The Texas teenager convicted of fatally stabbing a 17-year-old athlete at a high school track meet is headed back to court Wednesday as he pushes for a new trial.

Karmelo Anthony, now 19, was sentenced to 35 years in prison for murder for killing fellow student Austin Metcalf in the stadium bleachers outside of Dallas last year. A jury handed down a guilty verdict in June after rejecting his claims of self-defense.

Anthony is now asking for a new trial, arguing that the judge did not fairly preside over the high-profile case. Hearings on his requests were set to begin Wednesday in suburban Dallas.

Anthony’s legal team says that a retrial is warranted in part because state District Judge John Roach enforced overly strict courtroom rules, and they claim he gave incomplete instructions to the jury who convicted Anthony at the end of the nearly weeklong trial. Jurors deliberated for less than three hours before issuing their verdict. They could have convicted him of a lesser charge, manslaughter, but didn’t choose to.

The trial unfolded under heavy security at the Collin County courthouse, where lines of spectators gathered, hoping to find seats in the gallery.

The case attracted widespread attention in part because of a flood of social media posts that amplified the killing in racial terms. Anthony is Black and Metcalf was white. Lawyers on both sides, however, told the jury that the tragedy had nothing to do with race.

Anthony did not testify at his trial.

Students took the stand to describe the heated exchange after Anthony refused to leave a tent that belonged to Metcalf’s team on a rainy spring day. The teens went to different high schools.

Several schools were competing when Anthony sat under the Memorial High School tent that was perched in the bleachers. Austin Metcalf and others had repeatedly told Anthony to leave, witnesses testified, leading to an escalating confrontation.

Prosecutors said Anthony provoked Metcalf, and witnesses testified that Anthony was the aggressor.

At one point, Anthony reached inside a bag and said: “Touch me and see what happens,” according to a police report.

Metcalf pushed Anthony, who then pulled out a knife and stabbed Metcalf in the chest, witnesses said.