Pharmacy robber gets 15 years in federal prison
A 35-year-old Kalispell man was sentenced to federal prison Friday after admitting to robbing a Flathead County pharmacy at gunpoint last year.
Shawn Malarkey was sentenced during U.S. District Court proceedings in Missoula to 15 years and four months in prison after having previously pleaded guilty to robbery involving controlled substances and use of a firearm while robbing Evergreen Pharmacy on March 12, 2011.
Malarkey entered the pharmacy at approximately 11:30 a.m. and approached the pharmacist, demanding the store’s entire supply of Oxycontin. The pharmacist responded “You’ve got to be kidding,” to which Malarkey responded “I’m not,” and displayed a semi-automatic handgun, which he then pointed at the pharmacist.
The pharmacist eventually gave Malarkey a brown paper bag full of bottles of the drug because Malarkey threatened to kill him and his employees.
Malarkey then demanded the keys to one of the employees’ vehicles. The pharmacist, fearing for the safety of his employees, offered the keys to his own truck. Malarkey forced the pharmacist, at gunpoint, to accompany him.
Malarkey later released the pharmacist in the parking lot of a church.
When Malarkey was apprehended, he was found with roughly $3,300 worth of Oxycontin and the handgun, which was loaded and had a live round in the chamber. The gun was found to have been reported stolen in a previous theft.
In addition to prison time, Malarkey was given five years of probation and ordered to pay both a $200 special assessment and $4,350 in restitution.
He has the opportunity to earn a sentence reduction for good behavior, but it may not exceed 15 percent of his total sentence.
Local charges of felony robbery, kidnapping and criminal possession of dangerous drugs as well as two felony counts of assault with a weapon were dropped in order to make way for the federal charges.
The maximum sentence Malarkey could have faced for the local charges was between two and 135 years and a fine of up to $250,000.
For the federal charge, he could have faced an additional nine years and eight months in prison as well as a fine of up to $250,000.