not the color of one's skin,' Jeff added. 'That tells me a whole lot about your character if you choose that direction.' The grieving father even claimed he noticed a 'turning point' in the days after his son was killed, when he was kicked out of Anthony's parent's press conference.  He said he showed up to pray with Anthony's family, to 'show this wasn't a racial divide [and] that we can kind of close the gap rather than widening it.' 'I was actually hoping to show them, "Hey look man, I know what happened was horrible and your son made a horrible mistake,"' Jeff explained. 'I was hoping for some accountability maybe and some remorse - and neither one was shown.'  Attorneys including veteran appellate lawyer Russell Wilson and Texas NAACP President Gary Bledsoe said they will conduct an independent review of the trial record as they 'pursue all available avenues of appeal' But, Jeff said, the family had already retained lawyer Dominique Alexander, who threw him out of the press conference, saying the grieving father shouldn't be there and that it was not dignified.' 'That's when they took it from any type of remorse, which they did not show, to the fact that now we're gonna play the race card and now we're gonna politicize this, now we're getting a political activist involved - the two things I said [in] one of the first interviews I ever did was "Please don't make this about race and please don't politicize it, but they chose to do both."  A new team of six attorneys are now working pro-bono to overturn Anthony's murder conviction - including Texas NAACP President Gary Bledsoe, veteran appellate lawyer Russell Wilson and civil rights attorney Brooke Cluse. The so-called Stand With Karmelo Coalition will now conduct an independent review of the trial record as they 'pursue all available avenues of appeal,' they announced on Monday. The team will specifically focus on determining whether any errors occurred during Anthony's trial and raising any issues they believe could support a decision to overturn his conviction. Judge John Roach defended the jury's verdict in an interview with WFAA But Judge John Roach, who oversaw the trial, has said he believed the jury made the right decision in an interview with WFAA. 'Yes, they did, because they were picked based upon the law, they listened to the facts,' he said. 'It happened in this courtroom, and they got a verdict.' The judge also told how court officials began preparing for the trial eight months in advance, anticipating the extraordinary public interest in the case, and said he was satisfied with how the proceedings turned out. 'As long as I follow the law, I sleep well at night,' he said. The comments below have not been moderated. The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. We’ll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook. You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. Your details from Facebook will be used to provide you with tailored content, marketing and ads in line with our Privacy Policy.