Judge Weighs Home Detention for Randallstown Man Charged in 1994 Killing of Estranged Wife

Linda Lester was found dead 31 years ago. Her estranged husband , Donald Lester, was charged with her murder in 2025.

A Randallstown man accused in the 1994 murder of his estranged wife may be released from jail on home detention soon, a Baltimore County judge decided Friday.

Donald Lester, 69, is accused of murdering Linda Lester, a Baltimore County 911 dispatcher who went missing after leaving work Oct. 11, 1994. She was later found dead along I-70 just south of the Howard County line. Police say Linda Lester, 31, had been beaten, strangled, and her throat was slit. She was found with a bag over her head, according to prosecutors. Lester was arrested Oct. 2, 2025.

“The law requires me to consider some form of pretrial release,” Judge Garrett Glennon said Friday. He said he’s willing to release Lester to strict home detention if the detention center staff finds that Donald Lester is eligible. A decision will likely take several days.

Assistant State’s Attorney Michael Fuller said there was always circumstantial evidence in the case, but only recently have prosecutors had enough evidence to charge Donald Lester. He said DNA evidence found on Linda Lester’s fingernail clippings recently came back as strongly associated with Donald Lester. Fuller also said investigators now have evidence that the last number Linda Lester called as she left her job that day to pick up her child was Donald Lester’s.

Donald Lester was initially denied bail in a previous hearing in district court. His attorney requested a new bail review hearing due to “changes in circumstance.”

Donald Lester’s attorney, Joseph Murtha, told Judge Glennon that his client’s health is deteriorating in the Baltimore County Detention Center so badly that “we’re coming close to a civil rights violation.”

Murtha said Lester suffers from glaucoma and cataracts and risks losing his sight if he remains jailed and unable to receive proper medical care.

“He’s on the verge of irreversible damage where he will ultimately be blind,” Murtha said.

Murtha also said Donald Lester is not a flight risk nor a risk to the community, and that prior to his arrest, he had lived in the same home and had worked for the same company for decades. Donald Lester does not drive and is not believed to have a passport, Murtha said.

Fuller said while Donald Lester may have lived a stable life in the years before his arrest, the situation is different now that he faces first-degree murder charges.

“Once you’re charged with a crime like this, I do believe that it changes the posture looking at flight risk,” Fuller said.