Marshals Capture Kidney Transplant Fugitive in Mexico

Byron Perkins was in jail last January awaiting sentencing after being convicted on drug, weapons, and other charges, when he saw his opportunity to make a getaway. His teenage son, Destin, was in the hospital on dialysis, looking for a kidney donor, and Perkins offered to undergo testing to see if he was a good match to donate a kidney to his son.

A federal judge released Perkins from jail in January 2006 so he could go through testing procedures. After the first round of tests, doctors said that Perkins appeared to be a perfect match for his son, and the transplant would likely be a success. But on the final day of hospital tests, Perkins was nowhere to be found. He was not wearing an ankle bracelet when he disappeared, because doctors had told the court that it would have interfered with the medical tests they were performing.

In a letter he left behind, Perkins promised that he would "come through" for his son, but he left no forwarding address. U.S. Marshals put him on their "Most Wanted list," and the search began.

Wednesday, over a year later, Perkins and his girlfriend, Lee Ann Howard, were captured in Puerto Vallarta after being recognized while walking in the downtown area. Deputy U.S. Marshal Joe Chabarria, who brought Perkins and Howard back to Los Angeles, told reporters that the two had been "making their way back up" when they were spotted in Puerto Vallarta. "They knew they were being sought after," Chabarria said, adding that they "looked like they were tired. They were ready to come back."

Destin Perkins, now 17, spoke with CNN’s Anderson Cooper after hearing that his father had been captured and was being brought back to the U.S. "I don’t know how he could lay his head down at night, just knowing that he ran away and left me up here to die like that," Destin said. "That’s just one of my main questions, is why he did it and how he could do it." Destin is doing fine now after receiving a kidney last August from an anonymous cadaver donor in California.

Dustin told Cooper that when his father left, he became angry and depressed. "It really wasn’t health on me at the time," he said. "I was 16 years old, and I had to worry about this." The teen said that his father’s abandonment had hurt his entire family, and that his grandfather—Byron Perkins’ father—died of cancer while his son was on the lam.

When asked whether his father should be in jail, Destin replied, "That’s where both of them deserve to be. As far as I’m concerned, the rest of their life, they both deserve to be behind bars."