WOODBURY  — David J. Farmer, 36, of Runnemede, pleaded guilty Tuesday to committing robberies at two Deptford Township pharmacies in October and December 2013 in which oxycodone painkiller pills were taken.

Questioned by his lawyer, Farmer acknowledged threatening a pharmacy employee at a Deptford Target store by brandishing a knife on Oct. 15, 2013 and leaving the store with oxycodone. The 190 pills were valued at $7,600, according to a complaint.

On Dec. 2, 2013, Farmer acknowledged, he threatened to harm an employee of a pharmacy in a Deptford WalMart store. According to a complaint, he stole 200 oxycodone pills valued at $1,017.

In a plea agreement, Assistant Gloucester County Prosecutor Staci Scheetz will recommend that Farmer be sentenced to seven years in New Jersey state prison for the Target armed robbery and a concurrent five year prison sentence for the WalMart robbery. The state’s No Early Release Act applies to the sentences, requiring completion of 85 percent of the prison term before an inmate becomes eligible for parole.

Superior Court Judge Robert P. Becker accepted the pleas and scheduled sentencing for June 6.

In an investigation, a Deptford police officer mapped the two Deptford robberies and two similar incidents in Camden County, determining that Runnemede was the only town within a triangular area bordered by the four hold-ups.  The investigation then turned to a vehicle type that witnesses described as the getaway car. Four such cars were registered to Runnemede owners, and one of them with distinctive spoked rims was Farmer’s. Farmer, then a dispatcher with the Burlington County Communications Center, was arrested Dec. 31, 2013.  

In Camden County, Farmer pleaded guilty on March 2, 2015 to first-degree robbery of a Stratford pharmacy on Dec. 24, 2013 and is to be sentenced April 24.