No further jail time for Tacoma-area man found with 13-year-old missing from Michigan
Update, Nov. 8: Benjamin Wier is being held in custody at Pierce County Jail as a fugitive from Michigan on $500,000 bail. According to court records, Judge Peter Jaklevic issued a warrant for Wier’s arrest Aug. 2 on charges of kidnapping and kidnapping - child enticement. He will be extradited to Michigan to face charges there.
Original story: A 26-year-old Tacoma-area man who drove to Michigan to pick up a 13-year-old girl to whom he’d been sending illicit messages and brought her back to Washington won’t spend more time in jail after he was sentenced Wednesday.
Prior to sentencing, Benjamin Michael Wier of Spanaway pleaded guilty to unlawful imprisonment and communicating with a minor for immoral purposes. Pierce County Superior Court Judge Gretchen Leanderson sentenced him to three months in jail, which he has already served.
The punishment was at the low end of the standard sentencing range, 3-8 months, which was what prosecutors and the defense agreed to recommend. Deputy prosecuting attorney Lindsay Chenelia said in court that there was an “extremely concerning fact pattern” in the case, but that based on a forensic interview with the victim, the state believed it would have had issues with her coming to court to testify.
Leanderson noted that the case had to do with charges Washington state had brought against Wier. He still could face charges that arise out of Michigan or at the federal level. Pierce County prosecutors originally accused him of second-degree kidnapping with sexual motivation.
Wier, who has no criminal history, will be required to register as a sex offender as a result of his conviction. He was also ordered to have no contact with the girl he picked up for 10 years.
He reportedly drove to the girl’s home in Paris, Michigan, from Gifford Pinchot National Forrest in southern Washington, where he was camping with his grandmother and brother on July 28.
Prosecutors wrote in a response to a motion from the defense to dismiss the case that Wier’s grandmother and brother told deputies that they planned to camp until Aug. 1, but that Wier left on July 30 and said he was going on a road trip. He was home by Aug. 3, having driven approximately 5,367 miles round trip. Records state the trip took 34 hours and Wier only stopped to sleep for two hours.
Pierce County Sheriff’s Department deputies went to Wier’s residence Aug. 5 after being contacted by a detective sergeant with the Mecosta County Sheriff’s Office in Michigan, according to charging documents.
Deputies were told that a 13-year-old girl tried to run away from home a few weeks before and was found, but on July 31 she packed a bag and left again. Detectives in Michigan found that she had been communicating with Wier on Snapchat, and he had sent her illicit photos of himself and said he wanted to have sex with her.
A missing-persons alert was posted on the Mecosta County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page informing the public of the girl’s disappearance
The girl was located at Wier’s home in Spanaway. She told deputies she had been sleeping on the floor of Wier’s bedroom and that he had not hurt her. Wier was there, and he allegedly said he picked the girl up in Michigan. He said the teenager told him over text that she was unhappy and did not like her parents.
Wier allegedly admitted to having sex with her and said he knew she was 13. Records also state that he said he was in love with her.
In a victim-impact statement submitted to the court, the girl’s mother said she believed no child was safe with Wier, and no child in Washington or the country is safe when men like him are free.
“We will never know the truth about what happened to her,” the mother wrote. “All I know is it has destroyed all of my life, my children’s lives, my other two children. I’m not sure I will ever feel safe again.”
In court Wednesday, Wier’s attorney, Glorioso Manigbas Jr., said his client was ready to accept responsibility and that he and prosecutors had come to a reasonable resolution.
Then Wier had an opportunity to speak.
“I know what I did,” Wier said. “It’s out of my hands. That’s all.”
This story was originally published November 7, 2024 at 5:30 AM.
