EAST TEXAS – A Chicago, Illinois man has been sentenced to time in federal prison for trafficking narcotics in the East District of Texas.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said 44-year-old James L. Morgan was convicted on April 26, 2019 of possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine and being a felon in possession of a firearm.
He was sentenced to 160 months in prison on Thursday.
According to court documents, Texas DPS troopers stopped Morgan on Hwy 30 in close proximity to Mount Pleasant, Texas. He was pulled over because he failed to maintain a single lane of traffic.
During the traffic stop, Morgan ran away while Antonio Alexander Lee, his passenger, got back into the vehicle and drove off. Lee was stopped by spike strips in Bowie County.
Meanwhile, law enforcement officers caught Morgan on a rural county road after he crossed every lane of Hwy 30 and jumped a barbed-wire fence.
A search of the vehicle turned up a loaded firearm, 75 grams of methamphetamine, around one gram of heroin, and a digital scale. Further investigations revealed that Morgan was a convict and he was prohibited from possessing or owning firearms or ammunition.
A federal grand jury indicted both Morgan and Lee on October 18, 2017. Lee admitted to conspiracy to possess a controlled substance and he was sentenced to 94 months in prison on August 21, 2018.
A number of agencies investigated the case. They included the Cass County District Attorney’s Office; Bureau of Alcohol, County Sheriff’s Office; the Texas Department of Public Safety, Criminal Investigation and Highway Patrol Divisions; and Bowie County Sheriff’s Office.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Allen Hurst, Jonathan R. Hornok and Graham Jones prosecuted the case. If you’ve been accused of a crime, reach out to our Texas attorney.