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Narrator/Announcer
Marvel Television's Wonder man, an eight episode series now streaming on Disney. A superhero remake. Not exactly what we'd expect from an Oscar winning director.
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Donna Rotuno
Action.
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Narrator/Announcer
Simon Williams audition for Wonder Man.
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Commercial Voiceover
I'm gonna need you to sign this. Assuming you don't have superpowers.
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Narrator/Announcer
I'll never work again. If anyone found out.
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Commercial Voiceover
My lips are sealed.
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Narrator/Announcer
Marvel Television's Wonder Man All 8 episodes now streaming only on DIS.
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Donna Rotuno
This is crime and Justice. I'm Donna Rotuno. Breaking news out of Texas today in the trial of Carmelo Anthony and the stabbing death of Austin Metcalfe. This is a case that has taken the nation by storm. It is an awfully sad circumstance where you have two teenagers whose lives are ruined and changed forever. Obviously, Austin Metcalfe will never come back to his family. He died in his twin brother's arms at a track meet when Carmelo Anthony came underneath a tent and was asked to leave multiple times. I think testimony in the case was at least 15 times he was asked to leave. He did not leave that tent. An argument ensued. At one point, Austin went to move Carmelo out of the tent. Carmelo felt that that behavior, he put his hands on Carmelo Anthony. Carmelo felt that that behavior was enough to reach into his bag, take out a knife and stab him in heart at the same time saying, put your hands on me and see what happens. So this is a tragic story where we have one life lost and we have one person probably going to prison for a very long time. The jurors listened to this trial for almost over a week after the jury was selected. And they listened to 21 witnesses on the prosecution side. They then listened to a few witnesses on the defense side. I think it was six. The one witness that we did not hear from was Mr. Carmelo Anthony himself. And I've talked about this a lot lately in the last couple of days. And the reason is this. Although a defendant always has an absolute right never to take the witness stand, the defendant also has a right to remain silent. And the jurors are told that you cannot use the fact that a defendant did not take the stand in coming to your decision about guilt or innocence in a case. However, the facts of this case I found extremely different than most cases we have in the criminal justice system. And anytime you're talking about a self defense claim, which is what Carmelo Anthony and his defense team brought before the jury. Anytime we talk about a self defense claim, you have to remember that the jury has to determine if the use of force was reasonable given the threat so let's break it down. We're talking about an area at a track meet where no student is believing that someone else is bringing a knife, a weapon, any sort of deadly weapon, any kind of use of force that they're going to have with them. Although it's legal to carry certain weapons in Texas, a knife being one of them, it is not part of the school policy to be able to have any type of weapons on you. So I think the fact that it would be reasonable for high school students to not think about the fact that somebody may have a knife or a gun is probably reasonable belief. So you have this skirmish that happens underneath this tent, and you have Austin Metcalfe's brother and other witnesses, 21 of them, saying that Austin was not the aggressor, that Austin asked Carmelo Anthony to leave. Other students asked Carmelo Anthony to leave the tent. That was not his. They all go to different schools. He did not leave the tent. My question is, are you really under any threat when you're given the opportunity to leave multiple times? I think that's the first question we have to talk about. I think the second question we have to talk about is the fact that all the witnesses testified that Carmelo Anthony reached into his bag and seemed to be grabbing on or holding onto something and at the same time said, touch me and see what happens. And it's at that point that they go to move him out of the tent, or Austin goes to move him out of the tent, and he pulls this knife out of the bag and happens so fast and stabs Austin Metcalf in the heart. So there's not even a period of time that gives Austin the. The chance to retreat. It all happens very quickly, per the witnesses. And remember, there was no cameras allowed inside of this courtroom. And although I've been very critical of no cameras in courtrooms in certain cases, I do understand the judge's desire here, given the fact that all the witnesses in this case were very young. This happened when these kids were really minors under the law. And so I do understand the judge's desire, given the fact that this case had a lot of other aspects that we were dealing with in terms of social aspects, racial aspects. And I think the court wanted to make sure that the jurors made a decision based only on what they heard in a courtroom, which, frankly, is exactly what they should be doing. So everything that we're talking about in terms of what happened in that courtroom, we got from reporters who sat in the room and then reported out. So you Know, again, if you have some reporters that are there, we're hearing what's happening anyway. So then the question is, is should the cameras be there so we can all make those determinations for ourselves? That's a conversation for another time that we've had in many cases, Tyler Robinson being one of them. But because there were no cameras here, this was a conversation that we have now had to have based on what other people have reported in that courtroom. And what we know is that this was a very fast, sudden situation after it happened. Austin Metcalf ends up dying in his brother's hands. He's bleeding to the point where a coach comes in. He testified that he had put pressure on him and the blood that was coming and all these awful things that happened. Austin Metcalfe. And at the time Carmelo Anthony ran out of that tent, he was very upset. He threw the knife. He was stopped by a coach. He was crying.
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Narrator/Announcer
And.
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Donna Rotuno
And when the coach asked him, what are you going to do if he dies and how your life is going to change, Carmelo's response was, he's not going to die. So he didn't believe he was going to die. So what are the main factors here in terms of what the jury had to determine? The jury had to determine if. Because, remember, there's no question about what happened. Carmelo Anthony admitted that he stabbed Austin Metcalfe. Multiple people watched him stab Austin Metcalfe. So this was not a whodunit. This was a situation where Carmelo Anthony and his defense team is saying, yes, he did it, but he was justified in doing so. So now the next question becomes, what is that justification? Yes, we have a right to defend ourselves in the United States. And that's one of the big things that was going on outside the courtroom. All of these signs that said, you have a right to self defense. That's correct. You do have a right to self defense. But we have to talk about what self defense actually is. And people have this misconception as to actually means the use of force that you are using has to match the use of force that is presented to you. So you cannot use deadly force if you are not in reasonable fear of receiving some type of deadly force from the. The aggressor. And in this case, Carmelo Anthony was claiming that Austin and his brother were aggressors and that they put his hands on him first, and therefore he had a right to do what he did. But unfortunately, a shove, a push, a touch, escorting someone out does not rise to the level of the use of deadly force and response. And so I was very surprised here that Carmelo Anthony did not take the witness stand. And the reason I'm surprised is that Carmelo Anthony is the only person who could have told the jurors what was in his mind at the time, what he was fearing, how he was feeling, why he did what he did. And it was the only attempt they truly had to humanize him. Because what did this jury hear about him? They heard that he took a knife out of his bag and stabbed it into someone's heart. You can't plunge a knife into someone's heart without the real, true belief that you were in this fear of some type of deadly force or some great bodily harm happening to you. And without his own testimony, there was no one else who could testify that that's what was actually going on. So much so that one of Carmelo Anthony's own witnesses said she felt that he was really the one that took the situation to the next level, that he was the aggressor. So who else was going to tell this jury that he wasn't or why he did what he did? And maybe in the end, the jury didn't feel like he would have had the right to defend himself after listening to him, but they may have had a better understanding of why he did what he did. And then they would have potentially said, maybe this is a manslaughter and not a first degree murder. And what's the difference if we're talking about a manslaughter? A manslaughter under Texas law is 2 to 20 years. Very big difference from a murder which is 5 to 99 years or life. And so if he is given a life sentence, the earliest he's eligible for parole is 30 years down the line.
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Commercial Voiceover
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Donna Rotuno
This case is going to go to the sentencing phase. What does that mean? Well, in Texas, what that means is the jurors are going to listen to witnesses testify and they are going to determine what they think is a reasonable sentence. Now, remember, they listened to the whole trial. They listened to the 21 witnesses for the defense. They listened to the six, 21 witnesses for the prosecution. They listened to six witnesses for the defense. They heard the opening statements. They heard the closing arguments, and they made a decision based on the evidence. They heard. What did they not hear? They did not hear things about Carmelo Anthony's life, his interaction with peers, the way the type of athlete he was, how he interacted with coaches. They talked about his GPA a little bit in the opening statements, but there was no true evidence to that. So they would. They could bring those things in. They can bring up maybe issues that he's had in his life, good and bad. They can talk about his family dynamic, and they can paint a picture for this jury that is different than what it looks like in terms of them just knowing one side of his personality or which is stabbing Austin Metcalfe. Now, what does Austin Metcalf's family get to do? Austin Metcalfe's family can get up in front of that jury and they can talk about the loss, the pain, what it feels like to never watch this child become what he wanted to be. He can't live his dreams. His family cannot watch him fulfill those dreams. They cannot watch him become an adult, have children, get married, all the things that you do. And as the course of life takes on, his was cut short in a very avoidable and preventable way. And so I think you're going to hear the impact of loss from his family, and we're going to see what this jury does. I would be very surprised if the jury gives him a maximum sentence given his age, given the circumstances. But we will see how that's going to play out. We are going to talk about this case moving forward. We will be doing a full podcast on it this week. We'll be doing an analysis. I would love to hear your thoughts, questions that you may have, thoughts about Carmelo not taking the stand, thoughts about what some of the family members may say in the course of this sentencing phase and what you think not only the jury may give him, but what you actually think would be fair. I think the most important thing to remember here, for anybody who's listening, these types of outbursts are not worth it. When you get upset about something walk away. I hope that any young person paying attention to this goes to their schools and thinks, next time there's a confrontation, how do we deflect? How do we deescalate? How do we make it better? So let's all do better. Let's pray for both of these families. This is an awful situation that they are all in. Tragic, avoidable. And let's hope that we never have to watch anything like this happen again. Thanks for joining me today.
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Narrator/Announcer
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