Prisoner who fled donor tests for son is captured

A US prisoner who fled after being released from custody to determine whether he could donate a kidney to his ailing son was caught with his girlfriend in Mexico.

Byron Keith Perkins and Lea Ann Howard were arrested yesterday in Puerto Vallarta after more than a year on the run, and were being flown to Los Angeles for a court hearing today.

The appearance will be to arrange for their return to Louisville, Kentucky, where they will face federal charges, the US Marshals Service in Louisville said in a statement.

Perkins failed to return to custody in January 2006 after being released to undergo compatibility tests to see whether he could donate a kidney to his son.

Perkins had been in jail awaiting sentencing for marijuana distribution and unlawful transport of firearms.

He faced at least 25 years for those charges, which were filed while he was serving a supervised release from a North Carolina sentence for bank robbery.

He was temporarily released from custody when his son, Destin, needed a kidney transplant.

Destin, who is now 17 and received a kidney from an anonymous donor last summer, told CNN on Anderson Cooper 360 that he is doing fine now and is glad his father has been caught.

However, he says he does not know how his father can live with himself after abandoning him when he needed a kidney to live.