June 10, 2026 • 12 mins
Loren sits down with an advocate close to the Karmelo Anthony case following the guilty verdict and 35-year sentence. They discuss the emotional impact on Karmelo’s family, the courtroom decisions that sparked debate, jury selection concerns, the fight for an appeal, and what comes next in the pursuit of justice. A powerful conversation about accountability, fairness, and the questions still surrounding a case that captured national attention.
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Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
I'm a homegrow that knows a little bit about everything
and everybody.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
You don't know if you don't lie about that, right,
Lauren came in.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
Hey, y'all, what's up.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
It's Lauren Rosa and this is another episode of the
Latest with Laura Rosa. This is genentitly deave on all
things pop culture, entertainment, news and all of the conversations
that shake the room.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
My lowriders.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
If you guys cannot tell by the tone of my
voice and the intro, today's conversation is going to be
one that is very serious. We cover a lot of
things here at the Latest with Laurna Rosa, but when
it's time to take the time, we do so. And
today there was a verdict that came down in the
Carmelo Anthony case and I, like the rest of the world,
uh had some had some thoughts and feelings on it,
(00:45):
but wanted to put my own thoughts and feelings aside
and bring someone who has been very close to this case,
who's been advocating for the Anthony family right here to
you guys on the podcast to have some conversations about
what happened and the verdict that we all heard today.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Of guilty. Thank you for dominic.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
How you doing I'm doing pretty good about yourself.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
I mean I'm doing good.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
I think like everybody else, I'm kind of watching from
the outside looking in and just have a lot of
questions and I don't know, I kind of feel like
like I have a younger brother, So watching everything that
played out in this case and what didn't play out, Uh,
it's heartbreaking, you know what I mean? And I know
(01:25):
that you were working alongside Carmelo Anthony's family to give
everything that was happening, you know, some platforms so that
we knew what was going on.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
How are you feeling following a verdict?
Speaker 4 (01:40):
Well, it's really hard right now to be able to
process it when you know, I've had the opportunity to
get to know Carmel or Anthony. I've had the opportunity
to get to know Kayla, and Andrew and his father
and other children. You're talking about a beautiful black family.
(02:00):
You're talking about a very educated young brother, Carmelo Anthony,
a very kind and very smart and had a very
promising future that was stolen today.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Do you feel like and it's hard to do in
a trial right where you know you have the prosecutors
who are there's there's stuck on what they're trying to
get to. But do you feel like it was there
was a good enough job done of humanizing Crimela Anthony
outside of what we as a community would would just
try and do ourselves on social media.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
Do you think it was done well in court?
Speaker 2 (02:39):
I don't. I don't think so.
Speaker 4 (02:41):
I think that there were many things that I disagreed
with the approach, but at the end of the day,
I'm not a lawyer. Of course, he had attorneys. There
were a multiple different things that I felt like it
could have went this way, but it didn't. And I
(03:02):
just the young man that I got to know, I
didn't think. I didn't think it was displayed to the
fullest in courtroom.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
How is Carmelo's mom doing? I know she was the
only one at this time. She is the only person
that is testified in the sentencing part of the child
because that's where we are now. How's his mom doings
as of now?
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Kayla is distraught.
Speaker 4 (03:27):
I can't speak for her, but just to know Kayla,
Kayla is a mother. She does everything for those children.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
She is a woman of.
Speaker 4 (03:40):
She doesn't say a lot or whatever but she doesn't
play about her children, and you know, my heart goes
out to her, because this is a family that traveled
and moved from Louisiana to Texas and for just a
better opportunity, better exposed and they landed in Collin County.
(04:04):
And Collin County is a county north of Dallas County
where the city of Dallas results. And of course a
lot of times when people move here, they end up,
you know, moving to some of these suburb areas, not
knowing some of the history that goes behind some of
these areas, very problematic, and so I know that the
(04:30):
family is really hurt.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Right now.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
I've read a report about the plea that she made
to the court after everything, and you know, her attempt
to just humanize her child herself, and it was heartbreaking
to read. So I can only imagine what happens now though,
Like is is after? Are you guys already talking about
(04:55):
like a pill? How do we activate around the case
in the verted?
Speaker 3 (04:59):
Like what now? What do we do now?
Speaker 4 (05:02):
Well, of course, the next generation Action Network is going
to have to raise resources and we're going to have
to have people from all different cousors and creeds and
black America to really stand up, because this case is
solely about are these laws going to be applied to
everyone or are they going to be applied to some right,
(05:23):
I know, you see cases from all across this country,
even from the recent case in Carolina where we're told, hey,
take your emotions out of the situation. It's law, this
is law, right, and so in this situation, the law
was very clear and the law was ignored. And of
(05:45):
course that was also the reason why the judge limited
the court proceedings, so that the people won't be able
to know what really went on, rather than the secondhand
count of information that pretty much all America is pretty
(06:05):
much going off of. Because only fifty people were allowed
at a time to be in a court.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Can you break down, So first let's start with the limiting.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
Can you explain what was limited?
Speaker 4 (06:20):
Well, first of all, you limit the amount of people
that were able to see exactly what's going on the activities.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
You also even in the ruling of the jury.
Speaker 4 (06:34):
Of course, many people are making it seem like the
judge went through a full process. No, the judge actually
made a decision fairly quickly on those three black jurors
that the prosecution striped right. A lot of people got
answers on that. A lot of people got answers on
how did these people testify in court?
Speaker 2 (06:55):
What was their body language?
Speaker 4 (06:58):
We know, based on a lot of accounts of people
who were in the courtroom, a lot of them witnesses
were cohearsed, They were instructed what to say. You can
tell they tried to keep the brother far away from
the situation. When we know that Hunter Metcalf had already
(07:19):
went on national TV saying he was right there. But
some kind of way during the trial, by multiple eyewitnesses
account we found that Hunter was there.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
But you know, this is what we have to deal with.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
And now, just while I've been on the interview with you,
we find out that Carmelo has been sentenced to thirty
five years.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
Oh my god, Oh was I expecting that?
Speaker 1 (07:57):
So okay, let's talk about the jury really quick, because
you brought that up right, and I know the conversation
with the black jurors that there were three of them
that were struck. Correct, Yes, the judge said that they
were struck for non racial reasons, and they brought out
the fact that they were educators. Wouldn't you want people
that were educators and understood children in an educational or
(08:18):
a school setting, and how those things happened on a
jury Like where was there a law basis that allowed
them to like, how was that able to be an
argument to take those jurors off of the jury or
off of the selection process?
Speaker 2 (08:32):
You know, it flabbergasting.
Speaker 4 (08:34):
Nobody that was there understood exactly how they were able
to strike them. They just said they were educators, not
explain why they think they're conflicted because they're educators, just
because they're just they're educators, right, And of course we
know that Colin County has a long history of yet
(08:55):
discriminatorial practices. We know that Colin County is a county
black people have had a real uphill battle uh to
be able to get justice.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
And we know that Collin County has.
Speaker 4 (09:09):
A real large population of black people that it had
sent to prison in the history of it. And we
know that this county is very problematic. And we heard
a lot of different calls for people saying why didn't
we push for change of venue? But if they understood
(09:31):
how state law work, there were only certain red counties
around that that even if they would have pushed it
to another venue, it would have been even worse.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
And and and there was an educator that was kept
on the jury still, so even though they tried to
have that argument, it was it still was that one
educator that was was that a person of color a
white person.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
Man?
Speaker 4 (09:58):
Okay, so if it's educators, is blanket educators across the board?
Speaker 3 (10:03):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (10:03):
I thought that there was maybe like a legal standing,
but if you're keeping one educator and getting rid of
the other ones, like I would have to dive more
into like why, like what made one different than the
other three? And then my last question, I know we
have to wrap up. Are we going to see a change?
I don't even know if this would be possible at
this point, But if you guys go into the appeal status,
which are you you guys are planning to appeal?
Speaker 3 (10:25):
Is that something that family is considering.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (10:28):
Will there be a change of attorney.
Speaker 4 (10:31):
Yes, there there will be new appella attorneys assigned, and
there will be a new legal strategy and we will
need to be able to raise the resources to be
able to support that.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
Yeah, okay, got you.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
And then the focus of the appeal is it going
to be to just kind of combat all the jury information.
The thing with the judge and the DA and the father,
there's some correlation and relationship there that I was reading about.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
Is that true?
Speaker 2 (10:59):
We don't know if you know that was true.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
We know that the picture was not the sitting judge,
and we we gave some clarification.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
We don't know what judge that was in the picture.
Speaker 4 (11:14):
It wasn't given to us, but it wasn't John John Roach,
who was the presiding.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
Judge over this situation.
Speaker 4 (11:22):
But of course we're going to need to need the
community support across America support to go go into this
next process. And of course we know the road to
justice is not a quick one, but we we stand
committed towards making sure.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
Well, thank you so much for joining me. I know
you have a lot uh to try and figure out
at this point.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
I appreciate thank you for having me. Thank you.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
I'll talk to you guys soon. Please stand contact
Speaker 2 (11:55):
All righty, I will already
I'm a homegrow that knows a little bit about everything
and everybody.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
You don't know if you don't lie about that, right,
Lauren came in.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
Hey, y'all, what's up.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
It's Lauren Rosa and this is another episode of the
Latest with Laura Rosa. This is genentitly deave on all
things pop culture, entertainment, news and all of the conversations
that shake the room.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
My lowriders.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
If you guys cannot tell by the tone of my
voice and the intro, today's conversation is going to be
one that is very serious. We cover a lot of
things here at the Latest with Laurna Rosa, but when
it's time to take the time, we do so. And
today there was a verdict that came down in the
Carmelo Anthony case and I, like the rest of the world,
uh had some had some thoughts and feelings on it,
(00:45):
but wanted to put my own thoughts and feelings aside
and bring someone who has been very close to this case,
who's been advocating for the Anthony family right here to
you guys on the podcast to have some conversations about
what happened and the verdict that we all heard today.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Of guilty. Thank you for dominic.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
How you doing I'm doing pretty good about yourself.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
I mean I'm doing good.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
I think like everybody else, I'm kind of watching from
the outside looking in and just have a lot of
questions and I don't know, I kind of feel like
like I have a younger brother, So watching everything that
played out in this case and what didn't play out, Uh,
it's heartbreaking, you know what I mean? And I know
(01:25):
that you were working alongside Carmelo Anthony's family to give
everything that was happening, you know, some platforms so that
we knew what was going on.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
How are you feeling following a verdict?
Speaker 4 (01:40):
Well, it's really hard right now to be able to
process it when you know, I've had the opportunity to
get to know Carmel or Anthony. I've had the opportunity
to get to know Kayla, and Andrew and his father
and other children. You're talking about a beautiful black family.
(02:00):
You're talking about a very educated young brother, Carmelo Anthony,
a very kind and very smart and had a very
promising future that was stolen today.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Do you feel like and it's hard to do in
a trial right where you know you have the prosecutors
who are there's there's stuck on what they're trying to
get to. But do you feel like it was there
was a good enough job done of humanizing Crimela Anthony
outside of what we as a community would would just
try and do ourselves on social media.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
Do you think it was done well in court?
Speaker 2 (02:39):
I don't. I don't think so.
Speaker 4 (02:41):
I think that there were many things that I disagreed
with the approach, but at the end of the day,
I'm not a lawyer. Of course, he had attorneys. There
were a multiple different things that I felt like it
could have went this way, but it didn't. And I
(03:02):
just the young man that I got to know, I
didn't think. I didn't think it was displayed to the
fullest in courtroom.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
How is Carmelo's mom doing? I know she was the
only one at this time. She is the only person
that is testified in the sentencing part of the child
because that's where we are now. How's his mom doings
as of now?
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Kayla is distraught.
Speaker 4 (03:27):
I can't speak for her, but just to know Kayla,
Kayla is a mother. She does everything for those children.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
She is a woman of.
Speaker 4 (03:40):
She doesn't say a lot or whatever but she doesn't
play about her children, and you know, my heart goes
out to her, because this is a family that traveled
and moved from Louisiana to Texas and for just a
better opportunity, better exposed and they landed in Collin County.
(04:04):
And Collin County is a county north of Dallas County
where the city of Dallas results. And of course a
lot of times when people move here, they end up,
you know, moving to some of these suburb areas, not
knowing some of the history that goes behind some of
these areas, very problematic, and so I know that the
(04:30):
family is really hurt.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Right now.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
I've read a report about the plea that she made
to the court after everything, and you know, her attempt
to just humanize her child herself, and it was heartbreaking
to read. So I can only imagine what happens now though,
Like is is after? Are you guys already talking about
(04:55):
like a pill? How do we activate around the case
in the verted?
Speaker 3 (04:59):
Like what now? What do we do now?
Speaker 4 (05:02):
Well, of course, the next generation Action Network is going
to have to raise resources and we're going to have
to have people from all different cousors and creeds and
black America to really stand up, because this case is
solely about are these laws going to be applied to
everyone or are they going to be applied to some right,
(05:23):
I know, you see cases from all across this country,
even from the recent case in Carolina where we're told, hey,
take your emotions out of the situation. It's law, this
is law, right, and so in this situation, the law
was very clear and the law was ignored. And of
(05:45):
course that was also the reason why the judge limited
the court proceedings, so that the people won't be able
to know what really went on, rather than the secondhand
count of information that pretty much all America is pretty
(06:05):
much going off of. Because only fifty people were allowed
at a time to be in a court.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Can you break down, So first let's start with the limiting.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
Can you explain what was limited?
Speaker 4 (06:20):
Well, first of all, you limit the amount of people
that were able to see exactly what's going on the activities.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
You also even in the ruling of the jury.
Speaker 4 (06:34):
Of course, many people are making it seem like the
judge went through a full process. No, the judge actually
made a decision fairly quickly on those three black jurors
that the prosecution striped right. A lot of people got
answers on that. A lot of people got answers on
how did these people testify in court?
Speaker 2 (06:55):
What was their body language?
Speaker 4 (06:58):
We know, based on a lot of accounts of people
who were in the courtroom, a lot of them witnesses
were cohearsed, They were instructed what to say. You can
tell they tried to keep the brother far away from
the situation. When we know that Hunter Metcalf had already
(07:19):
went on national TV saying he was right there. But
some kind of way during the trial, by multiple eyewitnesses
account we found that Hunter was there.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
But you know, this is what we have to deal with.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
And now, just while I've been on the interview with you,
we find out that Carmelo has been sentenced to thirty
five years.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
Oh my god, Oh was I expecting that?
Speaker 1 (07:57):
So okay, let's talk about the jury really quick, because
you brought that up right, and I know the conversation
with the black jurors that there were three of them
that were struck. Correct, Yes, the judge said that they
were struck for non racial reasons, and they brought out
the fact that they were educators. Wouldn't you want people
that were educators and understood children in an educational or
(08:18):
a school setting, and how those things happened on a
jury Like where was there a law basis that allowed
them to like, how was that able to be an
argument to take those jurors off of the jury or
off of the selection process?
Speaker 2 (08:32):
You know, it flabbergasting.
Speaker 4 (08:34):
Nobody that was there understood exactly how they were able
to strike them. They just said they were educators, not
explain why they think they're conflicted because they're educators, just
because they're just they're educators, right, And of course we
know that Colin County has a long history of yet
(08:55):
discriminatorial practices. We know that Colin County is a county
black people have had a real uphill battle uh to
be able to get justice.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
And we know that Collin County has.
Speaker 4 (09:09):
A real large population of black people that it had
sent to prison in the history of it. And we
know that this county is very problematic. And we heard
a lot of different calls for people saying why didn't
we push for change of venue? But if they understood
(09:31):
how state law work, there were only certain red counties
around that that even if they would have pushed it
to another venue, it would have been even worse.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
And and and there was an educator that was kept
on the jury still, so even though they tried to
have that argument, it was it still was that one
educator that was was that a person of color a
white person.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
Man?
Speaker 4 (09:58):
Okay, so if it's educators, is blanket educators across the board?
Speaker 3 (10:03):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (10:03):
I thought that there was maybe like a legal standing,
but if you're keeping one educator and getting rid of
the other ones, like I would have to dive more
into like why, like what made one different than the
other three? And then my last question, I know we
have to wrap up. Are we going to see a change?
I don't even know if this would be possible at
this point, But if you guys go into the appeal status,
which are you you guys are planning to appeal?
Speaker 3 (10:25):
Is that something that family is considering.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (10:28):
Will there be a change of attorney.
Speaker 4 (10:31):
Yes, there there will be new appella attorneys assigned, and
there will be a new legal strategy and we will
need to be able to raise the resources to be
able to support that.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
Yeah, okay, got you.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
And then the focus of the appeal is it going
to be to just kind of combat all the jury information.
The thing with the judge and the DA and the father,
there's some correlation and relationship there that I was reading about.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
Is that true?
Speaker 2 (10:59):
We don't know if you know that was true.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
We know that the picture was not the sitting judge,
and we we gave some clarification.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
We don't know what judge that was in the picture.
Speaker 4 (11:14):
It wasn't given to us, but it wasn't John John Roach,
who was the presiding.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
Judge over this situation.
Speaker 4 (11:22):
But of course we're going to need to need the
community support across America support to go go into this
next process. And of course we know the road to
justice is not a quick one, but we we stand
committed towards making sure.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
Well, thank you so much for joining me. I know
you have a lot uh to try and figure out
at this point.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
I appreciate thank you for having me. Thank you.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
I'll talk to you guys soon. Please stand contact
Speaker 2 (11:55):
All righty, I will already
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