Baltimore Pharmacist Arrested For Murder For Hire, Other Crimes, While On Release For Federal Drug Charges
BALTIMORE (WJZ) — A licensed pharmacist who had previously pleaded guilty to federal drug distribution conspiracy allegedly ordered a hit on the person he believed had cooperated with law enforcement, leading to his arrest.
A criminal complaint charged 50-year-old David Robinson with murder for hire, retaliating against a witness, and commission of a crime while on release.
Robinson owned and operated the Frankford Family Pharmacy and pleaded guilty Oct. 10, 2018, to a federal drug conspiracy involving the distribution of oxycodone and alprazolam for non-legitimate medical purposes.
Pharmacy Owner Pleads Guilty To Drug Distribution Conspiracy Charges
He was scheduled for sentencing on those charges Friday.
According to a filed affidavit, the Citi-Watch camera system captured a drug transaction, Oct. 27, 2018 which led to the arrest of a person identified as "CS-2."
A search of CS-2's car resulted in the recovery of two shoeboxes holding a total of 35 stock pharmacy bottles of the prescription medications Promethazine and Clonidine.
CS-2 agreed to cooperate with law enforcement and told them that Robinson had provided the drugs found in the car and had been providing CS-2 with drugs for the past 3 years, using fake prescriptions.
After the search warrant was executed at the pharmacy June 27, 2017, Robinson started providing CS-2 with boxes of medications in exchange for cash, no prescription was required, and that Robinson was still ordering pills from his vendors six months after the raid.
After his arrest in 2017, Robinson mentioned the name of a person identified as "CS-1" that Robinson believed had cooperated with law enforcement, leading to his arrest in the drug conspiracy case and told CS-2 that "Jokers got to go."
CS-2 told law enforcement that Robinson had requested them to help in the murder of CS-1 and gave CS-2 information about CS-1.
They then told investigators that they did not know of anyone that could kill CS-1 but saw a chance to make some money from Robinson.
CS-2 told investigators that they told Robinson that they knew someone who could do the "hit" and that the fee would be $10,000 with $5,000 as a down-payment and $5,000 when CS-1 was killed.
According to the affidavit, Robinson gave CS-2 $5,000 in 2017, which they then deposited in the bank and used to pay bills. Robinson regularly questioned CS-2 about the progress but CS-2 would make excuses and tell Robinson that CS-1 was hard to locate.
The criminal complaint alleges that from Dec. 13, 2018, to Feb. 7, 2019, CS-2 made three controlled purchases of drugs from Robinson at the direction of law enforcement using cash provided to them by DEA agents. They bought a total of 118 stock pharmacy bottles of Clonidine, each containing 100 tables, and 24 bottles of 50 mg Promethazine tables, with each bottle holding 100 tablets.
Robinson allegedly did not request, nor did CS-2 provide, a prescription for any of the drugs.
During a controlled purchased Jan. 24, 2019, CS-2 and Robinson allegedly discussed the murder of CS-1 and CS-2 had told Robinson they had found someone to commit the murder but would want more money to commit the crime. Robinson agreed to pay the person and on Feb. 14, CS-2 called Robinson, telling him that the murder was done and the guy would want his money.
Robinson allegedly requested proof that the murder had been committed and CS-2 showed Robinson several photos that appeared to show CS-1 dead. Robinson indicated that was the right person and gave CS-2 the additional cash.
After the meeting, Robinson and CS-2 were both arrested.
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