Jonathan Ray Plymale, a defendant in a 2009 cocaine bust that contributed to a University review of the Greek system, was sentenced to nearly two years in jail Tuesday.
Plymale, 24, was sentenced to 20 months in jail plus five years of probation, after pleading guilty to several charges, including felony conspiracy to traffic cocaine, trafficking cocaine and maintaining a dwelling for keeping a controlled substance.
That sentence was relatively lenient because he immediately cooperated with the investigation, said Orange County District Attorney Jim Woodall.
“The standard punishment is 35 to 42 months,” he said. “The judge deviated from that because the judge found that Mr. Plymale assisted the police.”
According to court documents, Plymale made a full confession to police and provided information regarding the addresses and other details for four local drug dealers in Burlington and Chapel Hill. Efforts to act on that information were inhibited by the community’s awareness of Plymale’s arrest, court documents state.
Plymale was arrested Sept. 15, 2009, after a police informant bought cocaine from him at the Chancellor Square apartment of Eliza Vaughan. She was sentenced to 36 months of probation in October.
Woodall said Vaughan received a lighter sentence primarily because she was tried by a different judge, although they faced roughly the same charges.
Police found 76.8 grams of cocaine at Vaughan’s apartment at 211 Church St. They later found about 121 grams of the drug in Plymale’s apartment in a building associated with the UNC chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity.
The busts led to the arrests of five others.