A prosecutor told jurors Tuesday that a woman accused of being the getaway driver for a man who robbed a cafe in downtown Grants Pass was not forced to participate in the crime as she claims, and that evidence Ñ including chocolate milk Ñ will prove that.

Karrie Butcher, 31, of Medford, is charged with first- and second-degree robbery, eluding and reckless driving for the Jan. 28 robbery, which occurred at about 7:40 a.m. at 6th Street Coffee & Deli at 208 S.W. Sixth St.

During her opening statement in Butcher’s trial Tuesday, Josephine County Chief Deputy District Attorney Lisa Turner told the jury that Butcher will claim the robber, 35-year-old Edward Adams, forced her to participate in the robbery by threatening to harm her young son.

However, she said, evidence in the case will show that Butcher was not being held against her will, and waited patiently in her parked car on Sixth Street while Adams covered his face, put on a hood and held up the business with a realistic looking BB gun.

Dale Van Vliet, owner of 6th Street Coffee & Deli, testified he was working in a back room when he heard his wife, Marilyn, call to him from the front counter.

“She called it in a voice where I immediately knew I had to go up right away because something wasn’t right,” Van Vliet said.

He went to the front of the store and saw a hooded man with a scarf covering his face who was wearing large black gloves and carrying a gun, he said.

“I could see it was trouble, he was completely masked. You couldn’t see his face,” Van Vliet testified.

Turner had shown the jury the BB gun used in the robbery and she handed it to Van Vliet on the witness stand so he could demonstrate how the robber had carried it. Van Vliet stood and held the gun at his side, pointed toward the floor.

“He never pointed it at us,” Van Vliet said of the robber, describing him as “very calm and not mean Ñ very matter-of-fact.”

He told jurors he didn’t know at the time that the gun was only a BB gun, and one of the thoughts that raced through his mind was that if “push came to shove” perhaps the robber wouldn’t be able to fire the gun because of the bulky gloves he was wearing.

Van Vliet said he pulled the cash drawer out of the register and placed it on the counter and the robber began to take the cash with his left hand and stuff it in his pocket.

Meanwhile, he said, his wife bent down to grab a box below the counter that contained more money, and the robber bristled and asked what she was doing. She explained that there was more cash, placed the box on the counter, and the robber took money from that as well, Van Vliet said.

While the robbery was occurring, a regular customer came in and Van Vliet said he tried to make eye contact with the man to convey that something was wrong. However, the robbery wrapped up quickly and the robber calmly walked out of the store down Sixth Street with $274 in stolen cash, Van Vliet said.

Van Vliet instructed his wife to call 911 and he and the customer exited the store and saw the robber walking down the sidewalk. As the robber approached a parked white Lincoln Continental, the passenger door popped open, the robber got in and the car drove off, Van Vliet said.

Grants Pass police officers responded and followed the car in a brief chase that ended in Reinhart Volunteer Park, where the car went over curbs, struck trees and collided with a police vehicle before a male passenger bailed out and tried to flee on foot. The man, later identified as Adams, was quickly apprehended.

Turner told the jury that the driver, Butcher, was found covered in chocolate milk, which had also spilled all over the floorboard on the driver’s side of the getaway car. She alleged that Butcher had shoplifted the milk from another business shortly before the robbery, and reasoned that if Butcher really was being held against her will, she wouldn’t have had the time or frame of mind to be enjoying chocolate milk.

Turner alleged that Butcher participated in the robbery by choice, and pointed to Van Vliet’s account of someone inside the Lincoln popping open the passenger door to let the robber in. She said Butcher and Adams had spent the previous night at a local “flophouse” frequented by drug users and had spent all night talking. According to Turner, Adams was romantically interested in Butcher and may have wanted the cash from the robbery to rent a motel room for the two of them.

“He was hoping to get lucky,” she said.

She also alleged that Adams and Butcher had driven to the Bridge Street Market the morning of the robbery, and that Adams “cased” that business but decided not to rob it because the elderly clerk there reminded him of his grandmother.

According to Turner, Butcher had a cocktail of drugs in her system at the time of her arrest and kept nodding off during interviews with detectives on the day of the crime.

In addition to the robbery charges, Butcher is charged with second-degree theft Ñ for allegedly shoplifting the chocolate milk Ñ and possession of heroin.

Defense attorney Deborah Cumming said in her opening statement that the case amounts to nothing more than a “he said, she said” situation, and implied that Adams’ testimony Ñ expected today Ñ should be suspect because of his recent plea deal.

Edwards was sentenced last month to 70 months in prison for the 6th Street Coffee & Deli robbery as well as a robbery at the Radio Shack at 193 N.E. Seventh St. on Jan. 6 Ñ a crime authorities said he committed with a male accomplice.

Cumming said Butcher was plainly relieved when police arrived the day of the robbery, and that jurors will find her account of what happened to be consistent.

“You’re going to hear evidence that she was clear from the get-go,” Cumming said.

Testimony in the trial resumes today.