Demonstrators clash outside Karmelo Anthony trial as opening arguments begin

When Jake Lang approached the entrance to the Collin County Courthouse parking lot Thursday afternoon, the veins in his neck bulged while he screamed for death. 

Lang, a right-wing personality who spent four years imprisoned for his role in the Jan. 6, 2020 insurrection, had been arrested on an outstanding warrant just a few days earlier. He was told by Collin County officials that as a condition of release, he would not be permitted to get within 200 feet of the courthouse for the next 30 days. 

So around 1:00 p.m., as 18 jurors and alternates filed back into a McKinney courtroom to hear about the Frisco ISD track meet that ended last year with one student fatally stabbed and the other arrested, Lang and a gaggle of supporters stood on the sidewalk furthest from the court’s front entrance. 

“We will accept nothing less than the death penalty,” Lang screamed, his vitriol immediately matched by demonstrators on the other side of the street. “Death penalty for Karmelo!”

Lang was leading a small gathering billed as the “Justice for Austin Metcalf” rally. The rally was held in support of the 17-year-old Frisco student who was stabbed at a track meet last year. Thursday was the fourth day of trial for 19-year-old Karmelo Anthony, who is accused of killing Metcalf. 

During opening statements on Thursday, Anthony’s attorneys said he acted in self defense when he used a knife to stab Metcalf. The prosecution argues that it was murder. 

It did not seem to matter to Lang that the charges faced by Anthony do not allow for capital punishment. Additionally, because Anthony was 17 years old at the time of the altercation, he is not eligible for the death penalty. If convicted of murder, Anthony faces between five and 99 years in a Texas prison. 

Also completely ignored was the request of Austin Metcalf’s father, Jeff Metcalf, who last year urged Lang not to politicize his son’s death. As Lang approached a dozen people gathered in support of Anthony, he wielded a sign that displayed Metcalf’s school photo beside an image of the assassinated conservative commentator Charlie Kirk, and the message “White Lives Matter.” 

The Frisco trial has been a lightning rod for controversy, with race playing a major role in amplifying the rhetoric surrounding the proceedings. Anthony is a Black man, while Metcalf was white. Already, some have critiqued the fact that every Black potential juror was struck from the pool leading up to the trial. 

Nique LeClaire, a content creator who publishes commentary about high-profile cases under the handle @niqueatnite, traveled to McKinney from California for the trial. She said she was drawn to the case when it first became national news last year, and she quickly realized that “everything was getting so bogged down” in misinformation and slanted narratives. 

“I like to hear [the facts] for myself,” LeClaire told the Observer Thursday after sitting in the trial as one of the two-dozen members of the public admitted inside. “I’ve been noticing people here who are trying to push their weight around, and group everyone [who is Black] as a Karmelo supporter.” 

While the people inside the courthouse have been cordial to LeClaire, she’s gotten the sense that some demonstrators outside of the building don’t like her “just because I’m Black.” 

One protester present at the courthouse on Thursday was a North Texas man who gave only his first name, Abraham. He wore a button down shirt and tie, and carried the Grand Union flag. The flag was an early version of the modern United States banner, and Abraham told the Observer he carries it because of his respect for American and British history. It is also a protest against the “abuses of native populations” he believes the governments in both countries are committing.

“If this case ends up being unfair or unjust, and that will come out as this trial unfolds … that would be another example of a government-sanctioned abuse of the native population,” Abraham said, before clarifying that in referencing native populations, he is referring exclusively to Anglo-Americans. 

Lang was less diplomatic about espousing racial epithets as he attempted to agitate the crowd of Anthony supporters. 

“Karmelo Anthony should be hanging from that tree,” he yelled at one point, before adding that if Anthony is found not guilty and is freed, Lang intends to kill him. When Anthony’s supporters, most of whom were Black, reacted in anger, Lang accused them of “chimping out,” and having “low impulse control.” 

“The only good cracker is a dead cracker,” one man yelled at Lang before retiring to the side of the sidewalk that had been claimed by Anthony supporters. 

A swarm of police officers and county sheriffs barricaded themselves between the two groups to prevent the screaming from escalating into a physical altercation.

Thursday marked the fourth day of what is expected to be at least a two week trial. It was also at least the third demonstration of protesters.