Richmond man sentenced for stalking, attempting to harm neighbors

A Richmond man who was found guilty of stalking and attempting to harm his neighbors learned his punishment Friday afternoon.

Benton Louis Beyer, 33, of Richmond, received an aggravated sentence of more than eight years (105 months) in prison. That’s the statutory maximum sentence for his assault charges, according to the Stearns County Attorney’s Office.

Beyer, as previously reported, was convicted by a jury in September on the following charges:

• One count of stalking
• Two counts of violating a restraining order
• One count of theft – taking/using movable property without consent
• One count of first-degree damage to property
• Two counts of second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon

Jury members also found many of the above charges were motivated by bias against Black or biracial men or teen boys, which was repeatedly found to be a theme of incidents mentioned in a criminal complaint.

The Stearns County Attorney’s Office had charged Beyer in connection to incidents that happened from May to July of 2021. He was arrested at the end of the summer in 2021.

RELATED: Man charged with damage to property, harassment of interracial family in Cold Spring

A stolen vehicle he was believed to be driving crashed into a Cold Spring home, and both the vehicle’s owner and the woman who lived at the address said they believed it was Beyer. The complaint states the woman told police one of her children was sleeping on the couch in the living room, which was close to where the car struck the house, at the time of the crash.

Police verified that the woman who owned the home had filed a restraining order against Beyer in May 2021, which he been arrested several times for violating in July 2021.

Beyer’s mother also filed a restraining order against him in May 2021, according to the complaint.

The investigation documented in the complaint details allegations that Beyer had physically and emotionally abused his then-girlfriend, and that many of the offenses he was found guilty of committing in September 2022 were in response to a single time his girlfriend allegedly cheated.

However, the family Beyer was found guilty of committing offenses against, including the car crash, was not connected to Beyer in any way besides living several blocks away from where he temporarily lived with his mother and girlfriend for some time.

A portion of the complaint states: “The defendant exhibited paranoia that, having once cheated with a black male, (his then-girlfriend) was bound to do so again. This paranoia was not always isolated to a specific male, but instead to every black male… The defendant’s jealousy and anger toward (his then-girlfriend) devolved into bias-crimes inflicted upon a bi-racial household.”

Court records show Beyer was acquitted of four out of the 11 charges filed against him – one count of violating a restraining order/harassment, one count of first-degree damage to property, one count of fourth-degree intentional damage to property and one count of stalking.