AUGUSTA — The robber gave the pharmacist a black trash bag and a note demanding, “Give me all your oxy 30 and 15, I have a gun, you have 60 seconds until my partner comes in shooting.”
The CVS pharmacist took the note, put 477 pills in the bag and handed it to him. The robber, a 6-foot, 170-pound man wearing a curly brown wig, then told her, “Ma’am, I’m going to need that note back.”
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After he got it, the man ran to the exit, crashing into a chocolate candy bar display on the way out.
Those new details of Monday’s CVS pharmacy robbery on Capitol Street were made available in court documents Wednesday after three city residents arrested in connection with the heist made their first court appearances.
Michael C. Pierce, 32, of Augusta, faces two counts of robbery; Jeffery D. Hodgkins, 31, is charged with one count of robbery, and Jennifer Dowling, 31, is charged with illegal possession of oxycodone and hydrocodone.
A judge in Waterville District Court set bail at $50,000 cash for Pierce, $25,000 for Hodgkins, and $2,000 for Dowling. They are being held at Kennebec County jail.
According to a court affidavit by Augusta Police Detective Tory Tracy, Hodgkins confessed to robbing the pharmacy and Pierce assisted with the planning and get-away. The robbery was reported at 7:55 p.m. Monday.
Early on, investigators suspected Pierce was involved. They looked for his car at his Glenwood Street home and found it turning into the Kmart parking lot. Pierce, Hodgkins and Dowling were also in the car, and Hodgkins’ build, T-shirt and footwear matched the description of the robber.
Hodgkins reportedly told police he would tell them everything if he could first see his girlfriend, and they drove him to his Oak Street residence.
At the police station, he told investigators that Pierce wrote the note, provided the disguise, and waited for him on nearby Florence Street before taking the items from him. They went first to Pierce’s home, then to a convenience store to buy scratch tickets, and finally to the Kmart parking lot “to shoot up” the stolen drugs, which they split evenly, according to Tracy’s affidavit.
Hodgkins was arrested then, and Pierce was arrested Tuesday when police executed a search warrant at his home.
Pierce told police he and Hodgkins discussed robbing the pharmacy, and Pierce provided the beard and wig — items that had been stolen earlier from iParty. Police found the items worn by the robber in Pierce’s bedroom.
Pierce also admitted robbing the CVS Pharmacy on Stone Street in Augusta on May 8, the affidavit states. Pierce said he worked with another man and the two dumped pill bottles from that robbery along the road and also at the boat launch in Chelsea.
Dowling was at the Pierce home when the search warrant was executed Tuesday, and she was arrested after police reported finding oxycodone and hydrocodone pills in the bedroom where she was sleeping, Tracy said. Dowling denied the pills were hers.
Betty Adams — 621-5631
badams@centralmaine.com
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