An Ipswich man, who has pleaded not guilty to allegations that he threatened to “stick” a CVS employee with a blood-filled syringe during a shoplifting incident in the West End, is facing new charges for a similar offense at a Star Market in Back Bay, the Suffolk district attorney’s office said.
When Robert Griffin Sullivan went to Boston Municipal Court’s central division on Wednesday for a pretrial hearing in the CVS matter, he was arrested and charged with armed robbery in the Star Market case, the district attorney’s office said in a statement.
Sullivan, 25, pleaded not guilty. His bail was set at $500, and he was ordered to stay away from the Star Market at 53 Huntington Ave., the statement said.
“We share with retailers and consumers throughout the city the same desire for safe shopping spaces and safe workspaces,” Suffolk District Attorney Kevin R. Hayden said in the statement. “Retail-based theft, particularly by repeat offenders, poses an intolerable threat to those goals.”
The Star Market incident happened on July 27, one day before the CVS incident, prosecutors said.
When police were called to Star Market at 10:18 a.m. on a Saturday, store managers told officers it was the second time a man had “threatened employees with a needle while stealing meat products,” the district attorney’s office said.
When a Star Market employee confronted the fleeing shoplifter, he allegedly “pulled out a hypodermic needle and threatened to stab him” with it, prosecutors said.
The next day at 8:16 a.m., when police were called to a CVS on Cambridge Street, employees reported that a man filled his arms with paper towels and cashew nuts and tried to leave without paying, prosecutors said.
When an employee tried to stop him, Sullivan allegedly said: “Not today man. You stop me and I will pull out a needle full of my blood and stick you with it.”
Tonya Alanez can be reached at tonya.alanez@globe.com. Follow her @talanez.