Left: Darvin Flores Caballeros following his arrest by deputies with the Walton County Sheriff’s Office (WCSO). Right: Flores Caballeros being arrested in Santa Rosa Beach (WCSO).
A 20-year-old Virginia man accused of abandoning a newborn baby in the snow shortly after viciously attacking the child’s mother has been arrested nearly 1,000 miles away in Florida.
Darvin Flores Caballeros was taken into custody Thursday morning on an out of state fugitive warrant, authorities announced. Flores Caballeros currently remains in Florida and is awaiting extradition back to Virginia where he is facing one count each of malicious wounding, strangulation, assault and battery on a family member and petit larceny, as well as two counts of child endangerment. He is also subject to an emergency protective order.
According to a news release from the Walton County, Florida, Sheriff’s Office, there was an active warrant out for Flores Caballeros’ arrest stemming from an incident that took place in Fairfax County, Virginia, on Feb. 12.
An investigation revealed that Flores Caballeros allegedly assaulted and strangled a mother. During the “fight,” police said Flores Caballeros caused the woman to drop her 13-day-old infant to the ground. Flores Caballeros scooped up the child and fled the area on foot with the baby in tow before officers arrived at the scene. He then abandoned the baby, authorities said.
“A Good Samaritan found the infant left in a pile of snow,” the sheriff’s office wrote in the release. “The victim was hospitalized with serious injuries after the attack.”
On the morning of Thursday, Feb. 20, the Walton County Sheriff’s Office said it received information that Flores Caballeros had fled Virginia and was in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida, which is about 80 miles from the state’s western border with Alabama.
He was located at around 11 a.m. as he was leaving an apartment building and getting into a vehicle. When authorities confirmed that he was a passenger in the vehicle they conducted a felony traffic stop and took Flores Caballeros into custody. He was transported to the Walton County Jail where he remained as of Friday.
