ROCKINGHAM — A habitual felon with a criminal record dating back nearly 40 years is facing more than a dozen drug charges.
Investigators with the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office say 57-year-old Robert McBride sold crack cocaine during a controlled buy on several occasions, including on Jan. 7, 8 and 13.
One of the buys took place in the parking lot of a store on U.S. 1 South and two of them took place at McBride’s Pickett Street home, according to the sheriff’s office.
McBride was arrested on Jan. 24 and remains in the Richmond County Jail charged with the following crimes: four counts of selling a Schedule II controlled substance; four counts of delivering a Schedule II controlled substance; four counts of possession with intent to manufacture, sell or deliver a Schedule II controlled substance; and four counts of maintaining a vehicle, dwelling or place for a controlled substance.
He is being held in lieu of a $75,000 secured bond and is scheduled to appear in court Feb. 6.
McBride was first convicted in 1980 of misdemeanor larceny in Anson County, according to records with the N.C. Department of Public Safety Division of Adult Correction. The following year, he was convicted of felony breaking and entering.
In 1984, McBride was convicted of assault on a female and trespassing in Cumberland County. Early the following year, he was convicted of aiding and abetting shoplifting and trespassing, causing his probation to be revoked on the prior two convictions and resulting in a five-month prison stay.
Two months after his release, McBride was convicted of shoplifting and two counts of misdemeanor larceny, landing him behind bars for another nine months.
Two months after that release, records show, he was convicted of felony larceny in Anson County, but received probation.
McBride’s probation was revoked four months after that conviction and was again incarcerated, from November 1986 until May 1991. In 1987, while in prison, he was convicted of misdemeanor larceny in Cumberland County. That sentence ran concurrent to the one he was serving, records show.
Less than two months before that sentence ended, he was convicted of shoplifting, adding nearly 14 extra months to his incarceration.
Following his release in mid-1992, McBride stayed out of trouble for nearly a decade. But in 1992, he was given probation for possession with intent to sell a Schedule II controlled substance in Richmond County.
Again, his probation was revoked the following year when he was convicted on two more counts of that crime (one attempted) in Anson County, landing him in prison for another 10 months.
In 2009, McBride was convicted of possession with intent to sell a Schedule II controlled substance, possession of a Schedule II controlled substance and maintaining any place for a controlled substance and was locked up for nearly nine months.
His most recent conviction, again in Anson County, was in 2011 for possession of a Schedule II controlled substance and being a habitual felon. McBride was released in July 2016.
All defendants facing criminal charges are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
