Fugitive Sex Offender Found in Fayetteville Sentenced for Failing to Register

NEW BERN, N.C. – A California man who was on the run for more than twenty months before being apprehended in Fayetteville was sentenced today to 31 months in prison for Failure to Register as a Sex Offender.

According to court documents, Stephen Robert Bond, 56, was charged with one count of Failure to Register as a Sex Offender, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2250.  Bond pled guilty on November 9, 2020. 

In 1993, Bond was convicted of Forcible Rape in California and his sentence included a requirement to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.  Bond failed to comply with his registration requirement at least twice previously, resulting in California felony convictions for Failure to Register as a Sex Offender in 1999 and 2013.  In open court the government explained that Bond was paroled in June 2018 and placed on location monitoring but cut off his location monitoring equipment and went on the run just two months after being paroled.  Bond spent approximately a year in Arizona before arriving in Fayetteville, NC in the Fall of 2019.  Bond did not, as required, register as a sex offender in North Carolina but in January 2020, he applied for and began receiving food stamps.  The U.S. Marshals Service (“USMS”) received the case on May 11, 2020 and a week later, on May 18, 2020, the USMS’ Carolinas Regional Fugitive Task Force (CRFTF) and the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office Sex Offenders Unit apprehended Bond at his residence in Fayetteville.

G. Norman Acker, III, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina made the announcement after sentencing by U.S. District Judge Louise W. Flanagan. The U.S. Marshals Service, Eastern District of North Carolina, Carolinas Regional Fugitive Task Force, and Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office investigated the case and Assistant U.S. Attorney Bryan Stephany prosecuted the case.

Related court documents and information can be found on the website of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina or on PACER by searching for Case No. 5:20-CR-00360-FL.