Ky. kidney donor who fled can't withdraw plea

Posted on Fri, Jan. 16, 2009
Ky. kidney donor who fled can't withdraw plea
By BRETT BARROUQUERE
Associated Press Writer

A federal inmate who got of jail by offering to donate a kidney for his son but fled to Mexico instead lost a bid to withdraw his guilty plea to drug and firearms charges.

U.S. District Judge Thomas B. Russell ruled on Friday that 39-year-old Byron Keith Perkins' protestations that prosecutors told him he could not donate a kidney to his son unless he pleaded guilty are not credible.

"He did not even make it to the second round of testing to see if he was a compatible donor before he disappeared to Puerto Vallarta," Russell wrote.

Perkins pleaded guilty to drug and firearms charges in federal court in Louisville in November 2005. He was awaiting sentencing when he petitioned a judge in January 2006 to free him so he could be tested as a potential donor for his teenage son, Destin, who was undergoing dialysis treatment.

But Perkins instead fled to Mexico with his girlfriend, making headlines and winding up on the U.S. Marshals' list of the 15 most-wanted fugitives. Federal authorities caught up with the pair in April 2007 in Puerto Vallarta after they were recognized.

Destin eventually received a kidney from another family member.

Along with dismissing the coercion allegations, Russell also noted that Perkins has a long history with the criminal justice system and should have known what he was doing at the time of the guilty plea, which came with a recommended sentence of 37 years in prison.

Perkins pleaded guilty to bank robbery in 1998 and was sentenced to more than six years in prison.

"It is evident from the record that the defendant was aware of the consequences of pleading guilty in the federal court system," Russell said.

Perkins' girlfriend, 36-year-old Lea Ann Howard, pleaded guilty to aiding Perkins and was sentenced in October to time served for the year and four months she spend in custody while the case proceeded through the courts. She was also placed on three years supervised release.

Prosecutors say Howard admitted that she assisted Perkins' escape Jan. 24, 2006.

http://www.kentucky.com/471/story/660636.html