Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., sent his son to 28 years in prison on Monday for the death of a sheriff’s deputy during a police pursuit last year.
Ian Cramer, 43, entered a guilty plea in September to nine charges, including cocaine possession, reckless endangerment, and homicide while evading a peace officer. The allegations were related to a pursuit that resulted in a collision last year that killed 53-year-old Deputy Paul Martin.
According to The Associated Press, State District Judge Bobbi Weiler, who imposed the sentence, stated in court on Monday that it was unlikely Cramer would complete the entire 28-year term.
“You’re likely to serve a small portion of that 28 years and be out on parole because these are not mandatory minimums,” Weiler said.
As he was getting ready to put together a tire deflation device to put a stop to the pursuit, Cramer deviated and collided with an empty Mercer County sheriff’s patrol car, killing Martin, according to the North Dakota Highway Patrol.
Cramer’s public defender, Kevin McCabe, refrained from commenting on the sentencing on Monday evening. A request for comment was not immediately answered by the state’s attorney for Mercer County.
A request for comment on the punishment was not immediately answered by a representative for Cramer’s father, a Republican who was elected to the Senate for the first time in 2018 after serving in the House for a number of years.
In a statement following the allegations last year, Cramer said his son battles mental illness, stating that he has significant mental problems that show up as extreme hallucinations and paranoia.
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