Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) State Crime News
FBI St. Louis Special Agent in Charge Ashley Johnson has announced the arrest of Donald Eugene Fields, II. He was added to the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list in May 2023. He is facing child sex trafficking and child rape charges in federal and state court, respectively.
On the morning of January 25, the Lady Lake Police Department arrested Fields, II, after a routine traffic stop. The license plate was not registered to the vehicle he was driving. It happened at 9:15 a.m. (Eastern Time) at U.S. Highway 27/441 at Rolling Acres Road. Lady Lake is northwest of Orlando, Florida. The FBI praised the work of the department, whose police chief is an FBI National Academy graduate. “Thanks to proactive policing by the Lady Lake Police Department, one of the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted fugitives has been captured,” said Special Agent in Charge Johnson.
Fields, II will be scheduled to make his first appearance in federal court in Florida.
Fields, II, 60, was federally indicted in St. Louis on December 7, 2023 on one count of child sex trafficking. The indictment accuses Fields, II, of knowingly attempting to recruit, entice, provide, patronize, and solicit a minor into engaging in a commercial sex act from about January 2013 until June 2017.
Fields II is also facing charges including statutory rape, statutory sodomy, child molestation, and witness tampering in Franklin County Circuit Court in Missouri. A warrant for his arrest was issued by that court after Fields II vacated his home and failed to show up for a March 3, 2022, hearing, court records show.
Fields II is the fifth fugitive investigated by the FBI St. Louis Field Office to be named as an FBI Top Ten Most Wanted fugitive. More than 60 years ago, Thomas Edward Galloway was placed on the list in June 1964. The FBI arrested Galloway in July 1964 at a golf course in Danville, Virginia, after a citizen recognized him from a newspaper article.
The FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list was established in March of 1950. Fields, II, was the 531st fugitive added to the list. Of the total, 495 fugitives have now been apprehended or located—163 of them as a result of citizen cooperation.