FLAGLER COUNTY, Fla. — A 15-year-old already facing multiple charges in a 2025 kidnapping case is now facing an additional felony charge after further investigation, according to the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office.
Junior Bishop has been charged with principal to armed kidnapping of a minor following a three-month investigation by the Sheriff’s Office Major Case Unit and the State Attorney’s Office for Florida’s 7th Judicial Circuit.
Bishop was initially 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 boy.
Detectives later determined that Hairston kidnapped and physically abused the child. Investigators now say Bishop acted as a co-conspirator in the kidnapping.
According to authorities, investigators interviewed both the victim and Bishop, executed search warrants on Bishop’s cellphone, and collected DNA and fingerprint evidence. Officials said the investigation revealed Bishop communicated with both the victim and Hairston prior to the kidnapping and helped lure the child.
“As I stated originally, I thought Bishop was involved in the kidnapping, but we just had to prove it,” Sheriff Rick Staly said. “In the end our investigation showed he was fully involved in the acts to lure the victim into Hairston’s grasp.”
Bishop is being charged as an adult and was already facing charges including 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.
A capias warrant for the new charge was issued on April 1. Bishop, who had been held at the John E. Goode Pretrial Detention Facility in Jacksonville, was transferred to Flagler County to be served and then returned to Jacksonville, where he remains in custody without bond.