Allen Scott Hicks Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison for Armed Robbery of Hampton Pharmacy

Co-Defendant Kenny Allen Johnson Sentenced on March 8, 2010

May 5, 2010 - GREENEVILLE, Tenn. — Allen Scott Hicks, 52, of Elizabethton, was sentenced to 10 years in prison in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee, at Greeneville. The sentence was the result of a December 3, 2009, guilty plea by Hicks to a federal grand jury indictment charging him with robbery of a pharmacy and using and carrying a firearms during the robbery.

Hick’s codefendant, Kenny Allen Johnson, 33, of Roan Mountain, was sentenced to 105 months in prison for aiding and abetting the robbery on March 8, 2010.

On May 20, 2009, officers with the Carter County Sheriff’s Department were dispatched to an armed robbery at the Hampton Pharmacy located at 339 Highway 321, Hampton, in the Eastern District of Tennessee. Upon arrival, officers learned that a white male, later identified as Alan Scott Hicks, had forced his way into the pharmacy a few minutes before closing time, brandished a firearm, and demanded drugs, specifically, all the Oxycontin 80-milligram and 20-milligram pills. During this time, an employee fled next door and called 911, while another employee activated the audible alarm. Witnesses stated that Hicks then panicked, grabbed a small amount of cash from the counter, and left the pharmacy in a small, red, two-door car with no license plate. Johnson was arrested by the Carter County Sheriff’s Department just after the robbery in the same car. Johnson later confessed that he and Hicks had planned and executed the robbery.

The Honorable Ronnie Greer, United States District Judge, in discussing the facts of this robbery during sentencing, observed that robberies such as this “inflict upon the victims the kind of injury to which recovery is a long term process” and will “leave scars for a long, long time.”

The indictment and subsequent conviction of Hicks and Johnson was the result of an investigation conducted by the Carter County Sheriff’s Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Reeves represented the United States.