GAINESVILLE, Ga. — The suspect arrested in connection with the two-month disappearance of a Gainesville 12-year-old will remain in the custody of Ohio authorities "for the foreseeable future," according to a press release from the Hall County Sheriff's Office.
Antonio Agustin-Ailon, 34, was arrested on July 25 after he was discovered with the missing girl in Dover, Ohio. He had traveled from Ohio to Gainesville to pick her up on May 29, the last day she was seen, and take her back to his residence. Agustin-Ailon is a Guatemalan national, the release said.
HCSO and the county prosecutor of Tuscarawas County, Ohio, jointly determined to delay Agustin-Ailon's extradition to Hall County, according to the release.
“Based on the information we have at this time, the most serious criminal offenses in this case occurred in Ohio, and the bulk of necessary witnesses even to prove a Hall County case are in Ohio," Lee Darragh, District Attorney for the Northeastern Judicial Circuit of Georgia, said in the release. "It makes sense that the suspect answer to what charges Ohio proceeds on first.”
The DA’s office indicated it will move forward with filing charges in Hall County, the release said, as Tuscarawas County proceeds with its case.
“My primary goal in this case is to see justice done," Hall County Sheriff Gerald Couch said in the release. "If that means we have to wait for this suspect to have his day in court in Ohio before he faces our charges, so be it. I just want to make sure he has no chance of luring another young girl from home, wreaking havoc on another community like he did ours."