SAXONBURG — A suspected serial drugstore robber was ordered today to face court for just one holdup.

But Robert James Gourley, 38, of Butler Township could soon find himself formally charged in a half dozen additional robberies.

Prosecutors and police acknowledge they are looking at Gourley as the man who robbed seven pharmacies in Butler and Armstrong counties between November 2007 and last Nov. 24.

Potent prescription painkillers and not money, investigators said, was the motive for the holdups.

District Judge Sue Haggerty at a preliminary hearing today ruled that Gourley will stand trial in the Nov. 24 armed robbery of the Saxonburg Drug store on Pittsburgh Road in Saxonburg.