JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A former Florida Highway Patrol trooper was sentenced to 21 years in federal prison Wednesday for robbing a string of pharmacies in Columbia County in 2021 and 2022, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Middle District of Florida.
In November 2023, a jury found Jesse Rance Moore, 46, guilty of seven different charges including four counts of Hobbs Act robberies and three counts of brandishing a firearm during the robberies, officials said.
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Court documents and evidence presented at trial, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was first notified about a masked man robbing several pharmacies in Columbia County after the North Florida Pharmacy of Fort White was robbed at gunpoint in January 2022.
Moore, who was masked at the time of the robberies, was captured by surveillance cameras brandishing a black handgun and demanding controlled substances. These controlled substances included Oxycodone, Oxycontin, and Percocet.
Moore was last seen fleeing southbound on US Highway 27. Thankfully, a good Samaritan was able to follow him and got Moore’s license plate number.
This license plate number and description matched Moore’s White F-350 which was registered to Moore, and one of the other cars involved in the robberies matched the description of Moore’s wife’s recently rented car before the robberies, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The FBI discovered that both of these vehicles were used in the three pharmacy robberies that happened in 2021 and 2022.
Moore was a Florida Highway Patrol trooper from January 2003 to February 2017, according to officials. During his employment, Moore had several disciplinary issues and was twice terminated for misconduct but reached multiple settlement agreements to convert his dismissals to suspensions.