Derek Jackson Sentenced to Federal Prison for Armed Pharmacy Robbery

United States Attorney Thomas E. Delahanty, II announced that U.S. District Court Judge George Z. Singal, sitting in Portland, sentenced Derek Jackson, 38, to two years in federal prison for robbing the Hannaford pharmacy.

Court records reveal that on March 23, 2013, at approximately 2:11 p.m., Jackson approached the pharmacy counter of the Hannaford in Windham, Maine and demanded a large amount of Dilaudid, a scheduled narcotic opioid pain medication commonly known in generic form as hydromorphone. At the time of the robbery, Jackson had a knife tucked in the waistband of his pants which he displayed to pharmacy employees in the course of the robbery. Jackson left the pharmacy with 250 hydromorphone pills and swallowed them within an hour of committing the robbery.

In imposing the sentence, the judge stated that he took into account the fact that Jackson suffers from a chronic disease and was attempting to end his life by ingesting the drugs that he stole from the pharmacy. Following his incarceration, Jackson will be on federal supervised release for three years.

The investigation was conducted by the Windham Police Department, the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.