Ex-Florida trooper robbed stores, googled ‘do drug stores get robbed in florida,’ feds say

A masked man robbing multiple Florida pharmacies at gunpoint turned out to be a former state highway patrol trooper, federal prosecutors said.

A few weeks before the first robbery, Jesse Rance Moore, 46, of Bell, searched on Google what medications get stolen from pharmacies and looked up pharmacy store hours, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida.

“Do drug stores get robbed in florida,” he also googled on his phone, prosecutors said.

Moore landed on the FBI’s radar after the North Florida Pharmacy of Fort White was robbed on Jan. 13, 2022, according to prosecutors.

Moore walked in the store that day with a black handgun while wearing a realistic, human face mask and demanded oxycodone, OxyContin, and Percocet — all painkillers, prosecutors said.

He stole the controlled substances and fled southbound on U.S. Highway 27, according to the attorney’s office.

This marked his fourth robbery in Columbia County – and the second time he robbed the same North Florida Pharmacy of Fort White, according to the attorney’s office.

Now, a judge has sentenced Moore to 21 years in federal prison for four counts “pertaining to Hobbs Act robberies” and three counts for brandishing a firearm during the robberies, the attorney’s office announced in a Jan. 31 news release.

McClatchy News contacted his federal public defenders, Lisa Call and Waffa Hanania, for comment on Feb. 1 and didn’t receive immediate responses.

Nearly 15 years working for Florida Highway Patrol

Moore worked as a Florida highway patrol trooper from Jan. 13, 2003 to Feb. 27, 2017, when he had “several disciplinary issues” and was fired twice, prosecutors said.

However, his terminations were changed to suspensions after he reached settlement agreements, according to the attorney’s office.

In court documents submitted on Moore’s behalf by Call, she wrote her client’s career with the Florida Highway Patrol “effectively ended in November 2016 when he struck a deer, left the roadway, and crashed into a tree.”

The crash left him with chronic lower back pain, resulting in his doctor prescribing him 27 different medications, which he was taking when he was arrested in connection with the case, Call wrote in a sentencing memorandum.

After his arrest in June 2022, a jail doctor was “stunned by the number of medications (he) was on,” describing it as “excessive…incredibly too much,” and a “ridiculous amount” in Moore’s patient chart, the sentencing memo says.

How did he get caught after the robberies?

When Moore fled on the highway after robbing the Fort White pharmacy of medications in January 2022, he had no idea a “good Samaritan” was following him, according to prosecutors.

This individual had been in the pharmacy’s drive-thru during the robbery and captured Moore’s license plate by driving behind Moore’s “getaway” car, prosecutors said.

The license plate led investigators to Moore.

During each of the prior robberies — including at the same store in August 2021, at the North Florida Pharmacy of Chiefland in November 2021 and at the Baya West Pharmacy in Lake City in December 2021 — Moore likely used his own car or a vehicle rented by his wife, according to the FBI.

Moore disguised himself in a variety of ways before robbing the pharmacies, according to prosecutors.

“Despite Moore’s many disguises, witnesses testified to the robber’s physical appearance, clothing, interactions, and demeanor during the robberies,” the attorney’s office said.

Authorities seized clothes, several masks, Moore’s gun, handwritten notes and brown boots as evidence in connection with the robberies, prosecutors said.

After his arrest, jail staff described his behavior as “extremely bizarre” due to “him detoxing from all the medications he was on for so long,” Call wrote in the sentencing memorandum.

Before the robberies, Moore didn’t have a criminal history, the sentencing memo says. Call argued this should be “considered” while determining his sentence.

As part of Moore’s sentencing, the court ordered him to forfeit his gun, according to prosecutors.

Bell is about 100 miles southwest of Jacksonville.

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