Monday afternoon, St. Tammany Sheriff’s deputies arrested a Slidell man who is allegedly responsible for a string of armed robberies in the Slidell area going back to April 15.

Jason Serpas, 33. 337 Tracy St., Slidell was apprehended near the Lacombe exit on Interstate 12 around 5 p.m. Monday, according to Sheriff’s Office spokesman, Capt. George Bonnett.

Serpas was caught after an unsuccessful attempt to rob the Subway sandwich shop on U.S. Highway 59 near Covington. Bonnett said Serpas walked into the store around 4:30 p.m. and demanded money while brandishing a black semiautomatic handgun with a laser sight.

JASON SERPAS

However, the clerk did something that Bonnett does not advise anybody to do, the clerk refused to hand over the money. Serpas gave up and fled the store in a car. From witness reports, and a deputy who was following Serpas, more than a dozen deputies from all three patrol districts descended on La. Highway 433 near the I-12.

Bonnett said the suspect did not have anywhere to go and quietly surrendered to police. Deputies found the handgun with the laser sight in Serpas’ car. They also noticed that Serpas had a black eye, something that Sheriff Jack Strain said was a telling characteristic of the suspect.

Serpas was charged with one count of armed robbery for the May 21 robbery of the Blockbuster Video store on Military Road, and one count of attempted armed robbery for the Covington Subway shop.

Serpas was then taken to the Slidell Police Department where he was questioned by Sgt. Sean McClain. According to Capt. Kevin Swann and McClain, Serpas confessed to the April 15 armed robbery of the Advanced Cash Advance Store on Pontchartrain Drive, the attempted armed robbery of the ABC Uniform Shop on May 7, the armed robbery of another Subway shop on Brownswitch Road May 11, and the robbery of a check cashing business in Picayune, Miss.

Besides the confession, Slidell police were able to get the location of the stolen cash box from the April 15 robbery, McClain said. In fact, Serpas led police to the location of the box.

“It was out in the marsh, and we had to wade through waist-deep water at night,” McClain said. The police were able to recover the cash box.

Slidell police have charged Serpas with two counts of armed robbery and one count of attempted armed robbery. During the May 7 robbery, Serpas did not get any money from the clerks at the ABC Uniform Shop. Serpas tried to take the cash register instead but was unable to lift it.

Swann said that Serpas told police he committed the robberies in order to feed his methadone addiction. According to both Bonnett and Swann, Serpas’ black eye was not the result of a physical fight. Serpas told police that he had recently had dental work done replacing dentures and the work had bruised his left eye.

The arrest of Serpas ends a two-week period of a rash of armed robberies in the Slidell area. Besides Serpas, there was an escaped convict, Errol Farrar, arrested last week after he allegedly robbed three area stores at gunpoint between May 18 and May 21. Farrar, who had escaped from a Lake Charles work release facility in August 2008 where he was doing a 10-year sentence for aggravated battery, is accused of robbing a Chevron station two times on Brownswitch Road, and then a Circle K and a Shell station in Slidell. He is also accused of robbing a discount store on April 25. He was captured after Slidell police and Sheriff’s deputies gave chase on May 21 and cornered him near his girlfriend’s house where Farrar had been living.