Former corrections officer, inmate each receive prison sentences for meth distribution conspiracy

Two people will be spending time behind bars for conspiring with each other to bring in and distribute meth within the prison system.

Federal court officials say 37-year-old Axel Rene Kramer – an inmate – and 26-year-old Faith Rose Gratz, a former corrections officer at the Stillwater prison, were both sentenced last week for their roles in the scheme.

Kramer, who was already spending 24 years behind bars for a second-degree murder charge, was handed a 25-year sentence on Wednesday for one count of conspiracy to distribute meth. That sentence is made of 180 months (15 years) in prison and 10 years of supervised release.

Kramer was sentenced Wednesday by Judge Eric Tostrud, who sentenced Gratz just a few days later to spend 27 months – just over two years – in prison and two years of supervised release.

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As previously reported, Gratz pleaded guilty to taking part in a meth distribution organization within the prison in Sept. 2022, while Kramer didn’t enter a guilty plea until this past January.

According to the indictment, Gratz worked at the Stillwater Correctional Facility and used her position as a prison guard to smuggle meth into the prison, which she then provided to Kramer, who was an inmate at the Oak Park heights Correctional Facility.

The indictment states that Gratz smuggled several cellphones into the prison and gave them to Kramer, who then used them to communicate with other inmates inside and outside of the Stillwater prison and facilitate a drug distribution network.

Gratz and Kramer allegedly communicated regularly about the drug distribution conspiracy, upcoming searches of inmates’ cells and possibly getting married when Kramer is released from prison. 

The documents state Gratz smuggled drugs into the prison on six different occasions before she was caught while trying to smuggle around a half-pound of meth into the prison.