Photos for Headline Surfer / Stephon Doby, 29, and Rachel Rose, 27, were arrested Thursday in connection with a prescription pill robbery of an acquaintance near DeLand.
DELAND -- When Volusia County Sheriff’s deputies responded on Aug. 12 to a disturbance call at the intersection of Cassadaga Road and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Beltway near DeLand, they discovered that several people had been arguing on the side of the road over prescription drugs.
Two women reported that a couple had driven them to a pharmacy to pick up their prescription pills and then robbed them of the pills on the way home.
On Thursday, Sheriff’s investigators wrapped up their investigation with the arrest of a couple on robbery charges. After deputies initially responded to the altercation, a 43-year-old woman reported she and another woman had paid 27-year-old Rachel Rose $50 to drive them to a pharmacy in Clermont so the victim could buy her medication. She said they knew Rose and had paid her in the past to run errands for them.
On Aug. 12, Rose showed up with her boyfriend -- someone the women only knew as Stephon -- and the two then drove the women to the pharmacy. But on the way back, the women said that they pulled the car over and then Doby started choking one of the victims with her dress and bra straps and demanding her pills, Sheriff's spokesmsn Gary Davidson said.
"The victim then passed the pill bottle to her friend, but Doby managed to twist that woman’s arm and pry the bottle from her hand," Davidson said. "The two women in the back seat bolted out of the car, and Doby briefly gave chase before he got back in the car and it took off with Rose behind the wheel. The two stranded women then accepted a ride from a passing motorist, who took them to a nearby convenience store."
"The victim then passed the pill bottle to her friend, but Doby managed to twist that woman’s arm and pry the bottle from her hand," Davidson said. "The two women in the back seat bolted out of the car, and Doby briefly gave chase before he got back in the car and it took off with Rose behind the wheel. The two stranded women then accepted a ride from a passing motorist, who took them to a nearby convenience store."
Later that same day as the confrontation, Rose reportedly called one of the women and threatened to kill her dog, Davidson said, adding Sheriff’s investigators who followed up on the incident were quickly able to identify Rose’s boyfriend as 29-year-old Stephon Doby.
On Aug. 15, Sheriff’s investigators on a stake-out located the alleged robbers, but Doby fled the scene. The next day, on Aug. 16, investigators found the two together again and charged Doby with resisting an officer without violence for fleeing from them the day before. He also had an open warrant for failure to show up in court on a charge of driving on a suspended license.
After Sheriff’s investigators wrapped up their investigation, they arrested the couple on Thursday, charging Doby with robbery and attempted robbery and Rose with being a principal to robbery. Doby was booked into the Volusia County Branch Jail on $40,000 bond and Rose was booked on $5,000 bond.