BALTIMORE (AP) - A former Baltimore pharmacy owner pleaded guilty to paying a hitman to kill a witness in a drug distribution case.
Frankford Family Pharmacy owner David Robinson, 52, pleaded guilty to federal murder-for-hire charges Thursday, The Baltimore Sun reported.
Robinson had previously pleaded guilty to dispensing painkillers before attempting to pay someone to kill a witness in the case, authorities said.
Prosecutors said a source told authorities that a pharmacist was filling out fraudulent prescriptions. The source later made controlled purchases from Robinson between January and July 2016 using blank prescriptions provided by the Drug Enforcement Administration.
While he was awaiting sentencing on the painkillers plea, Robinson asked the source to kill a witness in the drug case, agreeing to pay $10,000, with half up front, for the murder, prosecutors said.
In Feb. 2019, before Robinson was to be sentenced, he was told the murder was “successful.” Prosecutors said Robinson asked for proof and was shown images that made it appear that the witness had died.
Robinson will serve 10 years in prison for the murder plot and the sentence in the drug case will run consecutively. That sentence has yet not been handed down.
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