DA announces alleged pharmacy robber headed to trial

MILFORD - A man charged with robbing the Rite-Aid Pharmacy on 739 in Blooming Grove Township will head to trial in Pike County Court. Matthew Stewart, age 19, of Hawley was charged with two counts of Robbery, Possession of a Controlled Substance with Intent to Deliver, Theft and Receiving Stolen Property. He faced a preliminary hearing before Magisterial District Judge Alan B. Cooper on Tuesday Feb. 13. After the evidence of the charges was presented by First Assistant District Attorney Raymond Tonkin, Judge Cooper found the evidence sufficient to send the case to Pike County Court. The charges allege that Stewart entered the pharmacy and displayed what appeared to be a handgun to the pharmacist and a pharmacist’s assistant. Stewart allegedly left the store with a large quantity of Oxycontin, a narcotic painkiller. Stewart then fled the store and was apprehended by the Pennsylvania State Police a short time later. According to Tonkin, an additional charge of Robbery was added to the charges at the hearing, because the evidence demonstrated two employees of the store were threatened during the robbery. Magistrate Cooper continued bail at $ 50,000, and Stewart was remanded to Pike County Correctional Facility. Tonkin pointed out that this was the second area pharmacy hit by a robber in the past several weeks. Last month, a pharmacy in Wayne County was also struck by a robber seeking prescription drugs. The case will go to trial later this year in the Pike County Court of Common Pleas before President Judge Joseph F. Kameen.