The co-founder of the faith-based fundraising platform GiveSendGo is defending his decision to keep online a donation campaign that has raised more than half a million dollars for 17-year  Karmelo Anthony, who’s charged with murder in the stabbing death of student athlete Austin Metcalf, also 17, at a track meet last month.

The fundraiser at the center of the controversy — the “Help Karmelo Official Fund” — was created shortly after Mr. Anthony was arrested on April 2 in connection with the fatal stabbing of vAustin Metcalf at a track meet in Frisco, Texas. 

Mr. Anthony admits to the stabbing but says he acted in self defense and has pleaded not guilty. The racially charged case, which involves the fatal stabbing of a white teenager by a black teenager, has made national headlines and pitted the families of the accused and the victim against one another. 

The outpour of support for Mr. Anthony on GiveSendGo — as seen in the nearly $523,000 he has received so far in donations — has been a major source of debate. (A GoFundMe for Metcalf’s family has raised almost $550,000.)

GiveSendGo, a Christian crowdfunding platform, boasts the message of sharing “hope of Jesus through crowdfunding.” It is willing to host fundraisers for people charged with crimes — something that’s against GoFundMe’s policies — and has garnered controversy in recent years for hosting campaigns that raised huge sums for white men accused in racially fraught crimes. 

These men include Kyle Rittenhouse, who raised about $2 million and was acquitted in the death of two Black Lives Matters rioters; and Daniel Penny, who raised about $3 million and was acquitted in the chokehold death of a mentally ill homeless man on the New York City subway.  The campaign for Mr. Anthony, a black defendant who has significant support from the back community, is an outlier.

Some have called on GiveSendGo — which is the only platform currently offering a fundraiser for the family — to drop the campaign. However, Jacob Wells, one of the company’s co-founders, is standing by his decision, comparing Mr. Anthony’s fundraiser to those of similarly controversial figures, Mr. Rittenhouse and Mr. Penny.

While speaking with Jason Whitlock on “Jason Whitlock Harmonym,” Mr. Wells argued that Mr. Anthony deserves the same principle of “presumption of innocence” as was awarded to Mr. Rittenhouse and Mr. Penny. 

During the interview, Mr. Wells reflected on the backlash that he and GiveSendGo over the campaign for Mr. Rittenhouse and recounted how the situation prompted him to realize that “there’s actually a principle here that people ought to be presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, not public opinion,” Mr. Wells said.

Then, after going through the same situation with Mr. Penny, the GiveSendGo head solidified his view that “principle of presumption of innocence” really “ought to be preserved in difficult circumstances.” 

Returning to the Anthony case, Mr. Wells noted that there has been “lots of fake news” and “a lot of racial tension narrative” regarding the family. “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,” he said. “Our position at GiveSendGo was, you know: Pull race out of it.” 

And even though “the facts don’t look good for Karmelo Anthony, according to what we’ve seen so far,” he argued that Mr. Anthony “ought to be given the same affording that was afforded to Daniel Penny and Kyle Rittenhouse.” He added: “Because as you begin to erode the principle for anyone, you begin to erode it for everyone.” 

The fundraiser for Mr. Anthony, Mr. Wells notes, was originally set up by a stranger in the hopes of broadly offering support to Mr. Anthony and his family. The family later took control of the campaign and clarified that the funds would not only be used to cover their son’s legal expenses, but also to finance the family’s “safe relocation” amid “escalating threats to their safety and well-being” as well as cover their “basic living costs, transportation, counseling, and other security measures,” according to a note on the fundraiser. 

The Anthony family has been vocal about the racially-charged threats and harassment that they have received in the wake of their son’s arrest. Last week, Mr. Anthony, who was released on bail to much outrage, successfully appealed to the courts to move to an undisclosed location from his home — where he was required to stay, while wearing an electronic monitoring device, according to his bail agreement — in light of an “alarming increase in death threats, continued harassment, and physical intimidation targeted at the family’s home.” 

Next Generation Action Network, which is assisting the Anthony family, said the family has been targeted by false food deliveries, intimidation, and disturbing mailings, including Metcalf’s  obituary.

However, at least one threatening incident was recently cast into doubt. According to police records obtained by the Daily Mail, Mr. Anthony’s father called 911 last week — while his son was still living at home — over two Jeeps with armed passengers that were seen menacingly cruising past the house through his door bell camera. The cops, who arrived on the scene, eventually concluded that the teens were “high schoolers” who were “driving through the area with water guns looking for their friend in the area to squirt with their water guns.”