SARANAC LAKE — A Saranac Lake man has been sentenced to 16 years in state prison for possessing more than half of a pound of cocaine, which a St. Lawrence County jury decided he held with the intent to sell.

Ryan Morgan, 50, was sentenced on Tuesday after being convicted in January of first- and third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, both felonies, as well as criminal use of drug paraphernalia, a misdemeanor.

“Evidence at trial proved that on November 1, 2023, the defendant, who was a passenger in a pickup truck pulled over by members of the New York State Police, was in possession of over eight ounces of cocaine,” St. Lawrence County District Attorney Gary Pasqua said in a news release. “The jury found that he possessed the cocaine with the intent to sell it.”

He was to be sentenced in what Pasqua called an “enhanced sentence” because of a prior felony conviction.

Assistant district attorneys Dominik Maida and Matthew Peabody tried the case.