Indian River County - Thursday October 26, 2023: The Indian River County Sheriff's Office (IRCSO) has learned that a prisoner in the County Jail is wanted in California on an attempted murder charge, but according to a release from the Sheriff, California is not initiating any extradition cases at this time.
The suspect is 39-nine-year-old Augustine Luis Arochio. He was jailed in July of this year on various local charges. A background search conducted after he was taken into custody, showed that he was wanted for an attempted murder in Merced California. The Sheriff's office also learned that a second accused suspect in that case, 34-year-old Desiree Thompson, was still at large and believed to be somewhere in the Treasure Coast, possibly in Ft. Pierce.
Multiple attempts were made to have Arochio extradited back to California, but apparently, their system shows there is no extradition at this time for Florida, according to a post on the IRCSO Facebook page.
The post quotes IRC Sheriff Eric Flowers as saying:
“I don't know how California works. I can only tell you how Florida works in this situation. Our District Attorney would work with our judge, and they would set what the extradition area would be. Obviously, in a high-profile case as the sheriff, I would step in and say hey, this is a murder charge. We want this guy, we want to prosecute, we want them back. So, assuming that it happens the same way in California, I would say that it's probably an attorney and a judge. And of course, being a small police department...I don't know how small but they probably don't have much of a voice in this, and so I definitely wouldn't put the blame on the police in this."
The Merced County District Attorney’s Office is now investigating the matter and reconsidering extradition.