Suspect grins, denies he’s ‘bad-tooth bandit’

Aaron Wayne Coats says there’s no way he’s the notorious armed robber who pulled more than 30 holdups in six weeks. His proof? A big, toothy grin - with the exception of a two-tooth gap on the bottom row. “I don’t have a beautiful smile or anything, but my teeth are OK. I’m just missing a few,” Coats said from the Spokane County Jail on Tuesday. Based on reports describing the suspect, Coats said he must have really bad teeth. Spokane Police arrested Coats last week after a customer chased him from a grocery store on East Francis. Police said he tried to hold up the store clerk with a fake gold gun, which was found on the ground near the store. Police believe Coats, 30, is responsible for most of the armed robberies that have plagued the city and county since Oct. 1. Detectives so far link him to 32 of the 48 holdups, relying partly on a string of victims and witnesses who described the robber as having a mouthful of crooked, decayed or missing teeth. Coats insists they have the wrong man. “I’m no robber,” he said. “It wasn’t me.” The unemployed welder admitted being high on heroin when police arrested him at gunpoint at Brideport and Division. His drug addiction has been with him since he was a teenager and has “cost me everything.” Detectives’ speculation that he robbed store clerks to support that habit is wrong, he said. “There are a lot of easier ways to get money for dope than running around sticking people up,” said Coats, a newlywed. “You can make better money dealing it.” Barbara Ann Johnson, 39, was booked into jail for first-degree robbery with her husband Nov. 17. Although she is legally blind at night, police said she drove Coats from Excell Foods when the robbery attempt fell apart. The couple got married three months ago. Coats said he merely got into a fistfight with the store’s clerk and started running when “some guy started chasing me.” When police finally caught up with him, Coats said they stuck their gloved fingers in his mouth to check for missing teeth. “They felt that hole in there and took me to the ground,” he said. “I didn’t know what was going on.” Coats said he became an alcoholic when he was 17, and started smoking marijuana during a four-year stint in the Navy. Later, he graduated to cocaine and has been injecting heroin in his veins for 10 years. It took nearly five days going through withdrawal in jail before he felt strong enough to stand up or talk, Coats said. For the first four, jail workers kept him in a cell alone. “I was sick,” he said. “Real sick. I still am. I can’t explain it. I feel like I’m staring death in the face.” Coats said he and his wife, also a drug addict, planned to check themselves into a rehabilitation clinic the day after they were arrested. They loaded their belongings from an apartment at W827 Knox into moving vans and checked into an East Sprague motel. Then they went grocery shopping at Excell Foods and their “plans went to hell,” Coats said. “We were trying to get help,” he said, rubbing bloodshot eyes. “We were ready to do it together and now this. It’s a mess.” Looking around the cement and glass visiting room, Coats said he knew people who could help him post the $100,000 bail that would get him out of jail. He would never ask them to do it though. “It’d be a waste of money,” he said. “Because I know I’d run. I’d take off. Outta here.”