A Littleton man who initially entered a not guilty plea to cocaine distribution charges pleaded guilty Tuesday to two counts charged against him in August.

One Roanoke Rapids man has already been sentenced in the case in which the government said Mark Vincent Dean, the man already sentenced, and Shermarquette Whitaker, who took a plea Tuesday, conspired to distribute trafficking amounts of cocaine.

Whitaker pleaded guilty to count one of an indictment that charged he, Dean, and Jacobi Harvey had a tacit understanding to possess and distribute cocaine. 

Whitaker also pleaded guilty to count four of the indictment which charges he and Dean on September 23 of 2019 aided and abetted one another to possess and distribute 500 or more grams of cocaine.

In the proceedings before District Judge James C. Dever III in Raleigh, Whitaker entered a not guilty plea on count two, which charges on July 21, 2016, he possessed a firearm as a convicted felon.

Whitaker is scheduled for sentencing during the September 7 term of court in Raleigh before Dever.

Harvey, the only person indicted who was allowed pretrial release, has an August 2 arraignment set in Raleigh before Dever.

The charge reflecting the distribution of 500 kilos or more of cocaine stems from a 2019 traffic stop in Wilson County in which more than 10 pounds were seized in a joint operation with the Roanoke Rapids Police Department, North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation and the Wilson County Sheriff’s Office. Both Dean and Whitaker were charged with trafficking cocaine in that case.