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Johnny Bobbitt heads to New Jersey to face trial in GoFundMe scam

Bobbitt waived his extradition hearing, but he can't be sent back to Jersey until he deals with three probation violations in Philly on Dec. 3.

This November 2018 photo provided by the Burlington County Prosecutors office shows Johnny Bobbitt. A feel-good tale of Bobbitt, a homeless man using his last $20 to help Katelyn McClure, a stranded New Jersey woman, buy gas, was actually a complete lie, a prosecutor said Thursday, Nov. 15, 2018. A GoFundMe that was set up by McClure and her boyfriend Mark D'Amico raised more than $400,000 to help Bobbitt.
This November 2018 photo provided by the Burlington County Prosecutors office shows Johnny Bobbitt. A feel-good tale of Bobbitt, a homeless man using his last $20 to help Katelyn McClure, a stranded New Jersey woman, buy gas, was actually a complete lie, a prosecutor said Thursday, Nov. 15, 2018. A GoFundMe that was set up by McClure and her boyfriend Mark D'Amico raised more than $400,000 to help Bobbitt.Read moreBurlington County Prosecutors Office
    by Tommy Rowan
    Updated 
    Published 

Johnny Bobbitt Jr., the homeless man at the center of a viral GoFundMe scam, waived his right to an extradition hearing on Thursday, a move that clears the way for him to be sent to New Jersey to face fraud charges from his role in the get-rich-quick scheme gone wrong.

Bobbitt, 35, appeared before Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge Shanese I. Johnson bearded and bald, wearing baggy gray sweatpants and a drab prison-issued shirt, but no shackles.

While he waived his extradition hearing, he won't be sent to Burlington County until after a hearing in Philadelphia on Monday for violating his probation on three misdemeanor drug charges. If not for that case, he would have been sent to New Jersey on Thursday.

Bobbitt has been held at the Detention Center on State Road since his Nov. 14 arrest on charges of fraud, theft by deception, and conspiracy for his alleged role in duping more than 14,000 donors who contributed over $400,000 to a GoFundMe campaign that was touted as a way to help him, but that prosecutors say was based on a lie.

The other two defendants, Katelyn McClure and Mark D'Amico, are free on bail. Their next court appearance is Dec. 24 in Superior Court in Burlington County.

McClure, D'Amico, and Bobbitt, are accused of creating a false narrative of Bobbitt as a Good Samaritan who used his last $20 to help McClure after she ran out of gas on I-95 in Philadelphia.

All donations to the GoFundMe campaign, created in November 2017, have been refunded, a GoFundMe spokesman said.