Karmelo used a public defender.
The parents just stole the defense fund, in my opinion.
That is not completely accurate. He used one during the initial arrest and incarceration.
They used a private lawyer, but it doesn’t seem like they spent $100K, much less $600K.
They did pretty well with the jury sentencing, and maybe about the same as if he had pled guilty.
The facts were really weak, but that lawyer didn’t get good publicity. Who would hire him after seeing that? But it wasn’t mainly his fault.
Ridiculous to go to trial claiming self defense, when the defendant didn’t testify and the defense witnesses didn’t say it was self defense.