Gambling Weekend Starts a Dangerous Slide Back Into Drugs
A weekend of gambling is just a weekend of fun for some. For others, such a weekend can lead to other problems. For Gary LaTray, it represented a slide back to drugs, alcohol and crime.
A Syracuse report showed LaTray emerged from this weekend to begin almost daily trips to the Turning Stone Casino and Resort. In the process, he started smoking marijuana again to ease his guilt over his gambling. It wasn’t long before he started drinking and using cocaine as well.
LaTray had served more than 17 years for a 1989 armored-car depot robbery. While on probation, he tested positive for marijuana and cocaine. He was adamant that he was not going back to prison and instead dropped out of sight.
“After spending (nearly) 18 years in prison, the thought of going back for one day didn’t appeal to me and it definitely didn’t appeal to my sick mind,” he said in the Syracuse.
According to police, LaTray stole his niece’s car in Oswego and proceeded to go on a robbery spree in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio and Maryland. He is a suspect in the robbery of three banks and two stores in November and December in those states.
LaTray was arrested while napping at the home of his girlfriend in West Virginia. In his first interview since his arrest, LaTray spoke for an hour and a half about his life after prison, helping others, a struggle with gambling, drugs and alcohol and his latest downfall.
“I don’t know what charges I have and where,” he said. “I know I’m going to have to do some time and probably for quite a while.”
