Nesvold: Plea deal assured prison time

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BROOKINGS – Brookings County State’s Attorney Teree Nesvold said she knows there’s a lot of questions about a sentence handed down this week for a Brookings man convicted of first-degree rape, but she believes the plea deal reached in the case was in the best interest of his victim and the community.

Daniel Kramer was sentenced in Brookings County Circuit Court on Tuesday. He previously pleaded no contest to one count of first-degree rape, alleging he raped a 2-year-old girl between Nov. 9-16, 2016.

First-degree rape is punishable by up to life in prison and has a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in prison. As part of a plea deal, Nesvold, the defense and the judge all agreed to a 15-year cap on Kramer’s sentence.

The Brookings Register reached out to Nesvold Wednesday regarding the case.

“This investigation stemmed from a previous investigation involving defendant (Robert) Hanshaw. We did not have as much evidence as we did in the Hanshaw case,” Nesvold said.

Hanshaw was sentenced last December to two consecutive life terms in prison for two counts of first-degree rape. Hanshaw admitted in October 2017 to sexually assaulting two young girls between October 2015 and November 2016, as well as taking pornographic photos and videos of the acts and distributing some of the material. He told authorities he had committed approximately 700 offenses with 15 different child victims.

But the state’s evidence in the Kramer case was not as strong.

“So considering the evidence and balancing the risks of taking this to a jury trial with evidence that’s very circumstantial, I … decided I wanted him off the street not preying on other children or his family, his daughters, and got him off the streets for 15 years, versus taking it to a jury trial with evidence that the state had,” Nesvold said.

“It was risking an acquittal versus getting him guaranteed off the street, and I wanted him out of the house with his daughters. We got his daughters taken away from him, and that was the main focus.”

Nesvold said getting Kramer to plead to a Class C felony was a way to make sure he was sentenced to at least 15 years in prison.

“I sent him away for 15 years minimum so he cannot prey on any other family members or children. I was very happy to get him to plead to a Class C felony.

“He had one felony in his criminal background. It wasn’t a sexual offense, it wasn’t violent. He wasn’t going to get a life sentence with the evidence that we had,” Nesvold said. 

“It’s hard for people to understand, because these are the kinds of cases where you want to hang them, and so do I, but unfortunately I didn’t have the evidence where that was going to happen, and I didn’t want to risk that he could be doing this again.”

Contact Jill Fier at jfier@brookingsregister.com.