In June 2026, a jury convicted Texas teenager Karmelo Anthony of murder after he fatally stabbed 17-year-old Austin Metcalf, a track athlete from a rival team, during a confrontation.
Amid discussion of the case, social media users claimed Anthony had purchased a house and a new car using crowdfunded donations meant to support his legal defense. The claim spread on X and Facebook.
As of 2026, we have left this claim unrated due to a lack of sufficient updated information
We reached out to Anthony's defense attorney for more information on how the donated funds were used and will update this story if we hear back. The GiveSendGo page raised more than $600,000 before it was taken down shortly after Anthony's conviction.
Anthony was 17 when he killed Metcalf, but he was charged as an adult and sentenced to 35 years in prison after a jury rejected Anthony's claims of self-defense, NBC News reported. Some of the online posts claim Anthony had a court-appointed lawyer and therefore did not need donated legal defense funds — but in reality, Anthony's family hired a private lawyer, Mike Howard. As of this writing, it was unclear who will be handling his appeal.
Donations go to legal defense, relocation
In an email to Snopes in June 2026, Heather Wilson, co-founder of GiveSendGo, confirmed in a statement that funds were released to Anthony's family but did not specify whether they were spent on a new house or car:
This campaign was created to support pre-trial needs, and those funds were disbursed over the past year for lawful purposes including legal defense and family relocation. With that stated purpose now complete, the campaign has been closed the funds will be paid out. Our policy is that a campaign's stated purpose stays accurate, so givers always know what they are supporting.
While "family relocation" could mean purchasing a new house, in a filmed 2025 interview with Fox News, Wells said the family was renting. He also said the money would be spent on security (emphasis ours):
They've indicated that some of it will be used to provide them some security, some much-needed security. If what they're getting — which I imagine is 10x what I'm getting, what my family is getting — the threats we've received from people on the right around us allowing this campaign — that security is much needed for their family.
They've mentioned security is a real thing that they will be affording themselves in this situation, and I completely agree that is probably necessary with the threats they've been receiving. And also a secure location for them to live; somebody doxed their information, so that creates for a very bad situation for them. So it's completely understandable for them to go and find decent housing.
But they were renting before, and they're continuing to rent, so, it's like, OK, $3,000 a month for the next year, year and a half. It's a very small percentage of the funds.
Fox News also reported that Wells said the vast bulk of the funds would go to legal defense, although the news outlet did not publish a clip of Wells saying that. In an April 2025 Q&A, GiveSendGo also called claims that that Anthony family bought a house "exactly why it's so important not to believe everything we read online."
As we reported in 2025, the Anthony family explicitly noted in an update on their GiveSendGo page that the money would not be used solely for his legal defense (emphasis ours):
While legal defense is a critical part of this journey, we want to make it clear that this fund is not solely dedicated to legal expenses. The funds raised will also support a range of urgent and necessary needs that have emerged as a result of this situation, including — but not limited to — the safe relocation of the Anthony family due to escalating threats to their safety and well-being, as well as basic living costs, transportation, counseling, and other security measures.
Kala Hayes, Anthony's mother, said in an April 2025 news conference that her family has been the victim of "lies and misinformation" that put her, her husband and her three younger children in danger.
Because
The victim's father, Jeff Metcalf, called Lang "part of the problem" in April 2025 and said he did not condone using his son's death to stoke racial division. He also asked the public not to "turn this into a racial thing" during an April 3 appearance on Fox News (see this video at 1:15). Lawyers on both sides of the case told the jury that Metcalf's death had nothing to do with race, The Associated Press reported.
Allegations made about the family buying a new house and car appeared to originate with an April 16, 2025, Daily Mail story that claimed Anthony's family received a "parade of deliveries" while "holed up in an exclusive gated community in a $900,000 house — despite claiming to have limited financial means."
The story does not explicitly say Anthony used the donation funds to buy the home, but said an unidentified neighbor "questioned why the Anthonys would be asking for public donations while maintaining the lifestyle everyone in that community has." The Daily Mail also claimed Anthony's family is renting the home, which appears to be where the claim that Anthony's family "purchased" the home comes from.
An address listed for Anthony in court records reviewed by Snopes was in a neighborhood mentioned in the Daily Mail's reporting, and real estate listing websites estimated its value as being above $850,000. (Snopes is not publishing the address because of the family's safety concerns.)
It was not possible to verify that a reporter for the Daily Mail, a British tabloid criticized for printing unreliable stories, visited the family's home and was able to legitimately report that Amazon packages, a new car and other supposed lavish purchases had arrived there. The tabloid also did not disclose the names of any of the neighbors it spoke to.
The Daily Mail's reporter on the story, MaryAnn Martinez, did not respond to an emailed request for more information about how she reported this story.
No money withdrawn at the time claim first spread
In an April 17, 2025, news conference hosted by social justice group Next Generation Action Network, Kala Hayes, Anthony's mother, said in an emotional statement that the claims "about the public donation — to buy a home or anything else — are completely false." (A clip of her statement is available on ABC News' website; Hayes talks about the donations at 1:34.)
Indeed, as first reported by TMZ on April 16, 2025, GiveSendGo's co-founder and chief financial officer, Jacob Wells, confirmed that Anthony's family had not withdrawn any money from the donation page at that time. Snopes independently confirmed this via an April 17 email from Wells, which said: "The Anthony family has not yet received any funds from their campaigns."
There are some reports that Anthony's family also had fundraisers on GoFundMe — and it appears at least one GoFundMe for Anthony, which appeared to have been taken down, shows up in a Google search — but as of this writing, a search for Anthony's name on GoFundMe showed no fundraisers for him. However, in a statement sent via email, the company made it clear that Anthony's family would not have been able to withdraw any of these funds before the fundraiser came down.
"GoFundMe's Terms of Service prohibit fundraisers for the legal defense of violent crimes. Consistent with this long-standing policy, any fundraisers for the legal defense of someone charged with a violent crime are removed from the platform and fully refunded," the company said. (GiveSendGo's policy says it does not allow campaigns benefiting "groups that support violence" — which, in practice, is debatable — but Wells told TMZ the organization allows fundraisers for those accused of violent crimes because suspects still deserve due process and presumption of innocence.)