Karmelo Anthony was convicted of murder and sentenced to 35 years behind bars for fatally stabbing 17-year-old Austin Metcalf during a high school track meet in Frisco, Texas. Now a crowdfunding campaign organized by his mother, one that raised just shy of $634,000, has been quietly shut down, and the money, according to the platform that hosted it, went not only to legal defense but also to "family relocation."
The fundraiser appeared on GiveSendGo on April 15, 2025, less than two weeks after Anthony killed Metcalf. It initially set a goal of nearly $1.4 million. As Fox News Digital reported, the campaign, organized by Anthony's mother, Kala Hayes, appears to have been taken down following his conviction and sentencing.
The question that should trouble every person who donated a dollar: Where exactly did the money go?
GiveSendGo, the international crowdfunding platform, addressed the matter in a post on X. The company said the fundraiser "was created to support pre-trial needs" and that funds had been "dispersed over the past year for lawful purposes, including legal defense and family relocation." With "that stated purpose now complete," GiveSendGo wrote, "the fundraiser has been closed."
"Our policy is that a fundraiser stated purpose stays accurate so givers always know what they are supporting."
That statement raises more questions than it answers. Legal defense is a straightforward purpose for a fundraiser tied to a criminal case. Family relocation is something else entirely. Donors who gave money believing they were helping fund a legal fight may not have expected their contributions to pay for the Anthony family to move out of its Frisco, Texas, home.
It was not immediately clear where the family relocated. A man identifying himself as Anthony's father, Drew Anthony, has publicly posted on his Facebook profile that he lives in New Orleans. Fox News Digital reached out to the Anthony family, their spokesperson, and GiveSendGo for comment.
Anthony has since filed a notice of appeal to challenge his conviction. In that filing, he described himself, according to WFAA, as a "penniless, destitute, and indigent person, too poor to employ counsel to represent me on the appeal."
Let that sink in. A fundraiser raised more than $630,000 on his behalf. GiveSendGo confirmed the money was dispersed. And now the convicted killer says he cannot afford a lawyer.
Either the fundraiser money ran out remarkably fast, or it was spent on things other than legal representation. GiveSendGo's own statement, acknowledging that funds went to "family relocation" alongside legal defense, suggests the latter is at least partly true. The platform's assurance that its policy keeps fundraiser purposes "accurate" does little to clarify how much went to lawyers and how much went to moving trucks and living expenses.
Austin Metcalf was 17 years old. He was killed at a high school track meet, the kind of ordinary, wholesome event that parents send their children to without a second thought. His family has had to live with the consequences of Anthony's actions while watching hundreds of thousands of dollars pour into a fundraiser for the killer's relatives.
Anthony's family, meanwhile, retained Dallas-based civil rights activist Dominique Alexander as a spokesperson throughout the case. Alexander has since started a new fundraising campaign, though details about its goal, amount raised, and stated purpose remain unclear.
The pattern is worth noting. One fundraiser closes. Another opens. The convicted killer claims poverty. The money trail stays opaque.
Crowdfunding platforms occupy an unusual space in American life. They allow ordinary people to rally financial support for causes they believe in, medical bills, disaster relief, legal defense. But they also create an accountability vacuum. Donors give in good faith. Organizers control the funds. Platforms set broad policies. And nobody is required to produce receipts.
GiveSendGo's statement that funds were used for "lawful purposes" is not the same as a detailed accounting. Donors who contributed to what they understood as a legal defense fund deserve to know how much actually went to attorneys, how much went to relocating the family, and how much went to general "living expenses." The platform's decision to close the campaign after the conviction, rather than before, suggests the timing was driven by optics, not policy.
The fundraiser fell short of its $1.4 million goal but still pulled in an enormous sum. Nearly $634,000 is more than many American families earn in a decade. That it was raised on behalf of a man who stabbed a teenager to death, and then dispersed partly to help his family move, is a fact that speaks for itself.
Anthony will serve his 35-year sentence while his appeal proceeds. His claim of indigence in the appeal filing stands in stark contrast to the fundraising haul his family collected. Courts will decide whether he qualifies for appointed counsel. But the public is entitled to ask how a defendant whose supporters raised more than half a million dollars can credibly claim to be "penniless" and "destitute."
Project 21's Horace Cooper has weighed in on the broader case, which has drawn attention in part because of a debate over race in jury selection during Anthony's trial. That debate may fuel the appeal. But it does not change the underlying facts: a 17-year-old is dead, a jury convicted his killer, and the money raised in the killer's name went to purposes that donors may not have fully understood.
When the fundraiser dollars go to moving expenses and the convicted man claims he can't afford a lawyer, someone got the short end. It wasn't the Anthony family.
