HOLLIDAYSBURG — A New Jersey man who was selling drugs in August 2023 inside a downtown Altoona apartment complex has rendered guilty pleas in Blair County court for a sentence of 4.5 to 10 years’ incarceration.

Erman A. “Cash” Richardson, 41, who has been in the county prison since June 18, when he was extradited from New Jersey after being detained on an arrest warrant, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to two counts of possession with intent to deliver and criminal use of a communications facility in connection with two separate sales, each involving more than 100 bags of heroin.

President Judge Wade A. Kagarise accepted Richardson’s guilty pleas for the negotiated sentence, as offered by defense attorney Jeffrey Weinberg of Pittsburgh and District Attorney Pete Weeks.

Weeks also advised Kagarise that based on Richardson’s criminal history, he is ineligible for the state Department of Corrections’ early release program and for the state’s Drug Treatment Program.

Altoona police charged Richardson, with addresses listed in Newark and Jersey City, based on two sales in Altoona that they set up through a confidential informant.

On Aug. 7, 2023, police supplied the informant with $500 to purchase two bricks of heroin — 100 bags — from a man he knew as “Cash.” The informant, who went into the City Hall Common apartment building, 1130 13th Ave., returned to police with 69 packets of suspected heroin and $1. Charges indicate that the informant had difficulty getting into the building and paid $14 to a person who provided access, then paid $485 to Richardson for the drugs.

The second sale occurred two days later, Aug. 9, 2023, when police provided $600 to the informant who, in light of having difficulty getting into the apartment building, set up plans to meet in the parking lot.

But in the parking lot, charges indicate that Richardson initially walked by the informant, then later walked by again and directed the informant to follow him into the building.

Subsequently, the informant returned to police with 120 packets of a purple powder believed to be fentanyl.

Weeks said Tuesday that Richardson’s guilty pleas will subject him to a parole violation in New Jersey and additional incarceration beyond his Blair County sentence.