A Durham man charged in the July 24 Spears Pharmacy armed robbery made his first appearance in Halifax County District Court after his release on a $10,000 unsecured bond Friday in Durham County.

Andre Dixon Jr. told Judge W. Rob Lewis II he planned to hire his own attorney and he was assigned a district court date of October 26.

The matter of bond was not addressed during the brief morning session in which Lewis told Dixon he could face up to 252 months in prison if found guilty.

On his way out of the courthouse, Dixon had no comment, and two people accompanying him discouraged him from commenting.

Roanoke Rapids police Chief Shane Guyant said, “He did show up. The district attorney’s office said there is little that can be done about (the) bond because he did show up.”

Had Dixon failed to show up for court this morning his bond would have gone to $10,000 secured and he would have had to pay $10,000 or have a bail bondsman post up to 15 percent of that amount.

Dixon, of Durham, is the second person charged in the robbery after Ramon Anderson, 35, of Raleigh, was arrested in Wake County.

Dixon was served with warrants for conspiracy to commit armed robbery and felony aid and abet armed robbery.

Anderson faces charges of armed robbery, conspiracy to commit armed robbery, trafficking opium, and conspiracy to traffick opium.

In the Spears robbery the masked and armed men moved all employees to the back at gunpoint and used a garbage bag to fill it with specific narcotics which were described as controlled substances.

There were 98 varieties of medications stolen from Spears which represent thousands of prescription pills including Oxycodone, morphine, hydrocodone, amphetamines and others.