A convicted robber who just got out of prison in July was charged Wednesday with two counts of first-degree robbery, allegations that could send him to prison for the rest of his life.
Michael James Hoover, 33, of Seattle allegedly committed six robberies between Dec. 28 and Feb. 2, according to charging papers filed in Snohomish County Superior Court.
The charges stem from Feb. 2 heists of a Chevron gas station on Highway 530 near Arlington and a QFC grocery store on Mukilteo Speedway in south Mukilteo.
After the Mukilteo robbery, Hoover and a companion driving a Nissan led Mukilteo and Lynnwood police on a high-speed chase that ended with the Nissan backing into an officer’s patrol car, deputy prosecutor Tobin Darrow said.
The companion has been charged with attempting to elude a pursuing police vehicle, Darrow said.
Hoover ran away after the crash, but a police dog soon nabbed him, Darrow said.
After he was taken into custody, Hoover told police he “had been committing robberies every other day since July” and had spent the proceeds on rock cocaine and his friends, Darrow said.
If Hoover is convicted, it would be a three-strike conviction for him. He was convicted of first-degree robbery in 1999 and second-degree robbery in 2004. A new robbery conviction would brand him a persistent offender, meaning he has convictions for three serious felonies. Under state law, that would require Hoover be given a life term in prison without release.
The series of holdups started Dec. 28 with a QFC grocery store in south Everett. Robberies continued with an AM-PM Mini Mart on 128th Street SW and an Espresso Connection on Sixth Avenue W. in Everett.
Early on the morning of Feb. 2, the Chevron station and Mukilteo QFC were hit, as was a Circle K next to the Chevron.
In the last QFC heist, a clerk was unable to open the cash drawer. Darrow accused Hoover of kicking the cash register, grabbing the money drawer from it and running out with it under his arm.
Police found a gun and an unopened cash register drawer in the back seat of the Nissan that they chased out of the QFC parking lot.
While being treated at a hospital for the police dog bite, Hoover insistently told police he needed to know how much money had been in the cash drawer because it was his third strike. He had to know how much he would have gotten, Darrow said.
Officers at the hospital told him they didn’t know.
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