George Zimmerman, Trayvon Martin's killer, has collected more than $204,000 in supporter contributions online, his attorney Mark O'Mara told CNN's Anderson Cooper Thursday.
Zimmerman went into hiding on Monday after paying 10% of his bail. TheRealGeorgeZimmerman.com was created by the defendent in mid-April. The website, linked to two personal PayPal accounts, was shut down Friday.
[More from Mashable: Trayvon Martin’s Killer Pleads for Support Online]
Here's what Zimmerman had to say on the site:
I have created a Paypal account solely linked on this website as I would like to provide an avenue to thank my supporters personally and ensure that any funds provided are used only for living expenses and legal defense, in lieu of my forced inability to maintain employment.
[More from Mashable: Trayvon Martin Petition Is Fastest-Growing in Change.org History]
Zimmerman appealed to supporters, asking them to contribute to his mounting legal debt. Zimmerman was arrested weeks after he shot and killed Florida teen Trayvon Martin, 17, while on duty as a volunteer neighborhood watch captain on Feb. 26.
He was formally arrested and charged with second-degree murder on April 11.
O'Mara said he was only aware of two accounts maintained by Zimmerman's friends containing about $2,700. He found out about the PayPal accounts on Wednesday night.
"In talking to George [Zimmerman], after I was trying to shut down his full Internet presence because of some impersonators and other problems with Twitter and Facebook, he asked me what to do with his PayPal accounts," O'Mara said Thursday during the CNN T.V. interview.
"I asked him what he was talking about, and he said those are the accounts that had the money from the website he had, and there was about $200,000 to $204,000."
Zimmerman was released Monday after paying a portion of his $150,000 cash bond. Judge Kenneth R. Lester, Jr. determined the amount on April 20, after hearing testimony from attorneys representing the Zimmerman family and the Martin family.
O'Mara asked the judge during the bond hearing to put a "reasonable" bond in place. O'Mara suggested $15,000 because of the Zimmerman family's insufficient funds, according to footage from the hearing.
The Martin family lawyers responded to the news by saying the court should "revoke the bond" and Zimmerman should be "held accountable for misleading the court."
"His silence was an indication of untruth," Martin Family attorney Benjamin Crump told CNN. "When he heard the testimony that he had no money, that he had no money raised in this website, he knew whether he communicated that to his attorney, whether his attorney solicited that information from him or not. He knew where the crux of the matter was at that bond hearing."
The Martin's family attorneys have requested Judge Lester reconsider his bail after hearing the news. On Friday, the judge postponed making a decision about changing the bond, to hear more information.
O'Mara said supporter donations will still be accepted in the future under his supervision.
"Now that I am aware of it we are certainly going to deal with it in a much more transparent way," O'Mara said. "We certainly tend to open a defense fund under my purview done the right way. I've had dozens, hundreds actually of people wanting to donate."
This story originally published on Mashable here.
