For Immediate Release

Santa Rosa Beach, FL – The U.S. Marshals Florida Regional Fugitive Task Force (FRFTF) apprehended a fugitive yesterday that is wanted by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office for Armed Robbery, Aggravated Battery and for being a Convicted Felon in Possession of a Firearm.  The U.S. Marshals Pensacola Division of the FRFTF caught up with Jay Anthony Middelton, 23, yesterday evening while he was fishing behind a friend’s house in south Walton County. The U.S. Marshals FRFTF in Jacksonville first asked for help from the task force in Pensacola on Monday when they had developed a lead that Middleton may be in the Okaloosa County area. Surveillance and investigations by Task Force Officers from Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office determined that Middleton was making his way through Okaloosa County and heading toward Walton County. Task Force investigators from Okaloosa and Walton County Sheriff’s Offices along with members of the Task Force from Defuniak and Niceville Police Departments assembled in Santa Rosa Beach around 5:30 p.m.  Shortly after 7 p.m. they arrested Middleton when they found him fishing by a creek bed at a residence located on Taurus Road. Middleton was transported to the Walton County Jail in Defuniak Springs where he is being held with no bond and awaiting extradition back to Jacksonville.

Last year at the federal, state and local levels, U.S. Marshals-led fugitive task forces arrested 82,910 state and local fugitives, clearing 109,931 state and local felony warrants.

Deputy U.S. Marshals and their task force partners apprehended an additional 36,738 federal fugitives and cleared more than 39,795 federal felony warrants.

Additional information about the U.S. Marshals can be found at http://www.usmarshals.gov.

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