SKOWHEGAN — A local man remains in jail on $50,000 cash bond or $100,000 property bond on charges that he robbed a Rite Aid pharmacy of drugs Oct. 30 under the threat of force then swallowed some of the pills before being arrested by police.

Jason Mitchell Walsh, 32, of Pleasant Street, Skowhegan, allegedly passed a note to pharmacy employees demanding oxycodone tablets, Adderall pills and fentanyl patches, according to court documents. The store is at the corner of Jewett Street and Madison Avenue, an extension of U.S. Route 201.

Walsh allegedly then told a store employee: “Just do it. Just do it. Don’t make me have to do this,” all the while with a hand in his pocket, shaking it, according to the affidavit filed by Detective Daryl Gordon of the Skowhegan Police Department.

Pharmacy employees turned over oxycodone and Xanax pills and Walsh took off on foot across Madison Avenue and down Hanover Street. He later told police he thought he had about 15 pills from the robbery.

“He advised he dumped the pills out into his hand and ate them all,” an investigator said in the court affidavit. The empty pill bottle was tossed on nearby Russell Road, according to documents.

The robbery was captured on surveillance video.

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A store employee recognized him from the video as an occasional customer who would pay cash for Suboxone, a prescription medication used to treat narcotic addiction. Police found Walsh in a car outside his apartment on Pleasant Street. Subsequent consent searches of the house and another home next door where Walsh had been doing some work reportedly turned up clothing matching the description of what the robber was wearing during the 3 p.m. robbery.

Walsh denied any role in the robbery and agreed to ride back to the pharmacy with police “to clear the matter up,” according to the documents.

Based on the clothing description and the identification of Walsh by the store employee from the video, Walsh was handcuffed and searched outside the store. Pills were found in his pocket and on the ground near where Walsh was being searched, according to court documents.

Walsh continued to deny any part in the robbery during a 1 1/2-hour interview with police at the Skowhegan Police Department. He then confessed, according to the court documents, but said he had not been carrying a weapon.

By then, police reported, Walsh was slurring his speech, apparently from the effects of having consumed the pills as he ran from the store. He was taken by ambulance to the emergency room at Redington-Fairview General Hospital in Skowhegan and later to the Somerset County Jail in East Madison.

Police later found the note that Walsh allegedly had given to the pharmacy clerk crumpled up in his pocket.

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He is charged with robbery, a Class B felony; theft of narcotic drugs, a Class C felony; and a second charge of theft of drugs, a misdemeanor.

Walsh did not answer the charges against him during his first court appearance Oct. 31. His next scheduled court date is a dispositional conference Nov. 26 in District Court.

As of Monday Walsh had not yet been assigned a court-appointed lawyer.

Doug Harlow — 612-2367

dharlow@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @Doug_Harlow


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