Kyle Ricke sentenced to life imprisonment | News, Sports, Jobs

Kyle L. Ricke

ALGONA – Kyle Ricke will spend the rest of his life behind bars for shooting Algona police Officer Kevin Cram last year.

That outcome was inevitable after a Dickinson County jury took less than an hour to convict the Algona man of first-degree murder on July 11.

On Wednesday, District Judge Nancy L. Whittenburg imposed the mandatory life sentence without the possibility of parole during a hearing in Kossuth County District Court.

A day earlier, the judge had rejected Ricke's request for a retrial.

On September 13, 2023, Cram went to a home in Algona where Ricke was known to be staying to arrest him on a Palo Alto County warrant charging him with third-degree harassment.

Cram and Ricke spoke briefly before Ricke got a gun. He then shot Cram eight times at close range.

Cram was pronounced dead at Kossuth Regional Health Center. Ricke fled the scene and was arrested late that night in Brown County, Minnesota.