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FRISCO, Texas – Karmelo Anthony has secured another lawyer in his fight to appeal his murder conviction.
He was tried, convicted and sentenced to 35 years behind bars earlier this month for stabbing and killing 17-year-old Austin Metcalf at a high school track meet in Frisco, Texas. He has since filed a notice of appeal.
Collin County court records indicate criminal defense attorney Lara Bracamonte Davila is his current court-appointed lawyer.
Karmelo Anthony is pictured after being transferred to the custody of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and transported to the Pack Unit near Navasota, Texas. (Texas Department of Criminal Justice)
JEFF METCALF SPEAKS OUT ABOUT LOSING SON AUSTIN AND HOW HIS FAMILY IS MOVING FORWARD
Before Bracamonte Davila was appointed, Fox News Digital learned that the court briefly appointed criminal defense attorney Donny Perales. He is no longer representing Anthony.
While Bracamonte Davila is the current court-appointed appellate attorney, in an email to Fox News Digital, Perales said, “It is expected that the Anthony family will be retaining an attorney for the appeal.”
Court records indicate days after his June 9 murder conviction, Anthony applied for what is known as a TDFA Indigent Packet in his appeal, which, according to the Texas Fair Defense Act, is where a defendant can apply for a court-appointed attorney if he or she is eligible.
A court sketch shows Karmelo Anthony in a courtroom shortly before jurors began deliberations in Collin County, Texas, on June 9, 2026. (Pat Lopez)
To qualify, a defendant must prove he or she cannot afford legal representation. Anthony said he was a “penniless, destitute, and indigent person, too poor to employ counsel to represent me on the appeal,” in a court document he filed on his own.
WATCH: Austin Metcalf’s father remembers his son’s childhood
Fox News Digital previously reported that records indicate the Anthony family was tied to several businesses in Louisiana and Texas, and even opened a business weeks after their son murdered Metcalf.
Despite the appeals process, the Anthonys have yet to speak to the Metcalf family following the verdict, according to Austin’s father, Jeff Metcalf.
Meghan Metcalf and her son Hunter speak out after 17-year-old Austin Metcalf was killed in a deadly altercation in Frisco, Texas. (Jeff Metcalf/Meghan Metcalf/Fox News)
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Metcalf said in a sit-down interview with Fox News Digital, “I don’t forget what he did to my son.” He went on to say, “I don’t have sympathy, but I gave him forgiveness, and the forgiveness was for me, of course, so I don’t carry the rage and the hate.“
WATCH: Austin Metcalf’s father says the Anthony family has yet to speak to him
Fox News Digital has reached out to Bracamonte Davila and the Anthony family for comment.