FLAGLER COUNTY, Fla. – A 15-year-old will be charged as an adult after his arrest in connection with the reported kidnapping of a missing boy by a sex offender in Flagler County, according to the sheriff’s office.
Junior Bishop faces charges of aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer, fleeing and eluding at a reckless speed, grand theft of a motor vehicle, reckless driving, operating a motor vehicle without a driver’s license and three counts of resisting an officer without violence, the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.
Bishop was taken into custody Dec. 31, 2025, after speeding away from the traffic stop where deputies arrested registered sex offender Darnell Hairston, 60, of Hastings, the sheriff’s office said.
Bishop and an 11-year-old boy, the latter of whom had been reported missing three days earlier out of St. Johns County, were in Hairston’s truck when deputies pulled it over on U.S. Highway 1, the sheriff’s office said.
Investigators said they interviewed the younger boy after he was taken to a local hospital for treatment.
During the interview, the child stated he had been lured to a wooded campsite in Flagler Estates where Hairston choked him until he lost consciousness. After regaining consciousness, the child told detectives he was threatened with a knife and a firearm, tied up with shoelaces and an extension cord, and had duct tape placed over his mouth. The child also told detectives that Hairston held him at the campsite for multiple days and made him travel on the floorboard of his truck covered by a blanket.
Flagler County Sheriff's Office
Hairston faces charges of resisting arrest with violence, obstruction, kidnapping, aggravated child abuse and battery, records show.
Bishop is charged in part with stealing Hairston’s truck during that arrest, the sheriff’s office said, adding “Bishop’s involvement in the kidnapping as a possible co-conspirator is still under investigation.” He was taken to the Volusia County Branch Jail after his first appearance in court Friday morning and is being held on a $133,000 bond.
“This kid was already on probation for a violent offense when he committed these new felony crimes,” Sheriff Rick Staly said in a statement. “I commend and support our State Attorney for charging Bishop as an adult because of the seriousness of his crimes. Frankly, if you commit serious adult felonies as a juvenile, especially when you are already on probation, you should expect to be held accountable as an adult. This is especially true when your actions could have seriously injured a deputy sheriff.”
News 6 is naming and showing Bishop due to the circumstances of the case.
[MORE: 911 call released in chaotic arrest of man found with missing boy in Flagler]