Suspected arson update: 3 charged with stealing from officer’s home
Published 3:58 pm Friday, May 30, 2025
- From left is Richard Davis, Jozi Martin and Brandon White arrested for felony burglary charges related to a break in at an officer's house that burned in a fire last summer. (Submitted courtesy of Adams County Sheriff's Office)
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NATCHEZ — Three people were arrested in recent months for breaking into a law enforcement officer’s house after it burned in a fire in July 2024. Meanwhile, the Adams County Sheriff’s Office is still investigating suspected arson that caused the fire.
To date, no one has been arrested for the fire that destroyed the home of Vidalia Police Department Captain Craig Godbold and his family on Creek Bend Road, said investigator Stanley Searcy of ACSO. However, authorities did arrest three suspects to a burglary at the home that happened around January 2025, Searcy said.
Jozi Martin, 36, and Richard Davis, 42, were arrested for felony burglary of a home in February and Brandon White, 49, was arrested April 8 for the same charge after he’d been a fugitive in another state for two months, Searcy said. They each received a $50,000 bond.
“We were able to recover some of the items that were stolen out of the house,” after the arrest, Searcy said. However, these arrests are not related to the arson case from July 2024, other than that it happened at the same residence.
Godbold, along with his wife and grandchildren, were all inside their home on Creek Bend Road when a fire started around midnight on July 27, 2024.
The family made it out safely, but lost their home when it was fully engulfed by the fire.
Later on, the sheriff’s office released blurry photos from security cameras showing a suspect fleeing the scene of the fire in a pickup truck.
Searcy said investigators are following a number of tips that came through Crime Stoppers and have requested subpoenas for phone records to determine if those tips lead them to a suspect.
Anyone with information about this case is urged to call the Adams County Sheriff’s Office’s Special Operations Group at 601-442-8333 or Southwest Mississippi Crime Stoppers at 888-442-5001.
Crime Stoppers is offering a $3,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person responsible for this crime. However, to be eligible for this reward, you must call Crime Stoppers and receive a code for the information.