Karmelo Anthony’s defense team rested on Monday without the teen taking the stand — making his self-defense claim much harder to win, a veteran Texas attorney said.

The move risks the jury not even being allowed to consider self-defense when deliberating, because the 19-year-old’s lawyers never outright acknowledged that he fatally stabbed Austin Metcalf, 17, at a track meet in Frisco, Texas, in 2025.

That acknowledgment is often a key component of self-defense trials in Texas, said defense lawyer Jeremy Rosenthal, who is based in Collin County, where the trial is taking place.

“To get a self defense charge you have what tis called a ‘burden of production.’ You have to show through your own evidence that you do not contest the conduct,” said Rosenthal.

The baffling move may be a gambit to convince the jury to hand Anthony a lesser manslaughter charge in lieu of first-degree murder.

The defense can request the jurors be allowed to consider manslaughter before closing statements begin on Tuesday.

“Those negotiations are probably happening right now,” Rosenthal said.

“Not having Mr. Anthony testify potentially narrows some pathways to acquittal.  The right to testify or not is exclusively the defendant’s. The closing argument will tell us if there is a bigger strategy here and exactly what that is.”

But the arguments for allowing the jury to downgrade to manslaughter seem stronger than for a total acquittal on first-degree murder based on self defense, another lawyer observed.

“I’ve always thought this was a bit of an uphill battle for the defense simply because a knife was introduced into the conflict so quickly,” said Steve Bassett, a Texas-based defense attorney of more than 30 years.

“I never read about any testimony that indicated the conflict was particularly intense before the stabbing,” he added.

But the prosecution also had its work cut out proving first degree murder.

“It doesn’t sound like [Anthony] went there wanting to kill somebody that day. It was an aggressive, reckless act combined with really bad luck,” said Rosenthal.

Body camera footage in which Anthony tearfully tells the arresting officer that “he put his hands on me” and asks “is he ok?” will also help the defense paint him as an angry, reckless kid — not a cold-blooded killer.

Even in Texas, the fear of deadly force is required to prove that deadly force was justified, accordng to the experts. That means the defense will have to prove that Anthony feared for his life when Metcalf tried to push him out of his team’s awning in the stadium bleachers.

But Metcalf’s teammates testified that Anthony hand his hand in his backpack, clutching the knife, well before Metcalf made contact, saying “touch me and find out.”

“When you say ‘touch me and find out,’ you could take that to mean, ‘I will kill you,’” Rosenthal explained.

A verdict could be handed down as early as Wednesday evening — thanks to a no-nonsense judge who has moved the case along at a breakneck pace.

District Judge John Roach has a reputation for efficiency — especially for this trial, the very last of his career, Rosenthal said.

Roach has extended courthouse hours and even held proceedings on Saturday; once he ripped into the prosecution team for showing up two minutes late from a recess.

“Roach is very efficient. He will eat jail food with the inmates over lunch to see how it tastes. He will wear an ankle monitor to see how it hurts,” Rosenthal said.

Roach once spotted a defendant out violating his probation and apprehended the man himself, holding him until police arrived, he said.“He’s got the heart of a servant and that’s all you can ask for.”