After a 13-year stint on the lam, one of Oklahoma's most wanted fugitives, Anthony Lennon, faces his reckoning. According to an official announcement from Oklahoma's Attorney General's Office, Lennon, who fled child pornography charges, was captured in upstate New York. An extensive manhunt involving the Oklahoma City U.S. Marshals Office and the Moore Police Department culminated on Thursday when Lennon was located living under the alias "Justin Phillips."
In a statement, Attorney General Gentner Drummond expressed his gratitude toward the law enforcement officers responsible for Lennon's capture. "I appreciate the thorough investigative work by the U.S. Marshals Service, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the Moore Police Department and all of the law enforcement agencies involved in locating and apprehending this child predator," Drummond said. His capture halts over a decade of evasion and places him squarely before the justice he is long overdue.
Lennon's criminal history is extensive and disturbing. Since March 2012, he has been on the run, wanted on eight counts of possession of child pornography. The evidence, as reported by the Attorney General's Office, comprised chat logs, a desktop computer, and stacks of compact discs filled with images of young children and infants in sexually explicit situations. Previously, Lennon had been convicted on similar charges in 2008 but managed to slip outside the bars of justice while on a supervised release.
The tenacity of law enforcement in this case reflects the ongoing efforts put forth since the inception of Attorney General Drummond's 10 Most Wanted program in September 2024. Since the program's launch, it has successfully led to the apprehension of 15 fugitives accused of heinous acts, including murder, rape, and drug trafficking. Drummond's resolve in these matters halting neither for time nor obfuscation. Details of the program and its success stories can be found on the Attorney General's 10 Most Wanted page.
