Man Crashed SUV Into Family's Home Because Of Racial Bias, Jury Finds

COLD SPRING, MN — A Stearns County jury found a man guilty this week of violent acts against a Cold Spring family due to racial bias, including crashing an SUV into their home, according to reports.

Benton Louis Beyer was found guilty of stalking and multiple counts of second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon — both offenses the jury determined were motivated by racial bias, according to the Stearns County Attorney’s Office. Beyer was also found guilty of violating restraining orders for harassment, first-degree property damage and vehicle theft, the attorney's office reported.

Beyer targeted the family, in which the mother is white, the father is Black and the children are biracial, in response to his girlfriend leaving him for a man who is Black, KARE 11 reported. None of the family members knew Beyer before he began his campaign of harassment, which spanned May to July 2021 and included damaging their residence and vehicles, in one case putting a rock on the accelerator in a stolen SUV and crashing the vehicle into the family’s home, according to KARE 11.

“I have no words for how drastically it has impacted our lives or the trauma it has caused,” said Andrea Robinson, one of the family members, in a statement to the St. Cloud Times. “We are thankful for the prosecution team, who did phenomenal and the men and women of the jury who ensured justice was served to the fullest extent possible.”

Beyer will remain in custody until he is sentenced Nov. 18, according to the county attorney's office.