Former Stillwater guard gets 2-year term for helping inmate distribute meth in prison

A onetime corrections officer at Minnesota’s high-security prison in Stillwater received a 2¼-year prison term Friday for helping an inmate distribute meth inside the prison’s walls.

Faith Rose Gratz, 26, was sentenced in U.S. District Court in St. Paul after she pleaded guilty in November 2022 to conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine.

The inmate, Axel Rene Kramer, 37, was sentenced Wednesday to a 15-year term after pleading guilty to the same count. His sentence will run concurrent with the 24-year term he received in 2010 in Cottonwood County for aiding and abetting second-degree murder stemming from the shooting of Alberto Samilpa Jr., 20, of St. James, Minn., in 2007.

State Corrections Department records show that Kramer was to have been released from prison about eight months ago and then be put on supervised release until November 2031.

Ahead of Gratz’s sentencing, the U.S. Attorney’s Office told the court in writing that “on the phone, law enforcement found thousands of text messages between Kramer and Gratz. Many of the messages were mundane or discussed a burgeoning romantic relationship between Kramer and Gratz. However, numerous times over the several months of messaging, Kramer instructed Gratz on how to obtain drugs.”

Gratz and Kramer “discussed … getting married once Kramer was out of prison,” another court document read.

After her prison stint is up, Gratz will be on supervised release for two years.

According to federal court documents:

Kramer and another inmate arranged with suppliers outside the prison for Gratz to pick up packages of meth. She would then smuggle the drugs in and give them to Kramer while she was on duty guarding him as he was on office-cleaning duty. This handoff occurred about six times.

Gratz also smuggled cellphones into the prison for Kramer; he used them to arrange the drug deals.