Background: Deputies lead Ian Cramer, center, out of a courtroom at the Mercer County Courthouse in Stanton, N.D., on Monday, Dec. 30, 2024, after his sentencing (AP Photo/Jack Dura). Inset: Deputy Paul Martin (Mercer County Sheriff’s Department).
The adult son of North Dakota Sen. Kevin Cramer is heading to prison for causing the death of a sheriff’s deputy during a multicounty car chase that started with him fleeing from a hospital in a Chevrolet Tahoe — hitting speeds of 100 mph — and ended with him crashing head-on into the slain cop’s squad car.
“I had no intention to do any of this,” Ian Cramer, 43, told Deputy Paul Martin’s family in court on Monday after being sentenced to serve 28 years in prison, although he’s likely to avoid serving most of that time due to the terms of a plea deal Cramer took and prison policy, according to State District Judge Bobbi Weiler.
“The (state) Department of Corrections has their own policy on how much time you’re going to serve,” Weiler said in court, according to The Associated Press. “These are not mandatory minimums, which means that you’re probably going to serve a small portion of that 28 years and be out on parole, so that’ll … give you an opportunity to have a second chance that Deputy Martin does not have, nor does his family have.”
Cramer, who pleaded guilty in September, claims what happened that day on Dec. 6, 2023, when he killed Martin — a deputy with the Mercer County Sheriff’s Office — was ultimately “an accident” that stemmed from mental health problems caused by using methamphetamine and “bath salts,” with him stating this in court Monday.
“I just hope that someday they can forgive me,” Cramer said. “I think the best thing for me is to go to a hospital and just get more help.”
On the day of the crash, Cramer was taken to a hospital by his mom after he made some alarming statements to her. Once there, he hopped into the driver seat of his mother’s vehicle and reversed through a closed garage door of the ambulance bay before fleeing.
Cramer drove for about 70 miles — away from Bismarck and Burleigh County, where the hospital was located, and into the city of Hazen and Mercer County — before swerving to avoid speed spikes and crashing into Martin’s squad car, police said.
At Cramer’s sentencing, both prosecutors and his defense lawyer pointed to long-term effects that he’s experienced related to “taking drugs,” which put himself into a “mentally ill state,” according to Mercer County State’s Attorney Todd Schwarz.
Cramer “has hurt his brain a lot on his own,” his mother, Kris Cramer, said in court Monday. “I really do feel responsible for what happened.”
Sen. Cramer — a Republican who won reelection to a second term in November — has told reporters that his son “suffers from serious mental disorders which manifest in severe paranoia and hallucinations.” On Monday, he said he was “disappointed” that mental health was “so casually dismissed” by the judge at his son’s sentencing.
“I don’t think there’s any question there’s not one person, including Ian, who doesn’t know that they were his choices that led to this, whatever they may be, under whatever condition,” Sen. Cramer told reporters. “Choices that go back many years.”
Weiler wound up sentencing Ian Cramer to 38 years in prison, but with 10 years suspended. He also received three years of probation.
