A son of Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., was sentenced to 28 years in prison Monday in connection with the death of a sheriff’s deputy during a law enforcement chase last year.
Ian Cramer, 43, pleaded guilty in September to nine charges, including homicide while fleeing a peace officer, reckless endangerment and drug possession, tied to a pursuit last year that ended in a crash that killed Deputy Paul Martin, who was 53.
State District Judge Bobbi Weiler, who handed down the sentence, said in court Monday that Cramer was unlikely to serve the full 28 years, 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,” Weiler said.
The North Dakota Highway Patrol has said that Martin was killed after Cramer veered and crashed into an unoccupied Mercer County sheriff’s patrol vehicle that struck him as he was preparing to assemble a tire deflation device to end the chase.
Kevin McCabe, a public defender for Cramer, declined to comment Monday night on the sentence. The Mercer County state’s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A spokesperson for Cramer’s father, a Republican who was first elected to the Senate in 2018 after having held a House seat for several years, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the sentencing.
Cramer has said his son struggles with mental illness, saying in a statement after the charges were filed last year that he suffers from “serious mental disorders which manifest in severe paranoia and hallucinations.”
