By By Marianne Todd/The Meridian Star
Dec. 23, 2000
Lauderdale County has become the first county in the state to nab a criminal suspect on a relatively new state fingerprint identification system, linked to FBI files in recent months.
Chief Deputy Mike Mitchell said he was notified this week of a fingerprint match on a man wanted for allegedly burglarizing a Lauderdale County home in 1996.
Mitchell said Mississippi's new Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) links with national data bases, and is designed to allow fewer suspects to slip through the cracks by leaving the jurisdictions where their crimes occurred.
Investigators on Thursday traveled to the small town of Magnolia to transport 40-year-old Mickey R. Standberry back to Meridian. Standberry, charged with burglary of a dwelling, is free on $10,000 bond.
He was located after state officials called Mitchell and said FBI agents had a match between the Mississippi AFIS system and their files.
Standberry's fingerprints had been logged in the Mississippi AFIS system earlier in the year.
Mitchell said the technology will be enhanced even more the Lauderdale County Correctional Facility receives its new laser fingerprint scanning system, an automated system that logs fingerprints directly into the Mississippi AFIS system to be compared with national files. That system could be installed as early as after the new year, he said.
Marianne Todd is a staff writer for The Meridian Star. E-mail her at mtodd@themeridianstar.com.