WILMINGTON, NC (WECT) - A man who has ties to an incident that led to the death of Wilmington Police Officer Rich Matthews was sentenced in federal court last week.
Randolph James Campbell, 28 from Winston-Salem, will serve sixteen years in prison after pleading guilty last year to possession with intent to distribute a quantity of cocaine and a quantity of marijuana.
Federal authorities say Campbell was part of a drug trafficking network that moved high quality marijuana from Canada through New York and on to parts of North Carolina.
Campbell is also connected with the 2009 accident that led to Officer Matthews' death. Authorities say Campbell and a few other people set up a scheme to "rip off" some people for some marijuana. In a Wilmington parking lot on February 17th, 2009, Campbell acted as an intermediary between the drug sellers and buyers. Authorities say Campbell knew the buyers were going to give him a bag of a small amount of money and mostly newspapers, but acted as if the deal was good. He was riding with the people who sold the marijuana. After the deal was done, the others in the car realized they were ripped off and Campbell played along, according to a press release.
The next day, an officer tried to pull over the other vehicle, which was carrying the marijuana, for an unrelated criminal offense. A chase followed when the car did not pull over. During that chase, Officer Matthews joined in, but lost control of his cruiser and crashed. Matthews died.
In 2010, a New Hanover County jury found Anthony Pierce guilty of second degree murder in the death of Officer Matthews.
Last week, Matthew Hendy, who was a passenger in the vehicle, was sentenced on drug charges in federal court.
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