Karmelo Anthony scores huge legal win with judge removed from case
Karmelo Anthony, the 19-year-old convicted of fatally stabbing fellow student athlete Austin Metcalf, has notched an early win in his fight to overturn his murder conviction.
According to the Daily Mail, the judge who oversaw Anthony's trial has now been taken off the case entirely as the appeals process gets underway.
The move came during a Wednesday hearing in Collin County, Texas, with a new judge set to take charge of a retrial request scheduled for Thursday.
Anthony was found guilty in June of murdering 17-year-old Metcalf during a high school track meet at a football stadium in Frisco, Texas, back in April of last year.
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He was subsequently handed a 35-year prison sentence, but his legal team is now arguing that the original trial was compromised.
Why was the judge removed from the Karmelo Anthony case?
Anthony's lawyers claimed the switch was necessary partly because the original judge, John Roach, imposed unusually strict rules inside the courtroom during proceedings.
They also pointed to comments Roach made to local outlet WFAA after the trial concluded, in which he defended the jury's guilty verdict.
'Yes, they did, because they were picked based upon the law, they listened to the facts,' Roach said of the jury, according to WFAA.
'It happened in this courtroom, and they got a verdict.'
Roach reportedly went further, telling the outlet he found Anthony personable during their limited interactions in court, despite the conviction.
"He seems like a nice young man who committed a crime, and he understands today more than any day before the consequences of committing a crime like he did," he said.
The judge also revealed that court staff had spent roughly eight months preparing for the trial, anticipating the intense public attention the case would draw, and said he stood by how it was handled. "As long as I follow the law, I sleep well at night," he added.
This is a breaking news story, more on this as we get it..
Thomas Bamford