BUNNELL, Fla. (TCN) — A 61-year-old registered sex offender has been sentenced to 30 years behind bars in connection with the kidnapping of an 11-year-old boy in January.
On New Year’s Eve last year, a child who had been reported missing three days prior was found during a traffic stop in Darnell Hairston’s truck, according to the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office.
The child and 15-year-old Junior Bishop, who was also in the truck, were taken to wait in the patrol car as deputies continued the investigation. Hairston was arrested trying to flee after attempting to take a deputy’s weapon. During his arrest, Bishop allegedly got back into Hairston’s truck and fled.
Bishop was charged with aggravated fleeing and eluding, aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer, reckless driving, driving without a license, and resisting an officer without violence, according to the sheriff’s office.
The victim told interviewers that Hairston had lured him to his campsite, where he tied him up with shoelaces and choked him with an extension cord. He also alleged Hairston threatened him at gunpoint and knifepoint and put duct tape over his mouth.
According to the Office of State Attorney R.J. Larizza, investigators learned that Hairston kidnapped and tortured the child because he reportedly had information related to sex crimes in another Florida county.
In August, Hairston pleaded no contest to charges of kidnapping of a child under 13, aggravated child abuse, battery by strangulation, robbery with a deadly weapon, and resisting arrest.
According to the state attorney’s office, Hairston was sentenced to 30 years in prison on Sept. 9. Larizza said, “The defendant was a previously convicted sex offender who abducted, held captive, and tortured an 11-year-old child. … The prosecutor argued that the defendant should be sentenced to life in prison. The judge sentenced the defendant to 30 years. The punishment does not fit the crime.”
The case against Bishop is still pending.
MORE:
