Nathaniel Plummer Sr. is the father of the 13-year-old boy who was shot and killed Jan. 7 in Camden.
CAMDEN -- A Gloucester City man whose son was murdered while he was incarcerated earlier this year admitted in federal court that he ran an "open-air drug market" in Camden over several years.
Nathaniel "Shug" Plummer Sr., 32, is the father of Nathaniel Plummer Jr., who was 13 when he was shot and killed Jan. 7. His father was allowed out of federal detention in Philadelphia to attend and assist with his son's funeral, court records show.
The elder Plummer pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Camden Monday to a single charge of conspiracy to possess and distribute heroin. As part of the plea agreement, the U.S. attorney's office dropped another charge of conspiracy to distribute cocaine.
According to documents filed in court by the U.S. attorney's office, Plummer Sr. managed a drug set, or market, where he supervised underlings working shifts on the 400 block of Atlantic Avenue.
He supplied them with crack cocaine and heroin, collected cash from them, and in one case, tried to pay off a woman who had been shot by one of his workers to avoid criminal charges, documents show.
Prosecutors alleged that Plummer Sr. managed the market with his brother, Randolph "Dolph" Plummer, and that the market was "owned" by Leon "Unc" McCargo. The three men and nine others were arrested in September 2015 as part of the investigation into drug markets on Atlantic Avenue and Pfeiffer Street, according to court records.
Hundreds mourn 13-year-old at funeral
FBI Special Agent Michael Bailey said in a sworn statement that authorities began investigating the drug ring in December of 2013. They used confidential sources, video, electronic and telephone surveillance and GPS vehicle tracking devices to build their case. They also conducted controlled buys from the workers selling drugs on the street around the clock, Bailey said.
Sentencing for Plummer Sr. is set for Feb. 1. According to the plea agreement, he faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
The U.S. attorney's office did not recommend a specific sentence, but both sides agreed that the severity of his crime and Plummer's criminal record -- three felony convictions resulting in a total of 12 years in prison -- make him a "level 32" on the sentencing guidelines. According to the guidelines, a level 32 offense comes with a recommended sentence of at least 10 years.
Casche Alford, 17, left, with her lawyer Jordan Zeitz, at the Camden County Courthouse May 13, 2016. (Photo provided | David Swanson, Philadelphia Inquirer) Plummer's 13-year-old son was the first homicide in Camden in 2016. Charged in his killing is 17-year-old Casche Alford of Camden.
Prosecutors said at Alford's arraignment that the two teenagers knew each other and Alford shot the boy after he got out of her car and walked away.
The boy's mother, Taisha Mercado, told the Courier-Post after her son was killed that he had only intermittent contact with his father but had spent two months living with him in the summer of 2015.
He was with his father when he was arrested in September, and Mercado told the newspaper that the incident "took a toll on him."
Mercado told the paper that after her son told a counselor that he was in a gang, she tried unsuccessfully to get him admitted into a residential behavioral health program.
Rebecca Everett may be reached at reverett@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @rebeccajeverett. Find NJ.com on Facebook.