SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. — The lawyer for George Zimmerman says he has just learned about a $200,000 defense fund raised for Zimmerman through a website.
The website, ThRealGeorgeZimmerman.com, was created by Zimmerman's family to raise money for his defense before his arrest in the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. The website has received more than $200,000 before shutting down earlier this week.
Mark O'Mara said on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 Thursday night that he learned about the money on Wednesday and will inform a judge at Friday's hearing.
Friday's hearing was initially scheduled to deal with several media organizations, including The Associated Press, asking the judge to unseal documents from Zimmerman's court file.
Zimmerman, who has been charged with second-degree murder in the Feb. 26 shooting of Trayvon Martin, was released from jail this week after paying 10 percent of $150,000 bail.
At a bond hearing last week, O'Mara said Zimmerman was broke and would have a tough time paying his $150,000 bond.
"Just the logistics of it, $150,000 is a lot of money to come up with. That's a lot of collateral. It's not a family of much means," said O'Mara.
O'Mara said the bail amount may have been higher if the judge knew Zimmerman had raised $200,000.
"Certainly we had acknowledged that he did not have the funds available to him and these were…I am not sure that he thought in some sense they were available to him," said O'Mara.
"Now that I am aware of it, we are certainly going to deal with it in a much more transparent way," said O'Mara.
O'Mara also said Zimmerman will need even more money for his defense, so he is going to set up a legal fund to which people can donate money.
"You can really go through a lot of money on a case like this and the intensity of it," said O'Mara.
He estimates it will cost between $500,000 and $1 million. O'Mara charges about $400 an hour and said so far he has put in more than 100 hours defending Zimmerman.
Meanwhile, Zimmerman's attorney said he may not use the Stand Your Ground law in his defense.
Zimmerman told police he was defending himself when he shot and killed Trayvon Martin in February.
The case has sparked new controversy, over the Stand Your Ground statute, which protects victims of violent attacks.
WFTV spoke to O'Mara at an event where he listened to a panel of experts discuss the law.
"The statue is what the statue is in my purposes if it has application in my case we will deal with it... I don't even know if it has application yet," said O'Mara.
Governor Rick Scott recently created a task force to examine the law to see if any changes need to be made.
An investigation by the news agency Reuters is shedding light on Zimmerman's background, and why he first purchased a gun.
The report says Zimmerman first bought a gun in 2009, after he complained to Seminole County Animal Services about a loose pit bull.
It also said his community asked him to lead a new neighborhood watch in 2011, after several burglaries, and it also called his family background "racially integrated" with black roots.