Karmelo Anthony Case Commentary: Process, Law, and Public Reaction

In other words... I'M BORING!

My boring commentary about Texas law…

Karmelo Anthony’s Indictment

On Tuesday, June 24th, Collin County District Attorney Greg Willis announced that a grand jury had indicted Karmelo Anthony on first-degree murder charges. This indictment was widely expected, with many locals surprised it took this long to formally charge Anthony.

I have written about the grand jury procedure in my previous newsletter about this case (The Curious Case of Karmelo Anthony). However, I do want to copy and paste some of that information here to remind people about that process.

We await to see if criminal charges are filed against Karmelo Anthony. This happens when a grand jury of 12 regular people from the community who meet in secret to decide if there’s enough evidence to charge Karmelo with 1st degree murder. They listen to information and evidence presented by a prosecutor, and sometimes hear from witnesses. After discussing the case, they vote in private. If at least 9 out of 12 jurors agree there’s enough reason to believe a crime happened, they issue an indictment, which means Karmelo will go to trial. If not, the case is dropped and doesn’t go to court.

This case will go to court because as Justice Scalia once famously remarked - “a grand jury would indict a ham sandwich”. It is just not that hard to get an indictment from a grand jury, and it says nothing about the strength or weakness of the State’s case against Karmelo.

Grand jury evidence may not reach trial. Since the defense doesn’t participate in grand jury proceedings, they can’t exclude evidence until trial. This means the trial jury may never hear some evidence that was presented to the grand jury and/or is currently public information.

Collin County Court Records

You can follow the case filings and hearing dates through the Collin County website - Judicial Online Search. This is where I go to look up court case information. I will simply type “Karmelo” into the search engine because his name is so unique that there is only one other case that involves this name spelling.

Here is a screenshot of where you can find the criminal charge, statute, and what is currently on the docket for his case as of today (Friday, June 27th).

Texas First-degree Murder charge - Section 19.02(c)

Fortunately, the Texas Penal Code is online for anyone to see and read. Here is the link to - Chapter 19 - Criminal Homicide. This section tells us what the prosecution needs to prove in order for a jury to believe that Anthony is guilty of first-degree murder. Here are the elements of the crime with my own commentary in bold italics -

19.02 (b) - A person commits an offense [first degree murder] if the person:

1. intentionally or knowingly causes the death of an individual [I don’t think the prosecution will be arguing for this element because we have a police report saying that Anthony asked if the victim was ok and surprised to learn he died];

2. intends to cause serious bodily injury and commits an act clearly dangerous to human life that causes the death of an individual [I think this is what will be used to argue why first-degree murder applies here. Anthony should have known that “serious bodily injury” would have occurred by lunging a knife at the victim];

3. commits or attempt to commit a felony…. [I won’t type out the rest because there is no indication that Anthony committed any other felony before this action for this to apply]; OR

4. knowingly manufacturers or delivers a controlled substance… [Again, I won’t finish this element because there is no indication that drugs or any other substance was involved]

The “OR” at the end of #3 indicates the prosecution only needs to prove one of the four elements to convict Anthony of first-degree murder. They’ll likely focus on element #2—proving Anthony intended to cause “serious bodily injury” AND “committed an act clearly dangerous to human life.” Both parts must be proven to satisfy this element.

My cautionary advice - Lesser charges possibility

Now, where this gets interesting is when you read Section 19.02 (d) because it open the possibility to a second-degree murder finding -

At the punishment stage of a trial, the defendant may raise the issue as to whether he caused the death under the immediate influence of sudden passion [see definition in footnote]¹. arising from an adequate cause [see definition in footnote]².

If the defendant proves the issue in the affirmative by a preponderance of the evidence [much lower standard than beyond reasonable doubt], the offense is a felony of the second degree.

I believe Anthony, if convicted of murder, will likely receive a second-degree murder verdict during the punishment phase because of the lower standard of proof the defense will have to show.

This highlights a deeper truth: when we understand legal processes and underlying laws, we can respond to disappointing outcomes with greater equanimity rather than raw emotion. Knowledge of the system’s complexities helps us accept results that may not align with our initial expectations, fostering a more measured and thoughtful response to justice.

Sincerely,

Legally Red Me

1. Section 19.02(a)(2) - “Sudden passion” means passion directly caused by and arising out of provocation by the individual killed or another acting with the person killed which passion arises at the time of the offense and is not solely the result of former provocation.

2. Section 19.02(a)(1) - “Adequate cause” means cause that would commonly produce a degree of anger, rage, resentment, or terror in a person of ordinary temper, sufficient to render the mind incapable of cool reflection.