NEPTUNE – A Washington, D.C. man is receiving jail time for robbing a local pharmacy in 2020, officials said.
Ashawntea Henderson, 32, of Washington, D.C., was sentenced to 52 months in federal prison for his role in an early morning robbery of a drug store at the Jersey Shore in May 2020.
Henderson pleaded guilty on October 30, 2024, to interference of commerce by robbery (Hobbs Act robbery). In addition to the 52-month prison sentence, the judge ordered Henderson to serve three years of supervised release.
According to authorities, Henderson and his co-conspirators researched potential targets including Walgreens and CVS pharmacies which were open all night. Subsequently, they drove more than 200 miles from Washington, D.C. to a Walgreens Pharmacy on State Road 33 in Neptune, on May 9, 2020.
Around 3:09 a.m., Henderson and two others dressed in masks and gloves entered the Walgreens. They proceeded to jump the pharmacy counter and demanded codeine, Adderall, and Percocet. One of the co-conspirators grabbed the night pharmacist and demanded that he open the locked cabinets which contained additional pills, forcing the pharmacist to assist them.
They grabbed thousands of prescription medicines – including Oxycodone, morphine, amphetamine, and Nucynta, officials said. Afterwards, they fled in a black Nissan Altima operated by a fourth co-conspirator.
During this time, the Nissan collided with a responding police officer’s patrol car but continued at high speed back to Washington D.C., officials said.
“After returning to the District, as they celebrated at a hotel, one of the co-conspirators received a text from a known drug distributor asking the price for a drug of the same type stolen from Neptune, New Jersey. The co-conspirator and the drug distributor continued to exchange texts about the sale of drugs for the following weeks,” state officials said.
Henderson is currently serving a five-year prison sentence in Maryland in connection with his 2022 possession of a firearm.
