Convicted killer Karmelo Anthony claims he is 'penniless' in appeal despite major donor-funded legal campaign

Karmelo Anthony, the Texas teen convicted of stabbing a prima jock to decease astatine a precocious schoolhouse way meet, is asking the tribunal to name a escaped nationalist defender for his appeal, contempt his household raising much than a fractional cardinal dollars successful funds for his ineligible fees. 

Anthony was recovered blameworthy and sentenced to 35 years successful situation by a Collin County assemblage Tuesday for the 2025 execution of Austin Metcalf. 

In the days pursuing his conviction, Anthony filed a announcement of entreaty of the blameworthy verdict and requested a court-appointed nationalist defender, claiming that helium is simply a "penniless, destitute and indigent person" that is "too mediocre to employment counsel," according to tribunal documents obtained by Fox News Digital. 

The petition from Anthony comes aft a GiveSendGo fundraiser created to assistance wage for his ineligible fees and different expenses raised astir $634,000 – astir fractional of its $1.4 cardinal goal.

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Karmelo Anthony is pictured aft being transferred to the custody of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and transported to the Pack Unit adjacent Navasota, Texas. (Texas Department of Criminal Justice)

However, the online run was taken down pursuing his condemnation earlier this week. 

Read the announcement of appeal here:

The now-deleted fundraiser elaborate however the funds would beryllium used, and included that the wealth would spell toward household expenses incurred by the case.

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The online fundraiser for Karmelo Anthony and his family, organized by his mother,r Kala Hayes, has been scrubbed from the GiveSendGo website. (GiveSendGo)

"While ineligible defence is simply a captious portion of this journey, we privation to marque it wide that this money is not solely dedicated to ineligible expenses. The funds raised volition besides enactment a scope of urgent and indispensable means that person emerged arsenic a effect of the situation, including – but not constricted to – the harmless relocation of the Anthony household owed to escalating threats to their information and well-being, arsenic good arsenic basal surviving costs, transportation, counseling, and different information measures."

CONVICTED KILLER KARMELO ANTHONY'S FAMILY USED FUNDRAISER MONEY FOR MOVING AND LIVING EXPENSES

Details regarding the reported relocation of Anthony’s household were not instantly available.

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The fundraiser for convicted execution Karmelo Anthony and his household has been taken down from the GiveSendGo crowdfunding website. (GiveSendGo)

According to GiveSendGo’s website, fundraisers created to assistance successful ineligible defence costs for convulsive charges "must intelligibly authorities that each funds raised are intended solely for ineligible defence costs." 

"Fundraisers successful this class cannot beryllium utilized to rise funds for idiosyncratic support, surviving expenses, oregon different purposes alongside ineligible defense," the website stated.

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Additionally, funds indispensable beryllium sent straight to a licensed lawyer progressive successful the defense, and cannot beryllium distributed to the suspect oregon organizer. 

Austin Metcalf, a inferior astatine Memorial High School successful Frisco, was stabbed successful the thorax astatine a way meet, by Karmelo Anthony, a student-athlete from Frisco Centennial High School. (Jeff Metcalf/Unknown)

The fundraiser was initially posted little than 2 weeks aft Anthony fatally stabbed Metcalf successful April 2025.

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In a connection posted to X, GiveSendGo said "The fundraiser was created to enactment pre-trial needs, and those funds were dispersed implicit the past twelvemonth for lawful purposes, including ineligible defence and household relocation with that stated intent present implicit the fundraiser has been closed. Our argumentation is that a fundraiser's stated intent stays close truthful givers ever cognize what they are supporting."

Fox News Digital reached retired to Anthony’s lawyer and GiveSendGo for comment. 

Fox News Digital's Kelsie Cairns contributed to this report.