Days after a Collin County jury sentenced him to 35 years in prison for the stabbing death of Austin Metcalf, 19-year-old Karmelo Anthony filed paperwork asking taxpayers to pay for his appeal attorney. He described himself as a "penniless, destitute, and indigent person, too poor to employ counsel to represent me on the appeal."
That claim might land differently if not for the public records reviewed by Fox News Digital showing that Anthony's parents activated a Texas business entity less than a month after the fatal stabbing, and that a crowdfunding campaign on his behalf had already pulled in more than $633,000.
The gap between Anthony's sworn plea of poverty and the financial activity swirling around his family raises a question courts will eventually have to answer: Is a convicted killer who benefited from a six-figure fundraising haul truly indigent, or is someone gaming the system?
The underlying facts are grim and well established. On April 2, 2025, Austin Metcalf was fatally stabbed during a high school track meet in Frisco, Texas. A Collin County jury convicted Karmelo Anthony of murder and handed down a 35-year sentence earlier this month.
Within days of sentencing, Anthony was transferred to the custody of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and transported to the Pack Unit near Navasota, Texas.
But the financial machinery around the case had started spinning almost immediately after the stabbing. On April 15, 2025, just 13 days after Metcalf's death, a GiveSendGo campaign launched on Anthony's behalf. Organizers said donations would support Anthony and his family as they navigated the legal battle. By the time the page was removed from public view following the conviction, it had raised $633,908.
GiveSendGo later said the funds were distributed for lawful purposes, including legal defense and family relocation expenses.
Fox News Digital's review of public records turned up something else. On April 26, 2025, exactly 24 days after the fatal stabbing, a company called Angelic Obsessions LLC became active in Texas. The filing listed Andrew Anthony III, Karmelo Anthony's father, as the registered agent. The company's registered office was listed at an Arlington address.
Angelic Obsessions LLC was not a new creation. Louisiana records show the entity was originally formed in July 2021. It later became inactive after the Louisiana Secretary of State revoked it in November 2024. Five months later, with his son sitting in a Collin County jail cell, Andrew Anthony III reactivated the company, this time in Texas.
Anthony's parents publicly rejected the guilty verdict and vowed to fight the sentence. But neither Andrew Anthony III nor Kala Hayes, Karmelo's mother, has explained the timing of the Texas business filing. Andrew Anthony III declined to comment when contacted by Fox News Digital.
Angelic Obsessions is not the only business entity connected to the family. A separate Louisiana company, Exclusive Luxury Services LLC, was formed in 2016 and has a checkered administrative history. Louisiana records show it was revoked in 2019, reinstated in 2020, then revoked a second time in November 2023. It has remained inactive since.
The sequence matters. A teenager stabs another teenager to death at a track meet. Within two weeks, a crowdfunding campaign goes live and eventually raises more than $633,000. Within 24 days, the defendant's father reactivates a previously revoked business entity in a new state. The defendant's mother speaks at a press conference on April 17, flanked by the Next Generation Action Network.
Then the conviction comes. And days later, that same defendant tells a court he is penniless.
Fox News Digital sought comment from Anthony's defense team regarding the fundraiser, Anthony's request for court-appointed counsel, and whether any funds remain available to finance his appeal. No response was reported.
The open questions here are obvious. Did any of the $633,908 in GiveSendGo donations flow to Angelic Obsessions LLC or Exclusive Luxury Services LLC? What revenue, assets, or financial activity did either entity have during the criminal case? And if more than half a million dollars was raised on behalf of Anthony and his family, how can he credibly claim indigence when the appeal bill comes due?
None of these questions have been answered. The judge who oversaw the case defended the jury's 35-year sentence. The legal system did its job at trial. Whether it will do its job on the financial side remains to be seen.
Court-appointed counsel exists for a reason. The Sixth Amendment guarantees the right to an attorney, and no serious person disputes that even convicted murderers deserve legal representation on appeal. But that right was designed for people who genuinely cannot afford a lawyer, not for defendants whose families have access to six-figure fundraising campaigns and active business entities.
If Anthony's claim of indigence is accepted at face value, taxpayers in Collin County will foot the bill for his appellate attorney. That means the same community that lost Austin Metcalf, a teenager whose life ended on a track field, will also pay to help his killer try to overturn the conviction.
Kala Hayes spoke at a press conference on April 17, 2025, after her son was charged. The case drew political commentary from elected officials who appeared to sympathize with the defendant. The fundraiser pulled in donations from across the country. The family activated a business in a new state within weeks of the killing.
And yet the court is being asked to believe this defendant has nothing.
Courts reviewing indigence claims have the authority, and the obligation, to look beyond a defendant's self-serving paperwork. When public records show a family activating business entities and collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations during the pendency of a murder case, a one-page claim of poverty should not be the last word.
Anthony described himself in his filing as a "penniless, destitute, and indigent person, too poor to employ counsel to represent me on the appeal." That language is boilerplate. The financial activity surrounding his case is anything but.
Anthony has begun serving his 35-year sentence. The jury weighed the evidence and delivered a verdict. The system worked, up to a point.
But if a convicted killer's family can raise $633,908, reactivate a business entity in a new state, and then ask the public to pick up the legal tab, the system has a hole that needs closing. Accountability doesn't stop at the courtroom door.
