Karmelo Anthony's Prison Sentence Means He Will Have To Wait More Than a Decade for Parole

Not long after Karmelo Anthony was found guilty of murder in the 2025 stabbing of a competing high school track athlete in Texas, he was sentenced. A jury found him guilty and sentenced him to 35 years in prison. But when will Karmelo Enthony be eligible for parole? Although he was 17 at the time of the murder, in Texas, he was tried as an adult in the case.

Anthony was accused by prosecutors of stabbing 17-year-old Austin Metcalf when Anthony allegedly refused to leave a tent used by Metcalf's school at a track meet. Per Anthony's attorneys, Anthony acted out of fear for his own safety. In June 2026, a year after the stabbing, a jury found him guilty after a short deliberation.

According to The Dallas Express, Anthony will likely be eligible for parole at some point during his time in prison, but it won't come for years after his sentence began. Per the outlet, Anthony is eligible for parole at least 17 years, or around half of the time served, after he begins his prison sentence.

That means he is eligible in 2043, but likely no sooner than that.

Criminal defense attorney Todd Shapiro, however, said there is no way to properly predict how parole pans out for inmates, including Anthony.

He told Fox News, "There's no predicting parole. I mean, he could have problems in jail, there could be overcrowding issues, there could be a whole lot of different things that play a part in whether or not he gets paroled at that time." If Anthony had been sentenced to life in prison, he would have faced a minimum of 30 years before the possibility of parole.

Per the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, inmates whose crimes include murder, aggravated sexual assault, or sexual assault might face parole delays because of the nature of their crimes. According to Fox 4 Dallas-Fort Worth, Anthony admitted at the time of his arrest that he did stab Metcalf.

He explained, per records obtained by the outlet, "He put his hands on me. I told him not to." Anthony's trial concluded a little over a year after the murder took place.

After Anthony was found guilty and sentenced, he was sent to the Collin County Jail temporarily before being moved to prison. According to TMZ, Anthony was placed in a secure area of the facility separate from other inmates for his own safety. But where will he serve his 35-year prison sentence?

The state prison where Anthony will serve his sentence has not yet been released to the public. However, he is expected to eventually be transferred to a prison run by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ). It could take weeks from the time of sentencing to when Anthony is transferred to the state prison, where he will serve out his sentence.