Ex-prison guard apparently hanged himself in jail

A 23-year-old Navy veteran who had worked as a prison guard until his arrest in March has been found dead in his jail cell.

Henrico County authorities confirmed this week that an investigation is under way into the apparent suicide of Brian R. Cramer, who was found dead Sunday, hanged from a bed sheet in his cell.

Henrico Sheriff Michael Wade said that Cramer was being kept in an isolation area of Henrico Jail East, which is in New Kent County, and had been checked by jail personnel 20 minutes before his body was discovered.

Wade said Cramer apparently tied a sheet to a vent and had slumped forward in the low-ceilinged cell to exert sufficient force to end his life but Wade stressed that the case remains under investigation.

Cramer was being kept in the Henrico-New Kent facility because he was facing felony drug charges in Hanover County and could not be held in the Pamunkey Regional Jail, where he had been a guard.

"He was moved for his own safety," Wade said. "He was in an area designed to avoid contact with other inmates." Wade said that Cramer had ready access to counselors but had not expressed any feelings of depression or discomfort.

Pamunkey jail officials declined to say how long Cramer had been a guard there.

Cramer apparently was living in his car at the time he was indicted by a Hanover grand jury on multiple drug charges, including distribution of cocaine within 1,000 feet of a school zone or other area children frequent. He was arrested March 20, according to court documents, but had not been able to make a $2,000 bond.

Cramer was scheduled to come to trial in Hanover Circuit Court this coming Monday, but Cramer's lawyer, Steve Marks, said yesterday that he would have sought a continuance.

Marks, who was court-appointed, declined to provide details about Cramer's alleged drug involvement but said he was not aware of any prior felony convictions. As a jail guard at Pamunkey, Cramer would have undergone a background check and been subject to periodic screenings for illegal substances, a jail spokesman said.

Arrest records show that Cramer's last known address was at the Beaverdam Creek Apartments in Mechanicsville at 7264 Cold Harbor Road. A spokeswoman said she could not comment on any aspects of a resident's stay there because of confidentiality agreements.

Cramer faced six drug charges linked to transactions on March 9 and on March 16; he celebrated his 23rd birthday March 11.

Hanover authorities declined to discuss details of Cramer's arrest, saying that the circumstances behind it are part of ongoing investigations.

Bill McKelway