Five charged in drug store robberies

By: Claire Galofaro | Bristol Herald Courier
Published: February 16, 2011

Five men, including a Bristol man called “Jughead,” were charged Tuesday on 13 counts in federal court, accused of robbing five pharmacies at gunpoint, then selling the stolen drugs from a Knoxville business.

Among the pharmacies they are accused of robbing was the CVS on Virginia Avenue in Bristol, Tenn.

According to the indictment filed in U.S. District Court in Knoxville, “Jughead,” actually named Dewyatt A. Hill, 54, of Bristol, Tenn., was working with four Knoxville men: Daniel D. Gibson, 23, Donald G. Hopson Jr., 56, Mortan Dean Moore, 43, and James Lee Marable, 47.

Moore is alleged to be the ringleader of the group who planned each robbery, procured the weapons and sold the drugs from his business, Po Boys Used Tires on Chapman Highway in Knoxville, Tenn, according to the indictment, prepared by the U.S. attorney and the FBI. Gibson, the only man alleged to have participated in all the robberies, is accused of stealing a vehicle before each hold-up to be used as the getaway car then discarded.

According to the federal investigation, on Sept. 14, 2010, Hill and Gibson drove a stolen GMC pickup truck to a CVS pharmacy on Alcoa Highway in Knoxville. Hill guarded the front door and commanded that everyone lay down. He pointed his gun at the clerk and demanded money from the register, according to court records. Meanwhile, Gibson reportedly leaped over the pharmacy counter, pointed a gun at the pharmacist and ordered schedule II drugs, including oxycodone.

A month later, Gibson and Marable drove a stolen Chevy truck to a different Knoxville CVS, according to court records. The robbery was similar to the first – though both men shot their guns when things weren’t going their way. No one was hit.

Three weeks later, Gibson, Hill and Hopson are accused of driving another stolen Chevy pickup to the Bristol CVS and the events there unfolded similar to the first – Gibson jumped over the pharmacy counter and demanded painkillers while Hill and Hopson robbed the cash register at gunpoint, according to the federal investigation.

Three weeks after that, the trio allegedly returned to the first CVS, on Alcoa Highway in Knoxville, in a stolen Dodge pickup, and robbed it the same way a second time. In another three weeks, Gibson and Marable went to yet another Knoxville CVS in a stolen Mustang, according to court records. This time, Marable brandished two guns, pointed one at the register clerk and fired at the ceiling. Gibson again jumped over the pharmacy counter, “grabbed one pharmacy employee by her hair and shoved her head into the pharmacy safe, all while pointing his firearm at her head,” according to the federal indictment. Again he demanded schedule II drugs and fired his gun as he was leaving the store.
Moore, Gibson, Hill and Hopson were each indicted Tuesday on an assortment of drugs, weapons and robbery charges. If convicted, Gibson and Moore will spend at least 107 years in federal prison, Hill will spend 57 years and Hopson at least 32 years, according to a news statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.