Man faces host of felony charges
Shawn Patrick Malarkey appeared briefly in court on Thursday morning. His arraignment was postponed due to illness until the 31st.
The 33-year-old man accused of robbing an Evergreen pharmacy at gunpoint and kidnapping a pharmacist appeared Thursday in Flathead District Court, but not to face five recently-filed felony charges related to that incident.
Shawn Patrick Malarkey was scheduled to be arraigned on a previous theft charge filed by the Flathead County Attorney’s Office after he allegedly stole his father’s wheelchair in 2010.
Instead, Malarkey’s attorney Courtney Nolan said he wasn’t feeling well enough to make a plea.
He now is scheduled to be arraigned March 31 on the theft charge as well as felony robbery, kidnapping, two counts of assault with a weapon and criminal possession of dangerous drugs.
The County Attorney’s Office filed the charges Wednesday following Malarkey’s arrest Sunday at the Whitefish train depot, where he was found sleeping on a bench.
According to charging documents, Malarkey walked into the Evergreen Pharmacy at about 11:30 a.m. Saturday and asked to speak to the pharmacist, George Yeats.
He then allegedly displayed a semi-automatic handgun and pointed it at Yeats while jumping over the counter and demanding all of the pharmacy’s Oxycontin.
A woman working at the pharmacy told Flathead County Sheriff’s Office investigators that the man, believed to be Malarkey, noticed that she was on the phone, pointed the gun at her and ordered her to hang it up.
After he was given the medication, he allegedly pointed the gun at the woman and demanded her car keys. According to court documents, Yeats offered his truck keys instead.
“Come on, you are driving,” Malarkey said, according to court documents.
Malarkey allegedly told Yeats “to hurry up or he was going to put a bullet in his head” and instructed him to drive onto Whitefish Stage Road, where they eventually stopped at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, according to court documents.
Yeats was released and Malarkey drove away in the truck, which later was found unoccupied in a ditch near the intersection of Tronstad Drive and Tronstad Road.
Several employees in the area surrounding Evergreen Pharmacy later provided clothing and physical descriptions that led to Malarkey being sought as the suspect in the robbery and kidnapping.
He was taken into custody without incident Sunday at the train depot after law enforcement officials cleared other occupants from the building.
A semi-automatic pistol was found in his waistband and five medicine bottles containing what was identified as Oxycontin were found in the pockets of his pants, according to court documents.
If convicted of the charges filed Wednesday, Malarkey faces the possibility of up to 95 years in Montana State Prison. Robbery is punishable by up to 40 years in prison, assault with a weapon can result in up to 20 years, kidnapping by up to 10 years. Criminal possession of dangerous drugs carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison.
The separate felony theft charge was filed in December 2010 after a Flathead County Sheriff’s Office investigation found that Malarkey had stolen his father’s electric wheelchair in June 2010.
He allegedly stole the wheelchair, valued at more than $5,000, after his father was taken to a rehabilitation center for medical issues. According to court documents, he refused his mother’s requests to return it.
Malarkey is being held in the Flathead Adult Detention Center with bail set at $100,000. He has yet to make his initial appearance in Justice Court on the new charges.
Reporter Eric Schwartz may be reached at 758-4441 or by e-mail at eschwartz@dailyinterlake.com.