Lester Eubanks

Lester Eubanks (born October 31, 1943) is an American criminal and fugitive who murdered 14-year-old Mary Ellen Deener on November 14, 1965, in Mansfield, Ohio. He was sentenced to death, commuted in 1972 to life in prison. He escaped from Ohio State Penitentiary in 1973 and has been at large ever since. After not returning from a furlough, he moved to California, where he was known as Victor Young. He is on the United States Marshals Service's 15 Most Wanted Fugitives list.

Personal life Eubanks was born on October 31, 1943. He lived in Mansfield, Ohio. By 1965, Eubanks was a "serial sexual offender". He had been arrested twice before for sex crimes. In November 1965, Eubanks was out on bond for a rape charge. Eubanks is 5'11", weighs 175 pounds, and has black hair and brown eyes.

Murder of Mary Ellen Deener On November 14, 1965, Mary Ellen Deener, a 14-year-old girl who was a resident of Mansfield, left home to do laundry at a local laundromat near her grandmother’s home. She left the laundromat to get change from another nearby laundromat. She resisted, and Eubanks shot her twice in the stomach.

Imprisonment The case went to trial in 1966. Eubanks testified to his involvement in the crime. In 1972, his sentence was commuted to life in prison as a result of Furman v. Georgia.

Eubanks twice came within days of execution. On April 17, 1968, Governor Jim Rhodes granted a stay of execution to Eubanks, who was scheduled to on April 19, upon the recommendation of the Ohio Parole Board. The board wanted psychiatric tests done on Eubanks to determine whether or not he was sane. That November, Eubanks was granted a new hearing to determine whether his rights had been violated. In January 1970, he was granted an indefinite reprieve by the Supreme Court of Ohio.

Eubanks was given letters of recommendation by prison guards to join an "honor inmate" program that took inmates outside of the prison. He was dropped off at the mall at 10 a.m., and upon entering the mall, the inmates split up.

In the early 1990s, it was discovered that the federal warrant for Eubanks had been removed from the federal warrant database, which explained how he could live for two decades without getting caught. The Marshals Service is offering a reward of up to $50,000 for information that leads to his capture. After Eubanks was featured on the series, the U.S. Marshals said they believed he was still living in the Los Angeles area, having received photographs of him with friends there.