A woman was sentenced to time served for helping a man flee custody in central Kentucky after he was temporarily released to determine whether he could donate a kidney to his son.



U.S. District Judge Thomas Russell sentenced 36-year-old Lea Ann Howard on Monday in Louisville. Russell gave Howard credit for the year and four months she spent in jail while the case proceeded through the courts. She was also placed on three years supervised release.

Prosecutors say Howard admitted that she assisted Byron Perkins' escape Jan. 24, 2006, and fled with him to Mexico, where they were apprehended 15 months later. Perkins had been temporarily released from the Oldham County jail for testing.

Perkins' son, Destin, later got a kidney from a stranger in California.

Howard is formerly of Harrodsburg in Mercer County.

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