COLLIN COUNTY, Texas – Both sides rested on Friday in Karmelo Anthony’s effort for a new murder trial, concluding a day of testimony focused on an informal agreement between attorneys, security concerns and the national spotlight centered on the courtroom.
Karmelo Anthony’s bid for a new murder trial
19-year-old Anthony was convicted of murder in June and sentenced to 35 years in prison for fatally stabbing Austin Metcalf during a Frisco track meet.
His new defense attorneys argue Anthony’s rights were violated when former Collin County Judge John Roach held conferences that were not documented and pretrial hearings where Anthony was not present.
They also contend the courtroom-access decisions during the trial violated Anthony’s Sixth Amendment right to a public trial.
Attorneys debate the ‘gentleman’s agreement’
Prosecutor Bill Wirskye testifies about the “gentleman’s agreement” used during Karmelo Anthony’s trial.
What they’re saying:
Former defense attorney Toby Shook, who was called as the defense’s first witness on Friday, testified about the so-called “gentleman’s agreement” between the original defense team and prosecutors to keep character evidence, involving both Anthony and Metcalf, out of the trial.
Shook said prosecutor Bill Wirskye first proposed the agreement, suggesting the case be tried based on what happened “under the tent,” where the stabbing occurred.
Shook also stated that the defense believed the agreement would allow Anthony to testify in support of his self-defense claim without opening a door for prosecutors to introduce evidence about a stalking allegation involving Anthony and his girlfriend.
The defense and prosecution teams met in person to discuss the agreement, including witnesses and what could be considered “opening the door.” But Shook said there was no specific discussion about Anthony testifying, though he believed Anthony’s testimony was included in the agreement.
Former attorney says agreement affected Anthony’s self-defense case
Judge Michael Chitty listens to arguments from Karmelo Anthony’s defense team on Aug. 20.
Shook testified Anthony taking the stand was the “only effective way” for jurors to hear why Anthony believed he used ᴅᴇᴀᴅly force. He said Anthony’s testimony could have supported a self-defense claim or possibly led to a conviction on the lesser charge of manslaughter.
Judge Roach said he could not enforce the informal agreement because there was no mechanism to do so, according to testimony.
Wirskye testified the agreement was intended to protect both sides from damaging character evidence entering the public record and potentially tainting the jury pool. He said the state gave up “a whole lot” through the agreement.
Prosecutors reveal evidence excluded from original Karmelo Anthony trial
Karmelo Anthony in court on Friday, Aug. 21, 2026
Dig deeper:
Prosecutors then presented evidence from Anthony’s school disciplinary history and cellphone discovery that had not been introduced at trial because of the agreement.
- More text messages shared in court include a shirtless selfie of Anthony holding a gun in 2024, other text messages from 2024 when he threatened to kill his girlfriend, more texts about drug use, robbing people, and a video of him pointing a gun at a house.
- It included a racist rant categorizing Black people, white people and Mexicans. These statements were made in his Apple notes in May 2023.
- There were also texts from 2021 where Anthony spoke about hitting a girl and punching her in the face. Other texts from 2021 suggested he had an “obsession with fighting,” according to prosecutor Dewey Mitchell.
- Anthony allegedly threatened a 12-year-old boy in 2021 by saying he was “gonna go get a gun,” and was suspended for three days.
- In 2023, he made jokes about shooting up a school. In a text message from 2023, he stated his intent to ᴀssault someone because they “looked at him weird.” Anthony also bragged about coming back from suspension and, on the same day, getting into another fight and going back to detention.
- In 2024, he talked about removing the plates from his father’s car to go commit crimes and talked about being armed with a weapon. There were pictures from 2024 that showed him armed with a rifle. In 2025, he talked about making a Glock pistol fully automatic, as well as using AK weapons.
- There were other texts showing violence against women or teachers. In 2024, he texted his girlfriend, “how many bullets you want coming out of your chest?”
- In September 2024, Anthony threatened to stab his girlfriend. A few weeks later, he told her “when I stab someone, I’m gonna lick the blood off the blade.” That same month, he admitted to attempting to take a weapon to the State Fair of Texas.
Again, none of these details were introduced during the trial because of the “gentleman’s agreement.”
Defense attorney Russell Wilson and prosecutor Bill Wirskye continued to go back and forth about the “gentleman’s agreement,” even getting argumentative at times.
Wirskye said he’s made about 10 of these agreements in his legal career and they’ve all held.
Closing arguments focus on public access to courtroom
Collin County Courthouse in McKinney
Appellate division prosecutor Robert Koehl went first in closing arguments for the state, where he talked about public accessibility to the courtroom.
He pointed out that the courtroom’s two dozen seats were full of members of the public, including members of the media who provided information to the public. He also said Anthony’s original defense team basically waived any complaint.
Wirskye followed for closing arguments.
“I don’t think there’s much more to say about this agreement,” he said.
He encouraged the judge to look at the record, which he said captured what happened.
Wilson closed by showing a Waller flow chart to the court. He argued that switching from having an overflow room during jury selection to not having one during the trial triggered Waller.
Wilson also referenced Roach’s television interview, in which the former judge said he could have allowed audio in an overflow room but did not want bloggers, influencers and others to twist or use the audio. Wilson then argued no specific waiver was given or agreed upon on the record to close the overflow room.
💔 STELLA PARTON BREAKS HER SILENCE — What She Said About Dolly’s Health Has Fans Looking Back
Dolly Parton’s Sister Breaks Silence What Really Happened - GMT - G1
Stella Parton was born May 4, 1949, the sixth of twelve children raised by Robert Lee and Avie Lee Parton in Sevierville, Tennessee — a household defined by noise, limited money, and almost no privacy, the kind of environment that produced strong, determined personalities.
Stella was one of them.
By seven, she was appearing alongside her older sister Dolly on a Knoxville television program; by her teens, she was writing her own songs, though marriage and motherhood pulled music to the margins of her life for a stretch.
The dream never fully disappeared.
In 1967, she recorded a gospel album with her mother and sisters, and later worked clubs in Washington, D.C., before founding her own record label in 1975 and releasing “I Want to Hold You in My Dreams Tonight,” which climbed to number nine on the country charts.
Long before any of that commercial success, Stella had already shown a willingness to take positions others avoided.
At 26, amid backlash against Australian singer Olivia Newton-John for winning recognition in country music, Stella recorded “Ode to Olivia” in her defense — a stand that offered her no career benefit and real risk of criticism, but one she took anyway simply because she believed staying silent was the wrong choice.
That instinct defined the rest of her career: hits like “The Danger of a Stranger” and “Steady as the Rain” (written by Dolly) built a genuine, independent following, including in the U.K., while Stella also worked in New York theater and spoke openly, often controversially, about poverty, domestic violence, and the treatment of women in the music industry.
She was named the Christian Country Music Association’s Female Vocalist of the Year in 2004.
Through all of it, she remained defined publicly, more often than not, as simply “Dolly’s little sister” — a label she spent five decades quietly proving didn’t tell the full story.
That same directness is why her comments in the fall of 2025 carried real weight.
Stella had never positioned herself as the family’s image manager or spokesperson; she was, by reputation, someone who believed difficult truths shouldn’t stay hidden indefinitely.
What she described wasn’t dramatic or accusatory — it was a portrait of a woman who had spent years prioritizing everyone else’s needs over her own.
The context mattered.
Carl Dean, Dolly’s husband of nearly sixty years, died in March 2025 at 82, after a long illness during which Dolly had devoted herself almost entirely to his care.
She later acknowledged that in the process, she’d neglected her own health significantly.
The loss reverberated through the whole extended family — the Partons had lost three brothers in the years surrounding this period, compounding grief that, for a family that had once crowded twelve children into a single small home, meant losing pieces of a shared childhood one after another.
Stella herself went seven years without releasing new music during this stretch, later describing the period simply as one shaped by sorrow, while still speaking about the importance of finding moments of laughter within it.
Looking back, one moment reads very differently in hindsight than it did at the time: in late September 2025, Dolly postponed her planned Las Vegas residency, citing health challenges — a rare cancellation for a performer whose six-decade career had included very few of them.
At the time, most fans treated it as a minor, temporary setback.
Stella’s later reflections suggested the signs had actually been building for some time, visible to family in ways the public smile made easy to miss.
That concern crystallized publicly not long after, when Dolly’s younger sister Frieda posted a simple request on Facebook asking fans to pray for Dolly.
What looked at first like an ordinary, well-meaning gesture spread rapidly, sparking widespread speculation about how serious Dolly’s condition actually was.
Dolly herself responded directly within days, appearing in a video from a Grand Ole Opry commercial shoot, insisting with her familiar humor that she wasn’t finished yet — the now widely remembered “I ain’t dead yet” moment that briefly quieted public concern.
In the months that followed, the pattern repeated: reassuring updates about kidney stones, dehydration, and treatment, paired with continued work on new projects, right up until Dolly Parton’s death on August 25, 2026, at 80.
Looking back across that full timeline — the postponed residency, the family’s public worry, Stella’s own account of a sister who consistently deprioritized her own wellbeing — it becomes easier to see what the people closest to Dolly understood well before the rest of the world did: that the warmth and resilience the public saw every time she appeared on camera came at a real, largely invisible cost.
