Toms River man sentenced after police say he threw cocaine from vehicle during pursuit
Phillip Tarver pleaded guilty to cocaine distribution, financial facilitation and eluding charges stemming from two 2025 cases.
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A Toms River man has been sentenced to state prison after pleading guilty to charges stemming from two cocaine cases, including one in which police say he fled from officers and threw cocaine from his vehicle.
Phillip Tarver, 41, pleaded guilty in July to two cocaine distribution charges, two financial facilitation charges and eluding, according to the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office.
The first case began in January 2025, when detectives watching another man who was meeting with an undercover detective to sell cocaine saw him meet with Tarver. Police later stopped Tarver on Route 37 in Toms River.
A search of his vehicle turned up pills, a knife and about $5,300, prosecutors said. Tarver was taken to the Ocean County Jail, where authorities said a search found about 110 grams of crack cocaine. He was later released.
Officials say police saw Tarver again in August 2025 during a separate drug investigation and tried to stop him on the Garden State Parkway.
Prosecutors said Tarver refused to stop and threw items from his vehicle before exiting the Parkway and driving through South Toms River. Police ended the pursuit because of safety concerns and recovered about 21 grams of cocaine that Tarver had thrown from the vehicle.
Tarver was later arrested in Barnegat Township with about $10,000 in cash, according to prosecutors. He has remained in the Ocean County Jail since that arrest.
Tarver was sentenced Thursday to 12 years on each cocaine distribution charge and seven years for eluding, with those sentences running concurrently. He also received three years on each financial facilitation charge, with those sentences running consecutively to the other sentences.
