Alleged robber says heroin led to jail

BY LARA BRICKER
lbricker@seacoastonline.com

BRENTWOOD-One of the few good decisions Andrew Roy says he has made in his 38 years was turning himself in to police on Easter Sunday, and admitting his role in two Exeter bank robberies.

"I turned myself in because I wanted to avoid any violence that may or may not have taken place, given the fact that the police believed that I was armed," Roy wrote in a letter to the Exeter News-Letter. "People get hurt in situations like that; suspects as well as police. So, in an effort to ensure the safety of everyone involved, I came in as I said I would. I'm not about violence."

In a jailhouse interview with the Exeter News-Letter, Roy was straightforward when he talked about the bad decisions he has made in his life, including his heroin use and his role in the bank robberies. But while he says he has made many bad decisions, he says never made the mistake of carrying a weapon into the bank.

While he may be a heroin addict, he says he is not violent and never wanted to hurt anyone.

"I haven't had a gun since I was a kid," Roy said.

Roy hesitantly entered the visiting room at the Rockingham County Jail in Brentwood on Tuesday afternoon, wearing his orange prison jumpsuit. He sat down on one side of glass and metal screen, picked up the phone and told a reporter on the other side how to speak through the phone in the jail. He was wary that the interview was an attempt to make his role in the robberies look worse.

Roy agreed to talk, he said, because he wanted to set the record straight last month's bank robberies and his past criminal record. A federal grand jury returned two bank robbery indictments against Roy last week, charging him with robbing the Community Bank and Trust on March 13, as well as the Federal Savings Bank on March 26.

His alleged accomplice in the Community Bank and Trust robbery, Cirsten McKim, told police Roy had a gun as a backup plan in case his first plan-handing a note demanding money-did not work.

"She was involved and totally fabricated (the gun), apparently to buy herself a little more leniency," Roy said.

Roy turned himself in to the Exeter Police Station on Easter Sunday, just days after they had issued a warrant for his arrest. A woman Roy has dated on and off for the past 12 years urged him to surrender, fearing he or someone else might get hurt. After staying in hotels around the state during the days following the robberies, Roy was running out of money.

The last four days before he turned himself in, he met someone who let him pay to stay in their house. With no money and a 30-bag-a-day heroin addiction that cost $150 to $210, Roy knew the only place he could be drug-free was in jail.

"Once that (heist) money was gone, I might do something else," he said. "I really didn't want to be in the throes of full-blown heroin addiction and do something crazy. I knew that to get clean I had to be locked up."

Not wanting to have the violent withdrawal symptoms associated with heroin addiction during a police interrogation, Roy said he used heroin before going to the police station.

"I knew I was walking in to a pressure cooker and I didn't want to be sick in there," Roy said.

Roy said he is not seeking sympathy or to escape blame for his situation. He said he has no one to blame but himself for the path his life has taken.

"I have a past. I'm sure everyone has part of their past that's not particularly good," Roy said.

The Robberies

Roy had been released from the Hillsborough County Jail on March 12, where he had been working off a court fine by working in jail. His stays in jail over the years have been the few times he has been off heroin and drug-free.

The day he was released from the jail, which is in Manchester, Roy went back to his familiar habit.

"When I got out of jail that day, I was homeless; I had no money, just basically the clothes on my back," he said. "I went to where I knew I could get heroin."

Roy got high several times that night. With no money and no job, he had no way to get any more heroin. McKim, his new girlfriend, said that Roy owed her $1,000. He didn't say why. That, combined with his need to get more heroin, gave Roy the idea to rob a bank.

He picked Exeter because he grew up in town and knew the area.

"I know Exeter like the back of my hand," he said. "This girl felt that I owed her $1,000, I wanted to be with her for whatever reason, so I figured I could get her $1,000. Looking back on it now, I should have just cut my losses with her."

Roy said he wrote a note that said: "Give me the money, no dye packs."

"I knew no one would get hurt. I know the tellers are told just to give up the money. I wore sunglasses. That was it, I knew they'd have a camera," he said. "I said 'thank you' and I left."

His accomplice in the robbery had parked a car on Park Street by the apartment where Roy used to live in Exeter.

For the next 13 days, Roy moved around to various hotels, doing heroin. He woke up in Manchester the morning of March 26 with no money, no heroin and the beginning of withdrawal symptoms.

"At that point, I had a pretty good habit going. I woke up and I had nothing in terms of drugs," he said. "If you wake up and you have no money, to avoid that sickness (withdrawal symptoms) most people are going to do whatever they have to do to get money."

He said he then hitchhiked to Exeter and selected the First Savings Bank on Lincoln Street this time.

"This one was harder," he said of the second robbery.

He used the same technique of handing a note to the teller at the bank and exiting the front door. He says he then ran out behind the Handkerchief Factory, up the railroad tracks and into a graveyard. And then he sat and waited for hours.

Eventually, he walked out through Westside Drive, up Route 111 and through Pickpocket Woods. He hitchhiked to Route 101 and got back to Manchester.

"No one really asked what I was doing," he said of the people who gave him rides.

Addiction Takes Hold

Roy believes some people, like himself, are born with an addictive personality. But, he said, that's not an excuse. He knows that even those with addictive personalities can kick their habits or never start using in the first place.

"There are things you can do to ensure you stay clean and I didn't do them," he said. "I've had a lot of opportunities in my life and I just wasted them."

He doesn't think some people realize how quickly heroin can take hold of their lives.

"I want people to know that heroin's not a joke," he said.

Drugs started early

Roy moved to Exeter when he was in sixth grade. He never really felt like he fit in at school, characterizing himself as a "misfit." In the 10th grade he dropped out.

"I was more interested in partying and having fun," he said, adding the school was probably glad to see him go. "I'd rather be out smoking pot than going to school ... more or less I was a nuisance."

He ended up getting married in 1982, while he lived in Exeter. He also joined the United States Army Reserve, completing basic training.

"It's something that I had always wanted to do," he said of the Army.

At that point in his life, Roy felt like things were going pretty well. He had obtained his General Equivalency Diploma. He had no criminal record and in 1987 he and his wife moved to Manchester and started a business. Then she asked for a divorce. He says he was "blind-sided" by the divorce.

He turned to prescription drugs. It wasn't hard to get hooked.

"I had a real bad problem," he said.

Roy ended up in a drug rehabilitation facility where he met a girl from Providence, R.I. After he got out of rehab, he went to Providence with her.

"That's where I discovered heroin," he said. "She was a heroin addict."

The first time he did heroin in 1990, Roy said it felt like the drug made him feel normal. It was like he'd had a chemical imbalance that could only be balanced with heroin.

"It was like nothing I'd ever done before, it makes you so comfortable," he said. "I was a heroin addict bound to happen."

Right away, Roy said he had a high tolerance for heroin. But even as he was getting high, he was always thinking of where his next hit would come from.

"You're already worrying about where you're going to get the next one," he said. "It's a constant search to find the money to keep going."

Along the way, he was convicted of nine counts of forgery, and two felony charges of theft by unauthorized taking and robbery.

"I am not proud of these things, nor am I trying to minimize the seriousness of those crimes," he wrote in the letter to the Exeter News-Letter. "I don't deny my criminal record, but a forger is quite different than a gun-toting psychopath."

The felony convictions made it almost impossible to get work, Roy said. For a while he was able to work at State Street Discount, where he had been upfront with his supervisor about his criminal record.

When that supervisor left, he was fired.

After that, it didn't take long for him to start using again. Almost immediately, his addiction was full-blown.

"Heroin just took hold of me," he said. "There's no way you can work and support a heroin addiction."

Since he started using heroin 12 years ago, Roy says his life has been nothing but "in and out of jail." He has been clean when in jail, but always returns to using when he is out. Several times his longtime girlfriend and family got him to quit, but it never lasted.

"She wouldn't tolerate the heroin," he said. "I've basically done it for her and my family. It doesn't last unless you do it for yourself and make a total commitment."

When he decided to turn himself in, Roy said it was because it knew he wanted to get clean.

"I feel relieved to some point. It may sound crazy, but I may have killed myself out there," he said. "I'm tired of this. I feel like if I'm going to have a shot (for a future), it's going to be through the programs that are offered to me."

He said he has heard that the federal prison system has a very good 500-hour drug treatment program.

Roy admits he has wasted a lot of his life. At this point, his family won't talk to him. He has had little involvement in his son's life. He knows he is going to prison. But he said he wants to try to turn his life around.

"I'm 38 years old and I don't want to die in prison."

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