Former FBI Most Wanted Fugitive Admits Child Sex Trafficking

ST. LOUIS - A man who was once on the FBI's Most Wanted list pleaded guilty Thursday and admitted providing sexual access to a child in exchange for cash and other items of value.

Donald Eugene Fields II, 61, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in St. Louis to one count of child sex trafficking. He admitted accepting items of value from a friend and co-defendant, Theodore "Ted" John Sartori Sr., in exchange for access to the victim beginning when she was 14 years old. From the winter of 2013 through the summer of 2016, Sartori engaged in illegal sexual activity with the minor and provided Fields cash, a car, a motorcycle, Christmas presents and vacations. In the summer of 2016, Sartori financed a vacation to Florida and drove the victim there with the intention of engaging in sexual activity with her. Fields instructed the minor to engage in sexual activity with Satori.

Fields is scheduled to be sentenced on July 15. The crime carries a mandatory minimum prison sentence of 10 years, with a maximum term of life.

Sartori, now 65, is serving a 10-year prison term. He pleaded guilty in August of 2024 to one count of travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct.

The case was investigated jointly by the Franklin County Sheriff's Office and the FBI, with assistance from the Missouri State Highway Patrol and the Missouri State Technical Assistance Team. Assistant U.S. Attorney Dianna Edwards is prosecuting the case.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys' Offices and the Department of Justice Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit https://www.justice.gov/psc.