A Bismarck man has been sentenced to two years in prison for cocaine distribution.

Zachary Byers, 21, was charged in December in Morton County with a Class Afelony count of accomplice to delivery of a controlled substance-cocaine and in Burleigh County with Class A felony possession of cocaine with intent to deliver, Class C felony possession of drug paraphernalia and Class C felony possession of ecstasy.

He pleaded guilty to the charges on June 11. A presentence investigation with a chemical dependency evaluation was completed before sentencing.

South Central District Judge David Reich sentenced Byers on Wednesday to 10 years in prison with all but two years suspended and five years of supervised probation for possession of cocaine with intent to deliver. He sentenced Byers to two years each for possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of ecstasy, and five years with all but two years suspended for accomplice to delivery of a controlled substance.

The four sentences, which were recommended by a probation officer who did the presentence investigation, will be served concurrently.

According to court documents, Byers was arrested in December 2006 during a controlled buy in Mandan. Burleigh County Assistant State's Attorney Julie Lawyer said Byers sold four ounces of cocaine at that time.

After Byers' arrest, officials served a search warrant on Byers' parents' home, where he lived. Lawyer said 18 ounces of cocaine were found in Byers' bedroom.

A chemical dependency evaluation showed that Byers has no addiction problems, so it appears he was selling cocaine purely to make money, Lawyer said. She said drug dealers typically are supporting their own drug habit.

Lawyer recommended a sentence of 15 years with all but two years suspended for the cocaine possession, and two years on each of the other Burleigh County charges.

Morton County Assistant State's Attorney Chris Nyhus said he was concerned that Byers did not seem to realize that he had affected people other than his parents, family and girlfriend by selling drugs.

"He left out the drug addicts he was supplying cocaine to. He left out society at large,"Nyhus said.

Nyhus said Byers attempted to help the drug task force, but word got out to other people in the drug trade that he had been arrested, so he was not able to get results. "It just didn't shake out in his favor,"Nyhus said.

Nyhus asked for a sentence of five years with all but two years suspended on the Morton County case, and he pointed out that prosecutors had agreed to run all sentences concurrent.

Byers' defense attorney, Tim Purdon, asked for a sentence of five years with all but six months suspended. He said Byers did everything requested of him by law enforcement following his arrest, and he had accepted responsibility for what he did wrong. He said Byers had tried to get his out-of-state source for cocaine to talk to him, but the source would not talk to him. However, he said he believes Byers' effort will someday lead authorities to file federal charges against the source.

"When they get that guy, it's going to be because of Zach Byers' cooperation," Purdon said.

The defense attorney conceded that the amount of drugs in Byers' possession made a deferred or suspended sentence unreasonable, but he said a six-month sentence would be enough to teach his client a lesson.

"We all know young people do stupid things,"he said.

Byers' father, Jon Byers, testified at the hearing. Jon Byers is an attorney in the North Dakota attorney general's office, and he said he wanted to make sure his son wouldn't be treated differently because of who his parents are.

Jon Byers said he believes his son and friends decided to sell drugs to make money because they felt "working for a living was for chumps."

He said he did not bail his son out of jail and did not hire an attorney for him until he began to believe that his son's court-appointed attorney was not doing a good enough job.

Jon Byers said he felt six months was a long enough sentence to make a difference, but he understands the court may see it differently.

"I'm not going to have any gripe against the court and the prosecutors,"no matter what sentence is handed down, he said.

Under questioning by Lawyer, Jon Byers said he probably should have looked harder at his son when he began acting in an unusual manner.

"In hindsight, I think there were probably things I should have picked up on,"he said.

Zachary Byers told Reich he has learned his lesson.

"I know what I did was wrong," he said.

Reich told Byers that he sees many people come through his courtroom who have problems with substance abuse issues, and many of them came from difficult backgrounds. The judge expressed concern that Byers had grown up with advantages that he did not seem to use for good, and instead sold drugs that can get other people into trouble as well.

"That's both sad and tragic, I think,"Reich said.

(Reach reporter Jenny Michael at 250-8225 or jenny.michael@;bismarcktribune.com.)