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Guilty plea in painkiller case

John Stroud
Post Independent Staff
Glenwood Springs, CO, Colorado

GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colo. – A Glenwood Springs man has pleaded guilty in a case involving the break-in and theft of painkillers from a doctor’s office at Glenwood Medical Associates in January.

Daniel Jackson Kramer, 24, entered the plea to a charge of second-degree burglary involving theft of a controlled substance at a hearing in Garfield County District Court last week.

The Class 3 felony charge carries a possible sentence of between four and 12 years in prison, and as much as 24 years with aggravating circumstances. Sentencing in the case is set for Aug. 9.



Kramer was arrested Jan. 27 in Denver on a Glenwood Springs police warrant related to two separate break-ins at Glenwood Medical Associates, 1830 Blake Ave., late on the night of Jan. 13 and Jan. 23.

The arrest came just a little more than a month after Kramer had received a probation sentence from a Pitkin County judge in a case involving the theft of painkillers from monks at St. Benedict’s Monastery in Old Snowmass.



In accepting the plea, two counts for possession of the painkiller Fentanyl were dismissed.

A separate case involving the break-in and theft of more than $1,000 from St. Stephen’s Catholic Church and St. Stephen’s School was also dismissed in the plea deal.

Kramer remains in the Garfield County Jail on $11,000 bond, pending his August sentencing date.

Last December, Pitkin County District Judge Gail Nichols sentenced Kramer to probation as part of a one-year deferred judgment for a series of thefts at the St. Benedict’s Monastery.

In that case, Kramer was caught on surveillance video in August of last year taking a prescription bottle containing Vicodin tablets from a monk’s room during Mass. Kramer was a member of the congregation there at the time.

Other monks had reported prescription drug bottles and pills missing over the course of several months.

His one-year probation allowed that the felony conviction would be expunged from his record if he didn’t commit any new crimes during that time.

Glenwood Springs police began suspecting Kramer in the Glenwood Medical break-ins in January after a security guard at Valley View Hospital next door reported at the time of the first incident that he had observed a person entering the lower level of the building, but using a key. Police believed the key also was stolen.

It was during the second break-in that the painkillers were reported stolen, according to police incident reports.

jstroud@postindependent.com


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