Alleged 'Spice' Robber: 'I'm About To Do Something Really Shady'

A man who allegedly held up a Cartersville store knew the clerk by name and apparently wanted synthetic marijuana rather than cash.

"I'm about to do something really shady," he said before pulling out a gun and pointing it at the clerk during the Tuesday incident about 10:50 p.m., according to the Bartow County Sheriff's Office report, attached.

The clerk, a 24-year-old Cartersville woman, told police John Anthony Monaco III, 29, of Crestview Lane in Cartersville, came in the Citgo on Highway 113 and asked how much "Spice" they had. She said she told Monaco she couldn't sell the synthetic marijuana to him and he pulled the .38 Special authorities later recovered, according to the report.

"He stated give it to me, I threw it (Spice) on [the] counter, he grabbed it, turned around and ran out of the door," the report reads.

A witness told police he spotted a man run out of the store and jump into a green Ford Expedition that sped off. It had two other occupants, police say.

Jacob Shane Monaco, 21, also of Crestview Lane, and John Monaco's brother, and Matthew Zane Irwin, 21, of Grassdale Road in Cartersville, were also implicated in the alleged hold up.

While John Monaco faces armed robbery, aggravated assault and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime charges, the younger men are each charged as parties to those alleged crimes. John Monaco and Irwin also face another charge—possession of a firearm by a convicted felon or first-offender probationer.

The clerk told police she knew the brothers, who frequented the convenience store. The "Spice," a street name for synthetic marijuana, is apparently valued at $100.

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