A July 2015 burglary of a Dollar General store on Highway 10 in the Richardson community, was solved with the recent arrest of Herbert Boyd Smith Jr., 35, a resident of Jackson, Miss.

Chief Deputy Mike Haley said that Washington Parish Sheriff’s Office staff traveled to Mississippi on Tuesday to transport Smith back to Washington Parish.

Haley said that the burglary was captured on video and showed a male wearing all dark clothes, gloves and a head covering that prevented any views of his facial features. WPSO detectives responded to the Dollar General, processed the crime scene, and collected DNA evidence from the point of entry and the safe. That evidence then was sent to the State Police Crime Lab for processing.

Haley said that crime lab results indicated that the DNA belonged to Smith, who had been implicated in other Dollar General burglaries in Mississippi. A warrant was obtained for Smith’s arrest and entered into the national crime database.

Haley said Smith was apprehended by the Vicksburg (Miss.) Police Department when they stopped him for a traffic violation and realized that a warrant had been issued for his arrest.

Smith is being held in the Washington Parish Jail with no bond set at this time. He is charged with burglary of a commercial business and criminal damage to property.

Sheriff Randy Seal was quick to praise the detectives for what he called “a job well done.

“Just because we are rural Washington Parish doesn’t mean we don’t utilize modern technology to solve crimes,” Seal said. “DNA evidence is a great tool that helps to identify burglars like Smith, even though all of his physical features were covered and no fingerprints were left behind.

“This was a great effort by our fine detectives and I thank them along with law enforcement agencies in Warren and Rankin County, Mississippi. Once again we were able to reach across state lines to bring a criminal to justice.”