Student pleads guilty to stickups (Billings Gazette)30 September 2009, 1:50 amBy TRISTAN SCOTT Missoulian | Posted: Tuesday, September 29, 2009 11:15 pm
MISSOULA - A 21-year-old University of Montana student arrested in March in a string of drug-related armed robberies at a Walgreens pharmacy pleaded guilty to the federal charges on Tuesday.
Daniel Wilson Nania was arrested March 4 after police served a warrant on his rental home and found numerous prescription drugs, a pellet gun, a canister of pepper spray and other incriminating evidence.
At Tuesday's hearing in U.S. District Court in Missoula, Nania admitted to robbing the Walgreens pharmacy on North Reserve Street on Jan. 31, Feb. 21 and March 3.
According to a charging document, authorities found 10,000 prescription pills in Nania's basement bedroom when they raided his home. They also recovered a bulletproof vest, a dictionary "stash box" containing $3,132, and a black garbage bag holding the clothes worn during two of the robberies - camouflage pants, hiking boots and a dark-colored jacket with a stripe and sunglasses.
During one of the robberies, Nania forced two employees to lie on their stomachs and threatened to shoot them if they moved.
Missoula police detectives identified Nania as a primary suspect when, during the second robbery, he handed the pharmacist a handwritten note that read: "Oxycontin and Xanax or I Blow your head OFF NOW!"
The pharmacist kept the piece of paper, and forensic analysts at the Montana State Crime Lab in Missoula lifted a thumbprint from it. Detectives cross-referenced the latent print with known offenders in a federal database, and determined it belonged to Nania.
Nania told police that he has abused prescription drugs for seven years, according to records.
In addition to the three counts of robbery of a controlled substance, Nania is charged with possession with intent to distribute Oxycontin in a public school zone, because he kept the drugs at his home near Hellgate High School.
If convicted, Nania faces a possible penalty of 25 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and five years of supervised release. Sentencing is set for Jan. 14, 2010.
Since his arrest, Nania has enrolled in the Narconon program, a long-term, private-pay residential drug treatment program in Colorado. He has passed all urine analyses and breath tests, and he will complete the program in mid-November.Assistant U.S. Attorney Tara Elliott, who is prosecuting the case, did not object to Smith's motion for Nania's continued release.
