A three-month investigation by the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office Major Case Unit and the Seventh Judicial Circuit State Attorney’s Office has resulted in an additional charge against a teenage suspect originally arrested in December 2025 in connection with the kidnapping of an 11-year-old boy.
Background
Junior Bishop, 15, was arrested in December 2025 alongside Darnell Hairston — a registered sexual offender — after the two were found traveling in a vehicle with a missing 11-year-old. In January, detectives determined that Hairston had kidnapped and physically abused the child. The investigation then continued to examine the extent of Bishop’s involvement.
New Charge
Following the three-month investigation, the State Attorney’s Office has added a charge of principal to armed kidnapping of a minor against Bishop. Detectives determined he was a co-conspirator in the kidnapping by interviewing both the victim and Bishop, executing search warrants on Bishop’s cellphone — which revealed communications between Bishop, the victim, and Hairston leading up to the kidnapping — and collecting Bishop’s DNA and fingerprints.
Bishop is being charged as an adult. He already faced charges of aggravated fleeing and eluding, aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer, grand theft of a motor vehicle, reckless driving, driving without a license, and resisting an officer without violence.
Sheriff Rick Staly addressed the development directly. “As I stated originally, I thought Bishop was involved in the kidnapping, but we just had to prove it,” Staly said. “Our detectives worked hard to prove Bishop’s involvement after he had not been truthful during the initial investigation. In the end our investigation showed he was fully involved in the acts to lure the victim into Hairston’s grasp and they terrorized him together.”
Arrest Process
On April 1, a capias — a court-issued arrest order — was issued for Bishop on the new charge. Bishop had been held at the John E. Goode Pretrial Detention Facility in Jacksonville. He was temporarily transferred to the Sheriff Perry Hall Inmate Detention Facility in Flagler County to be served the new warrant, then transferred back to Jacksonville, where he is currently being held without bond.
