By Jeff Goldman
nj.com
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — The 44-year-old leader of a New Jersey drug ring who sold heroin that killed a man and later ran his operation while jailed has been sentenced to 22 years in state prison.
Emery Chapman, of Pleasantville, will have to serve at least nine years before he is eligible for parole, the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office.
Chapman used contraband cell phones to overseeing a drug dealing operation in 2020 while incarcerated in Atlantic County and Georgia, officials said. His dealers bought drugs in Philadelphia and re-sold them in Atlantic City.
Investigators said they found 19,650 bags of heroin, which weighed a total of 9.5 ounces.
In December 2018, authorities said Champman supplied heroin to Brian Whitted. Whitted, 61, of Galloway later sold some of the heroin to a 59-year-old man who overdosed and died.
Whitted is currently serving a 10-year term in state prison.
Chapman pleaded guilty in September to being the leader of a narcotics trafficking network, possession of heroin with intent to distribute and strict liability for causing a drug induced death — all first-degree offenses.
He was also charged with shooting a man at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Atlantic City in a hallway near a parking deck in 2019. The outcome of those charges was not immediately clear, though he was arrested 11 days after the shooting on a gun charge in Georgia.
Three of Chapman’s associates previously pleaded guilty and are scheduled to be sentenced later this month. Tennille Lee, 47, of Atlantic City and Teresa Lockhart, 37, of Millville are expected to receive five years each in prison while Ebony Chapman, 43, of Absecon made a deal to get probation.
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