Ever since 19-year-old Karmello Anthony was convicted on Tuesday in the murder of a teenager last year, his supporters have been forced to go to extremes to find ways not to blame the killer for the crime.
They’ve blamed “white supremacy” for the prosecution — Anthony is black, his victim was white. They’ve blamed racism among prosecutors for keeping blacks off the jury.
And on Wednesday, his father put the blame, at least in part, on his son’s “white attorney” for the fact that Karmelo is going to prison.
Media personality Mimi Brown — a fixture on the black-oriented radio program “The Breakfast Club” — spoke to Anthony’s parents, Kayla Hayes and Andrew Anthony, during an interview Wednesday.
At one point, she asked the two, “So, do you believe your son received a fair trial?”
Both replied, “absolutely not” and Hayes promised to “keep fighting.” Brown also asked if the two would have done anything differently.
If you were hoping these parents would say something about raising their son not to stab other kids, or teaching him to be mature and walk away in a conflict that could escalate, you’ll be disappointed.
Did the jury get this verdict correct?
Andrew Anthony replied, “I wish I would have just been rebellious. I was told, ‘Don’t talk to this person.’ ‘Don’t talk to this person.’ I feel like it was just a set-up. So, they told us, go get white attorneys. Every black person I went to, ‘white attorney.’”
The parents of Karmelo Anthony speak with me first following the guilty verdict and 35-year sentence.
In an emotional conversation, they reflect on the trial, what they believe could have been done differently, and the impact this has had on their family.
I’ll share more from… pic.twitter.com/9GhY2oftCd
— Mimi Brown (@mimibrowntv) June 10, 2026
The quotes posted to Brown’s account on the social media platform X are obviously heavily edited, but the substance comes through. (An expanded version of the interview is available on “The Breakfast Club” YouTube channel here. The quotes about the attorney start about the 12-minute mark.)
It’s true that Anthony’s attorney, Mike Howard. is white. But it’s also true that he’s someone who had the nearly impossible task of defending the indefensible.
Anthony killed 17-year-old Austin Metcalf during a track meet in Frisco, Texas, in April 2025. At the time, Anthony had entered a tent that was reserved for a rival high school’s track team.
Witness testimony told the court that Metcalf and other students in the tent asked Anthony to leave and he belligerently refused. “I’m not leaving, f**k you all,” he said, according to the Daily Caller News Foundation. He called them “a bunch of p***ies” adding they were “not going to do nothing about it,” according to the DCNF.
Witnesses also said Anthony challenged Metcalf to touch him and “see what happens” as he reached into his bag, grabbing the knife he would use for the murder.
One witness testified that Anthony was surrounded, perhaps his strongest defense if he had any, painting the picture of a panicked young man who found himself outnumbered, but that wasn’t the case.
As the DCNF reported, he was surrounded, but it was after he stabbed Metcalf, as surveillance footage showed.
So, he wasn’t surrounded, he was mouthing off, and he ignored students telling him to leave their tent since he wasn’t from their school.
According to the New York Post, Metcalf gave Anthony a shove before the stabbing, but that detail doesn’t help Anthony’s case.
Someone shoves you, so you kill them? That is not legally “self-defense” as the jury or any thinking person concluded.
With the facts in mind, it wouldn’t have mattered if the attorney was white or black.
Anthony could have hired Johnny Cochran and still lost.
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