A Manor Township man was sentenced to nine to 20 years in state prison after he pleaded guilty to possessing nearly 150 grams of cocaine and other drugs in his home.

In handing down the sentence on Aug. 21, Judge Jeffrey Wright told Carl Gould, 50, that his lengthy criminal record which includes 11 separate convictions, nearly all of which involve drugs, was “troubling.”

Assistant District Attorney Benjamin Baker, who prosecuted the case, listed Gould’s numerous convictions for various drug offenses across the Commonwealth, dating from as early as the 1990s to as recently as earlier in August in Dauphin County. The life-long pattern of drug dealing, Baker argued, shows that Gould has turned it into a “career” and that previous sentences and attempts at rehabilitation were ineffective in curtailing his behavior.

“This is what he does,” Baker told the court. “This is who he is.”

An attorney representing Gould didn’t deny his “lengthy” criminal record, which she attributed to a difficult upbringing and poor choices he made to financially support himself, but Baker countered that Gould’s life choices have involved preying on some of society’s most vulnerable addicts.

Judge Wright ultimately agreed the Commonwealth, saying that Gould’s lengthy period of incarceration – which also includes a $50,000 fine – was warranted in order to protect the public.

A jury had been empaneled and a trial set to begin on the matter in June when Gould instead pleaded guilty to two felony counts of possessing drugs with intent to deliver and a misdemeanor count of possession of drug paraphernalia. Gould later attempted to withdraw his guilty plea – a move which the Commonwealth opposed and that Judge Wright ultimately rejected.

Baker quoted Gould in recorded phone calls from Lancaster County Prison saying that his goal in attempting to withdraw the plea was to “delay the court process” for as long as possible as part of an effort to avoid consequences for his actions.

Though Gould initially declined an opportunity to address the court, he later apologized for his actions during the case.

Lancaster County Drug Task Force detectives found Gould along with 147.4 grams of cocaine and 23 suboxone strips while executing a search warrant at his residence in the 100 block of Kloss Drive in May 2023. Multiple articles of drug paraphernalia which indicated Gould was manufacturing powder cocaine into crack cocaine along with $1,650 in cash were also recovered from the residence.

Detective Corporal Adam Weber of the Lancaster County Drug Task Force led the investigation and filed the charges.