New trial begins for '01 armed robbery suspect;
State says pair carefully planned and executed the drug robbery

Columbus Ledger-Enquirer
November 18, 2003 Tuesday

By Meg Pirnie; Staff Writer

Matthew Moye sat before a Muscogee Superior Court jury Monday facing a 2001
armed robbery charge for the second time in two years.

Moye, 27, is accused of driving the getaway van Aug. 15, 2001, when Randy
Roache robbed The Center Pharmacy, 1005 Talbotton Road, of more than $3,000
worth of MS Contin, a derivative of morphine.

Moye was tried and convicted of the crime in January 2002. But Judge Bill
Smith granted a motion for a new trial in December 2002 after Moye produced
prescriptions for drugs authorities confiscated from his home and introduced as
evidence during the first trial.

Roache was sentenced to 15 years in prison in February 2002 after pleading
guilty to armed robbery.

During opening statements Monday, Assistant District Attorney Stacey Jackson
said testimony would show Moye and Roache executed a carefully planned robbery
and stole only drugs, not money. He said the pair planned the robbery the night
before, when Moye gave Roache a mask, a pistol and a map of the store that
showed where the pharmacist kept OxyContin, a prescription drug with a high
street value. Moye drove his blue van to the area and waited with Roache until
no customers were inside the store, Jackson said.

A pharmacy technician told police that she believed Moye was involved in the
robbery because he regularly went to the pharmacy to fill prescriptions for
OxyContin and always watched as the pharmacist retrieved bottles of the pills
from the pharmacy shelves, Jackson said. Until days before the robbery,
OxyContin was kept on the same shelf from which the robber stole MS Contin.

Jackson said Roache's former girlfriend would testify that she overheard
Roache and Moye planning the robbery the night before and regularly saw the pair
injecting OxyContin to get high.

Defense attorney Mike Garner told the jurors that Moye never denied driving
Roache to the pharmacy or waiting with him in the parking lot. However, Moye did
not know what his friend was doing inside the store.

Garner said Moye and Roache were childhood friends who took very different
paths in adulthood. Roache lived in motels on Victory Drive with his 17-year-old
girlfriend while Moye lived a responsible life with his wife and children.

Moye took various pain medications to help him cope with the lingering
effects of a childhood accident during which he was shot, Garner said. He tried
taking MS Contin for the pain, but it made him sick. He then tried OxyContin.

Garner alleged that Roache and his girlfriend falsely implicated Moye in the
robbery. Roache was angry because he believed Moye turned him in to the police,
Garner said. Roche's girlfriend wanted to keep herself out of the investigation.

Roache testified Monday that together he and Moye planned the robbery,
committed the robbery and gave the drugs to another friend to sell. He said
Moye's wife took him money at various Victory Drive motels during the weeks
after the robbery and even left a note from Moye asking Roache not to implicate
him in the crime.

The trial will continue today at 9:30 a.m. in the Government Center in Judge
Robert Johnston's 11th floor courtroom.

Contact Meg Pirnie at (706) 571-8643 or mpirnie@ledger-enquirer.com