Karmelo Anthony’s Parents Use First Interviews Since Guilty Verdict to Cast Themselves as the Real Victims

“What stuck out to me, No. 1, was the all-White jury."

This article originally appeared on the Daily Caller News Foundation and was republished with permission.

Guest post by Evelyn Elliott

Karmelo Anthony’s parents used their first interviews after their son’s murder conviction to claim that he had received an unfair trial and that all the witnesses had lied on the stand.

In interviews with CBS News and The Breakfast Club, Kala Hayes and Andrew Anthony, Karmelo’s parents, told the public that they believed the jury had made up their minds before even stepping foot into the courtroom, essentially convicting their son of Austin Metcalf’s murder before any evidence was heard.

“He was convicted when he walked out of the jail,” Anthony told CBS. “It was no innocent ’til proven guilty. He was already guilty.”

They told the story supposedly from their son’s perspective, who said his girlfriend’s cousin had invited him into the tent where Austin Metcalf was. Then they said the same cousin claimed not to know their son when he took the stand.

“He lied and was saying he didn’t even know [him], and they had pictures, pictures with his grandmother,” Anthony told The Breakfast Club.

For Karmelo Anthony’s father, race seemed to be his biggest concern, so far as for him to falsely claiming the jury was all white. “What stuck out to me, No. 1, was the all-White jury,” Andrew Anthony told CBS. The final jury was composed of white, asian, and Hispanic members.

“I mean, all of the witnesses’ statements and stories were inconsistent, so we’re thinking that the jury is going to notice that, but they already had their mind made up when they sat in that courtroom,” Hayes said in The Breakfast Club interview.

“Everyone actually lied,” she claimed in her interview with CBS.

The parents also seemed to try to justify their large online public fundraising efforts.

“Everybody kept saying, ‘Hey, to beat this … you need a white attorney to go out there to fight,” Anthony claimed when the couple spoke with The Breakfast Club. Karmelo’s parents hired a white attorney, who Anthony claimed: “basically tossed [my son] over.”

Mike Howard, a Dallas, Texas-based attorney, represented Karmelo Anthony during the initial trial. However, according to WFAA, Karmelo Anthony asked the judge on Wednesday to appoint him an attorney for his legal appeal, claiming he has no resources or money to retain counsel of his own.

Anthony and Hayes appeared to have little remorse over their son’s actions, or for the grief of the Metcalf family.

“They just… were saying they were robbed,” Anthony told The Breakfast Club. “[Karmelo] didn’t go looking for this.”

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