Man robbed pharmacies to feed addiction

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) - A Virginia Beach man will spend 10 years in jail for robbing two Walgreens pharmacies.

28-year-old David Stephens plead guilty to two counts of robbery and use of a firearm.

Stephens, previously of the 600 block of Rivers Reach, accepted a plea agreement and was sentenced to 38 years with 28 suspended.

On April 18, 2010 Stephens went into the Walgreens at 3378 Virginia Beach Blvd and handed a pharmacy technician a note. Harvey Bryant, the Commonwealth's Attorney for Virginia Beach, said the note read "I have a gun! I want your supply big bottles, Oxycotin, Methadone, morphine, Lortab ( sic) Percasets.”

Stephens lifted up his shirt showing the technician that he did indeed have a gun.

The technician gave him several bottles of pills and Stephens fled the store leaving the note behind.

The second robbery took place two months later on June 24. Police said on that occasion Stephen entered the Walgreens at 3965 Holland Road and placed a note demanding large bottles of pain medications.

Stephens placed a gun on the counter facing the pharmacy technician, who gave him the medicines he demanded.

Fingerprints from the Virginia Beach Boulevard store and surveillance footage from both Walgreens lead police to Stephens.

He was arrested March 8, 2011 in Harrisonburg, Va. According to police, Stephens admitted to robbing the pharmacies to feed an addiction that began after a surgical procedure.