Big Lake man pleads guilty to kidnapping charge stemming from Pope County Amber Alert

Krystal Frasier & KSTP Staff

Benigno Alvarez-Gutierrez, also known as Victor Ramirez Alvarez. Credit: Kandiyohi County Jail

Online court records show a Big Lake man will be sentenced next year for a charge stemming from a Pope County abduction.

As previously reported, 21-year-old Benigno Alvarez-Gutierrez, also known as Victor Ramirez Alvarez, was charged with kidnapping and depriving another of custodial rights.

Tuesday, Alvarez-Gutierrez entered a guilty plea to the kidnapping charge. Records show his sentencing hearing has been scheduled for the afternoon of Feb. 9, 2023.

While the petition still needs to be approved, the document states that due to a guilty plea being entered for the kidnapping charge, the charge of depriving another of custodial or parental rights will be dismissed.

A woman identified as the boy’s mother reported her son missing from her Westport home after she came home from work in March 2022. While searching the home with other family members, they found a note that was written in Spanish and English and asked for forgiveness for taking the boy.

Responding deputies found footprints outside the home at the bedroom window. A K9 was able to track the boy’s scent from the bedroom to the driveway and south along the road near the home.

After the Amber Alert was issued, authorities spoke with the boy’s father and family, and determined they had no involvement in the boy’s abduction. The boy’s father and family also did not know where the boy currently lived, according to an interview with authorities.

While continuing to speak with authorities, a criminal complaint says the boy’s mother told police about a man she knew, later identified as Alvarez-Gutierrez, was fond of her son. She said Alvarez-Gutierrez would frequently give them rides, buy things for her son and take photos with him.

The boy’s mother said she had thought Alvarez-Gutierrez had moved to California, based on a recent phone conversation she had had with him during which he had tried to convince her to move there with him. Authorities also learned during their conversation with the boy’s mother that Alvarez-Gutierrez was interested in dating her but that she had refused.

Authorities eventually learned Alvarez-Gutierrez was familiar with the layout of the house in which the boy and his mother lived, and that he was aware of the mother’s work schedule.

During the investigation, Alvarez-Gutierrez reportedly made several attempts to get in touch with the boy’s mother via phone calls and texts. During one of those calls, the boy’s mother spoke to him with law enforcement officials listening. Alvarez-Gutierrez reportedly acted surprised when the boy’s mother brought up the abduction and he claimed to be driving back from California. He made no mention of knowing the boy’s whereabouts.

Authorities were able to track Alvarez-Gutierrez’s vehicle; he was stopped but the boy was not with him at the time.

A 911 caller later reported finding the boy in her garage in Zion Township, in Stearns County. Law enforcement officials responded and reunited the boy with his mother.

During an interview with officials, Alvarez-Gutierrez said he made a mistake and had taken the boy from his home. He admitted to dropping the boy off in an empty garage at the residence of someone he knew, but that no one was home at the time. The owners of the residence said they found the boy in a booster seat in their garage and said no one had alerted them of the boy’s presence in their garage.

A criminal complaint states the kidnapping charge carries 20 years in prison, a $35,000 fine or both. The deprivation of parental rights carries a sentence of no more than two years in prison, a $4,000 fine, or both.