GAINESVILLE, Ga. — The suspect arrested for the two-month disappearance of a Gainesville 12-year-old will remain in Ohio authorities’ custody “for the foreseeable future,” according to the Hall County Sheriff’s Office press release.
Antonio Agustin-Ailon, 34, was apprehended on July 25 in Dover, Ohio, with the missing girl. He had traveled from Ohio to Gainesville to pick her up on May 29, the day she was last seen, and took her to his residence. Agustin-Ailon is a Guatemalan national, the release stated.
The Hall County Sheriff’s Office and the Tuscarawas County prosecutor decided to delay Agustin-Ailon’s extradition to Hall County.
“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,” said Lee Darragh, District Attorney for the Northeastern Judicial Circuit of Georgia. “It makes sense that the suspect answer to what charges Ohio proceeds on first.”
The DA’s office will proceed with filing charges in Hall County while Tuscarawas County continues with its case.
“My primary goal in this case is to see justice done,” said Hall County Sheriff Gerald Couch. “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.”
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