Another arrest in Rite Aid robberies

SOUTH SALT LAKE — A man wanted in connection with three armed robberies, including two of the recent rash of Rite Aid robberies, was arrested Friday.

Garden Paxon Westgate, 21, was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail for investigation of three counts of aggravated robbery and possession of stolen property. Westgate is accused of robbing Rite Aid stores in South Salt Lake, Cottonwood Heights and an Albertsons in West Jordan.

On Sept. 10, two men walked into Rite Aid, 635 E. 3300 South, pistol whipped a customer and robbed the pharmacy of OxyContin. A few hours later, the same two men went to another Rite Aid on Fort Union Boulevard near 2400 East, and one man robbed that store while the other waited in the getaway car.

After the Rite Aid robberies, Westgate's accomplice overdosed on the OxyContin they had stolen and died, according to a Salt Lake County Jail report.

The next day, Westgate went to Albertsons, 6950 S. Redwood, and robbed the store "with the hope of getting caught and committing suicide by cop," according to jail records.

With investigators already receiving enough tips about Westgate that they were closing in on him, he went to the South Salt Lake Police Department on Thursday night to turn himself in, the jail report states. Westgate and his mother then gave detectives permission to search their home. Inside the house, police found liquid morphine, Percocet and some of the prescriptions stolen from the South Salt Lake store.

There has been a rash of Rite Aid robberies across Salt Lake County over the past three months, as well as a string of recent arrests.

Travis Fletcher was charged recently with robbing two Rite Aid stores. Brothers Dennis Denisko, 30, and Alexander Denisko, 27, were arrested after police say they robbed the Rite Aid store at 635 East earlier this week.

Also this month, a federal grand jury returned a four count indictment against six people involved in two Rite Aid robberies, including the South Salt Lake store again. Some of those charges were against members of the same family, the Dubarrys, who had a father, mother and a 19-year-old son charged. The mother committed suicide in jail after her arrest.

In an ironic coincidence, South Salt Lake police detective Gary Keller said Westgate was arrested and put in jail on an unrelated traffic violation before his arrest on the armed robberies. During his time in jail, his cellmate was one of the Dubarrys, he said.

e-mail: preavy@desnews.com