Left: Ben Matter (GoFundMe). Right: No Name Given Happy (Cottonwood County Jail).
A man who police identified as “No Name Given Happy” is sitting in a Minnesota jail after he allegedly murdered another man during a New Year’s Eve bar fight.
The incident unfolded around 11:47 p.m. at the Phat Pheasant Pub in Windom, which is about 140 miles southwest of Minneapolis, police said. According to a probable cause arrest affidavit, Happy and a group of people were playing pool at the bar. Happy was “being cocky and making the others mad,” police wrote. The group was trying to be calm but reported to bartenders that Happy was “mouthy and pushing things,” the affidavit said.
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Happy went outside to retrieve his jacket and a bar employee allegedly heard him make a comment about a gun and something along the lines of “getting 12 wounds to the face.” The defendant came back in the bar but bartenders told him to leave and he was escorted out by “regulars,” the affidavit said. Witnesses saw Happy go to his semitruck and then walk toward the bar. He allegedly walked in with a knife with a 6- to 8-inch blade. The victim, identified as 30-year-old Ben Matter, tried pushing Happy back outside. Witnesses saw Happy “make a couple of stab wounds” and Matter collapse, cops wrote.
Other patrons fought with the defendant and wrestled the knife away from him. They held him down until cops came and arrested him. A woman who was entering the bar as all of this was happening told cops Happy identified himself as “the victim” and he shouted “I’m going to f—ing kill you,” according to the affidavit.
Cops arrived to find the victim suffering from stab wounds to the chest/lung area and another to the lower left abdomen. Paramedics rushed Matter to the hospital where doctors pronounced him dead around 12:30 a.m. Jan. 1. A second victim also was stabbed but was treated and released from the hospital.
Officers recovered a bloodied hunting-style knife. Inside Happy’s semitruck, they found a California commercial driver’s license with the first name “No Name Given” and the last name “Happy.” He is listed as being from San Diego. Court records also say he has an alias of “George Samuel.” Happy is facing charges of second-degree murder, assault with a dangerous weapon and threats of violence. He is in the Cottonwood County Jail on a $750,000 bond.
According to a GoFundMe, Matter was a father of two.
“Ben was an outstanding, handsome, smart, caring, generous, hilarious, hardworking, fun to be around man,” the fundraiser reads. “He would do anything for anyone at anytime, it was just who he was.”
