The voice behind the ski mask and handgun was one that convenience store clerk William McLaughlin thought he recognized.
On the witness stand Friday in Westmoreland County Judge John Blahovec's courtroom, McLaughlin, 30, a convenience store clerk from Hempfield Township, put a name to the voice that had alternately threatened to shoot him and apologized for robbing the store. He testified that it was John J. Clougherty, a regular customer at the 7-11 store at Fosterville Road and Route 136 in Hempfield Township's Fort Allen section, where he has worked for eight years.
Clougherty and his wife, Kimberly, of 230 Partridge Drive, Hempfield, are charged with the June 29, 2003, early-morning robbery of the 7-11 and fleeing in a stolen car.
The robbery and police pursuit that followed led to the discovery of thousands of dollars worth of stolen items at the Clougherty's business, John's Auto Body along Route 30 west in Hempfield, and the Clougherty residence. The items, taken in a series of burglaries, included toys gathered by a charitable group to distribute to children suffering from cancer.
"He was a customer at the store for about five years at that point," McLaughlin said under questioning by Tom Grace, assistant district attorney. McLaughlin said Clougherty would come in "four or five times a week" and his wife also was a regular customer and was in the store about once a week.
"He made a number of statements during this whole incident that he needed a fix, that he was doing this because he needed a fix," McLaughlin said. "He threatened to shoot me when I hesitated to open the drawer."
The bandit, wearing a black ski mask, black gloves and a dark hooded sweatshirt, came into the store at 5:20 a.m. and took $90 in cash from the register, commemorative stamps, cigarettes and disposable lighters before fleeing in a dark-colored Jeep Grand Cherokee.
Police from five departments later chased the vehicle at speeds ranging from 75 to 100 mph until it ran off Brush Creek Road and into a field, the driver fleeing on foot into a wooded area. Clougherty was apprehended in the wooded area and had to be physically subdued by police.
Kim Clougherty later was apprehended in a house on Forest Avenue. Police went to the house after an Irwin police officer who, prior to the chase, followed the Jeep to that address and saw a blonde woman get out of the vehicle. Officer William Supancic said the woman ran up to the house but hid on the porch, and he left to continue following the Jeep, which then drove away.
According to McLaughlin, the Cloughertys regularly bought menthol cigarettes, often Newport 100s. When the bandit demanded a carton of cigarettes, McLaughlin asked him what brand and the bandit said, "Newports."
That led Harry Smail, John Clougherty's attorney, to ask McLaughlin, who said he has been robbed at the store before, if he is always so accommodating to robbers, asking them what brand of cigarettes they prefer. McLaughlin said he tries to give armed robbers what they ask for. Under further questioning by Grace, he said he did not want to give the bandit cigarettes he did not want for fear that he might become angry and shoot him.
Under Smail's questioning McLaughlin said he mentioned to his assistant manager that the bandit's voice sounded like John Clougherty's. Smail pressed him on why he didn't report immediately to the 911 dispatcher or the police that he thought it was Clougherty's voice.
"I didn't want to accuse anyone on the basis of his voice, and I did not think John Clougherty would go that far," McLaughlin replied.
But he said his suspicion was confirmed when he read in a newspaper the next day that Clougherty had been arrested.
Smail also challenged McLaughlin's statements to police regarding Clougherty's height, the color of clothing worn by the bandit and the handgun he carried. McLaughlin seemed unfazed by the questioning and stuck with his testimony.
Scott Avolio, the attorney for Kim Clougherty, asked McLaughlin if he saw anyone else in the Jeep when it drove away, and McLaughlin said he did not. Avolio also tried but seemed unsuccessful in shaking Supancic's testimony that it was his client he saw exit the Jeep and go to the Forest Avenue house.
When the Jeep was searched, police said they found stamps and cigarettes taken in the robbery and a black ski mask. Police said when Kim Clougherty was found hiding behind a sofa in the basement of the house, she had with her items taken during the robbery, a handgun, and two pipes used for smoking crack cocaine.
Crack was the root of the Cloughertys' problems, Smail said in his opening statement to the jury, in which he also indicated that his client used the Jeep left at his business for repairs, not knowing it was stolen. He described Clougherty as a self-made man who built a successful business but then made the mistake of using crack cocaine.
"Did Mr. Clougherty live the American Dream⢠Absolutely," Smail said. "Did he lose the American Dream⢠Pretty much, thanks to crack cocaine, but that does not make him a criminal."
In his opening, Avolio said the charges against Kim Clougherty were just an attempt to "shoehorn" her into the case in an attempt to put pressure on the Cloughertys, who have two adult children.
But Grace's co-prosecutor, Chris Nichols, tried to keep the jury focused on the crimes. He referred to the stolen items found in the Clougherty's home and business as "deplorable."
"All the commonwealth has to prove is that they were in possession of items they knew to be stolen," Nichols said.
The trial is expected to run through most of next week.
