Monday, July 7, 2008 | 2 a.m.
Illicit drug use has long been linked to crime. But with the surge in drug addiction linked to prescribed narcotics, there’s a new wrinkle in that crime.
Consider the case of the seven members of a Henderson household who were held hostage by an armed OxyContin addict.
He was arrested only after the victims bashed him in the head with a frying pan, subdued him and then led him outside the front door to waiting police.
The following account is taken from the Henderson Police report.
About 4 a.m. May 10, Steven Morales, 28, robbed a Green Valley Walgreens, holding four women at gunpoint, taking only OxyContin pills, and then driving away in a gray Cadillac.
Responding officers saw Morales in front of Sunset Station, where he sped off into a residential neighborhood. He ditched the vehicle and broke into house near Russell Road and Mountain Vista Street.
Inside, he awakened a sleeping couple, demanding their help to evade police.
Another person in the house entered the bedroom, saw Morales with the gun and fled, locking herself in a bathroom.
Four children in another room laid low.
Morales was given car keys, but when he stepped outside he saw he was surrounded by police. By now, the living room was awash with the spotlight of a hovering police helicopter.
Morales gathered the three adults into the family room, then sat at the dining room table, where he opened pill bottles, crushed the OxyContin and snorted the powder.
Morales called his girlfriend, saying he was in big trouble. He grew relaxed and placed the gun in his waistband. One of the hostages was allowed to make coffee.
But the hostage had a different plan. He returned from the kitchen with a frying pan, dropping Morales to the ground with a blow to the head. Morales, stunned, stood up and stumbled toward the front door, but he was tripped by one of the female hostages and fell on his face. She ran outside.
The other two ganged up on Morales, wailing on him more with the frying pan while clamoring for his gun.
Morales fired the gun, missed, and was finally controlled by the male hostage.
He put Morales in a Full Nelson neck hold and marched him out the door to police.
Morales faces a litany of charges, including two counts of attempted murder with a deadly weapon, seven counts of kidnapping with a deadly weapon and five counts of robbery with a deadly weapon.
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