A Republican U.S. senator’s adult son pleaded guilty on Friday in a 2023 car-chase death of a North Dakota deputy.
Ian Cramer, the 43-year-old son of North Dakota Senator Kevin Cramer, pleaded guilty to homicide while fleeing a peace officer, among other charges, in the death of Mercer County Sheriff’s Deputy Paul Martin, 53, on December 6, 2023.
Senator Cramer has said his son “suffers from serious mental disorders which manifest in severe paranoia and hallucinations.”
Prior to Martin’s death, Ian Cramer’s mother took him to a hospital due to mental health concerns. When she stepped out of the car, Cramer went into the driver’s seat, sped the car in reverse, smashed through a closed garage door to the ambulance bay and then fled the hospital, according to Bismarck police.
When a deputy confronted Cramer in Hazen, about an hour’s drive northwest of Bismarck, he sped off again, hitting speeds of over 100 miles per hour and continuing to drive even after spikes flattened two tires, according to court documents.
After more spikes were set up, Cramer swerved and then crashed head-on into Martin’s police car. Martin was launched about 100 feet in the air, according to authorities, and he later died at the hospital.
AP Photo/Jack Dura
The other charges that Cramer pleaded guilty to on Friday were fleeing a peace officer, preventing arrest, reckless endangerment, driving under suspension, possession of methamphetamine, possession of cocaine, unlawful possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of marijuana.
The judge assigned to his case ordered a mental and substance abuse evaluation before sentencing. The prosecution did not agree to recommend a lower sentence in advance as part of the plea deal and Cramer faces up to 20 years in prison and/or a $20,000 fine for just the homicide charge alone.
Cramer changed his plea on Friday after pleading not guilty in April to homicide while fleeing a peace officer, preventing arrest, reckless endangerment and fleeing an officer. He also pleaded not guilty at the time to three misdemeanor drug charges and other low-level offenses of driving under suspension and marijuana possession.
In March, Cramer pleaded not guilty to separate felony charges of theft, criminal mischief and reckless endangerment in connection with what occurred at the hospital in late 2023.
Cramer has been held on a $500,000 cash bail at the McLean County Jail in Washburn.
Senator Cramer is currently running for a second term in the U.S. Senate. He has been in North Dakota politics since the early 1990s. Cramer and his wife, Kris, had another adult son who passed away in 2018, and they also have two adult daughters and a teenage son.
Newsweek reached out to Cramer’s office on Friday late afternoon via email for comment on his son’s guilty plea.
A woman who answered the phone in the prosecutor’s office said the state’s attorney didn’t have a comment when The Associated Press called.
This article includes reporting from The Associated Press.
