Jacobi Harvey is expected to take a plea in his federal cocaine distribution case, according to documents filed earlier this week.
In seeking a continuance on Harvey’s arraignment, originally set for August, Harvey’s attorney, Thomas C. Manning, requested in a motion that the proceedings be moved until the September term of court in Raleigh.
The reasons for the continuance include that the government has no objections to the motion and that Harvey is scheduled to undergo orthopaedic surgery next week and will be at the hospital and his residence for up to two weeks and then receiving rehabilitative therapy of at least two weeks if not up to four weeks. “Defendant will be entering a plea of guilty pursuant to a memorandum of plea agreement at (the) arraignment,” Manning wrote.
District Judge James C. Dever III approved the motion, court records show.
Harvey was the only defendant in the case who was not ordered to the custody of the United States Marshals Service in a case in which Shermarquette Whitaker and Mark Vincent Dean were also charged.
Whitaker entered a guilty plea and Dean was sentenced to 78 months in prison.
The indictment says Whitaker is reportedly linked to 5 kilograms he intended to distribute while Dean intended to distribute 500 grams and Harvey what is described in the charges as a quantity of cocaine.
Whitaker pleaded guilty to count one of the indictment that charged he, Dean, and 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.
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.
