The founder of fundraising platform GiveSendGo has compared the case of Karmelo Anthony – a 17-year-old accused of stabbing and killing teenager Austin Metcalf at a track meet – to those of Kyle Rittenhouse and Daniel Penny.
Jacob Wells said that last month’s incident was similar to the other two high-profile and controversial cases, which had been kicked off other platforms such as GoFundMe, but that Anthony should be afforded the “same presumption of innocence” as anyone else.
The incident, in which Metcalf was fatally stabbed, happened on April 2 at Memorial High School in Frisco, about 30 miles north of Dallas. Prior to the altercation, Metcalf had reportedly asked Anthony to leave the event as he did not attend that high school.
According to its website, GiveSendGo is a Christian crowdfunding platform. The platform has attracted controversy for allowing far-right extremists to fundraise, including neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and other hate groups.
Speaking on conservative pundit Jason Whitlock’s podcast, Wells said that both Anthony and Rittenhouse should be tried in a court of law rather than the court of public opinion.
“We saw massive amounts of hate from the left at that moment, massive amounts of information, misinformation, being posted throughout the media about the situation,” Wells said, of the Anthony case.
“And we said, ‘Well, you know what, there’s actually a principle here that people ought to be presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, not public opinion.”
“It’s a biblical position… So we allowed that campaign. And then that kind of opened up the door where people said, ‘Well, here’s a platform that’s just not canceling people whenever, like GoFundMe has been and still does,’” he added.
As well as fundraising for Rittenhouse, who gained national attention at age 17 for killing two men in Kenosha in August 2020 during a protest over the police shooting of Black man Jacob Blake, GiveSendGo has also raised money for Daniel Penny, a Marine veteran who was accused of criminally negligent homicide after he restrained homelssman Jordan Neely on the New York City subway in 2023.
Referring to both Rittenhouse and Penny, Wells said: “We’ve had many, many, legal defense funds for people that were accused of violent crimes, accused of murdering people by the prosecution.”
“And so we said, ‘You know what, this principle of presumption of innocence and not ruled by mobs really ought to be preserved in difficult circumstances,’ and that led us to where we are now.”
Wells also noted that Anthony’s family did not even start the campaign, which was similar to the campaign for Rittenhouse. The person was “unrelated, uninterested in that respect” and had created the campaign “wanting to do something good for the family, knowing that as a family in a very difficult trying time they would probably need some support.”
He also hit out at the “fake news” surrounding Anthony’s case that was spread after the family took over the fundraising page, as well as acknowledging the “racial tension.” Metcalf was white, while Anthony is Black.
“A lot of fake news came out, as it does around all of these high-profile events, about the spending of funds, the use of funds being used for things like buying a Cadillac — fake news, not true — buying a house — fake news, not true — lots of fake news and a lot of racial tension narrative around it,” he said.
“I get the fact that it was a Black boy and a white boy. So I get that there's, on its face, a race difference there. Our position at GiveSendGo was, you know: Pull race out of it.
“The right, as being principled people, ought to be saying, and this is what I didn’t see, is that ‘This is a horrible situation… The facts don’t look good for Karmelo Anthony, according to what we’ve seen so far.
“But he ought to be given the same affording that was afforded to Daniel Penny and Kyle Rittenhouse which [is]... that same presumption of innocence until proven guilty in a court of law, not public opinion.”
Last week, the organization representing Anthony’s family said the teenager had to be moved from his home due to threats.
According to a press statement, the family and its representatives are "gravely concerned" for Anthony's well-being and have moved him to an undisclosed location to "ensure his immediate safety. "
Anthony was previously released on house arrest after his bond was reduced.
