Rick Neale

Florida Today

Frank Freshwaters spent 56 years on the run from the law before the U.S. Marshals Service tracked him down and arrested him last May at his Jones Road trailer, on Melbourne's marshy western outskirts.

Thursday, the "Shawshank Fugitive" — who turns 80 in April — may win his freedom during a parole hearing in Columbus, Ohio.

Freshwaters remains behind bars in the Buckeye State, the site of his original crime. His Thursday hearing before the full Ohio Adult Parole Authority board starts at 1 p.m., said JoEllen Smith, a spokeswoman with the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.

Back in 1957, when he was 21, Freshwaters was speeding on an Akron street when he struck and killed 24-year-old Eugene Flynt, a married father of three. Freshwaters pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter in 1958, and he was sentenced to five years of probation in lieu of one to 20 years in prison. But he violated probation and got shipped off to the Ohio State Reformatory — which later provided the setting for the classic film The Shawshank Redemption.

The Shawshank Fugitive: The crime and escape

He subsequently escaped from a Sandusky prison honor farm, then spent more than a half-century in West Virginia and Florida using the assumed alias William Cox.

Per Adult Parole Authority policy, the hearing could include testimony from prosecutors, law enforcement officers, the sentencing judge or the judge’s successor, Flynt's relatives, and Freshwaters' relatives, friends, employers, clergy and attorneys. It remains unclear whether Freshwaters will attend.

“The Summit County Prosecutor’s Office opposes parole for inmate Frank Freshwaters. Inmate Freshwaters struck and killed Eugene Flynt with his vehicle in 1957. He has spent nearly 60 years avoiding taking responsibility for what happened," Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh said Wednesday afternoon.

"Freshwaters failed to comply with his probation, and did not pay a dime of the $1,500 he was ordered to pay in restitution to Flynt’s family. Freshwaters was eventually sentenced to serve between one and 20 years in prison, yet spent only seven months behind bars before escaping in 1959. Since then, Freshwaters has lived free, had a family, and even collected Social Security under an assumed name," Walsh said.

"He is clearly still avoiding his responsibility," she said.

According to limited records still available, Freshwaters struck Flynt with a 1953 Mercury while he was driving 50 mph in a 35 mph zone, Summit County Prosecutor's Office records show.

After the crash, Freshwaters told Akron police that “there was a man in front of me and then I don’t know what happened,” according to a police report.

Fugitive nabbed after 56 years on the run

Flynt was pronounced dead less than an hour later, and he died from shock from a fractured skull and compound fractures of both legs, a coroner's report shows.

Flynt's son Richard was 3 when his father was killed. He plans to testify Thursday against Freshwaters.

"In essence, he caused my life nothing but trouble," Flynt said this morning during a phone interview from his home in North Canton, Ohio. "I don't think they can just pat him on the back and send him home."

As of Sept. 11, the Summit County Prosecutor's Office calculated that Freshwaters owed Eugene Flynt's widow $12,660.88 in unpaid restitution, factoring for inflation.

Follow Neale on Twitter: @RickNeale1