Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Sex Offender Faked Death To Avoid Registering: Pinal County Sheriff

Episode Date: May 23, 2024

Sheriff's deputies and police in Arizona nabbed Benjamin Hollins, 50, after they said he faked his own death to avoid registering as a sex offender. Hollins had been living in Arizona since 2018 after moving from California where officials said he also failed to register as a sex offender. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy breaks down the bizarre case with Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb and podcast host Chris Hansen in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: True Crime Goods is the ultimate shopping experience for the true crime addict. Get 10% off your next order using code LAWANDCRIME10: https://bit.ly/4ajpjV4Host:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5Guests: Chris Hansen https://www.instagram.com/officialchrishansen/Sheriff Mark Lamb https://www.youtube.com/@PinalCountySheriffsOfficeCRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoAudio Editing - Brad MaybeGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@LawandCrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this law and crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Okay, folks, this one is wild. A sex offender fakes his own death to hide from us. Yes, you heard it right. A sex offender faked his own death so he didn't have to register as a sex offender. It's unbelievable. The sheriff and Chris Hansen are here to break it all down. Thanks for joining me for Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. This is one of those stories where I read the headline and I think to myself, what? It's crazy. Who does that? Well, Benjamin Hollins is the guy who does that. Hollins is a 50-year-old

man who was convicted of sex crimes in California more than 20 years ago. By 2018, the sheriff in Pinal County, Arizona, says Hollins had moved to Arizona City, Arizona, and didn't register as a sex offender, which he was required to do. Then Hollins re-offended, and get this, he was actually working as a behavioral counselor. The sheriff says Hollins kidnapped and tried to molest a 16-year-old client. Unbelievable. But at the same time, it's completely believable. Hollins pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a year of probation

and was required to register as a sex offender, but he didn't. Again. Instead, he decided to ask a woman to help him fake his own death. Last October, the sheriff says a woman helped him file a fake police report, saying that he jumped off of a bridge. His body, of course, was never found because he wasn't dead. Hollins is now in custody. Chandler police in Arizona tracked him down,

and there was some video captured of him in the back of the cruiser. He didn't like that too much. Now, someone who knows a thing or two about sex offenders is Chris Hansen of the True Blue Network. Here's Chris's take on all of this. And Jeanette, we've been doing predator investigations for more than 20 years now, and I've seen a lot of crazy things. I've seen a lot of convicted sex offenders try to avoid detection, try to get off the sex registry, appeal to the courts, all kinds of things. But I've never seen someone who has faked their own death to avoid having to register as a sex offender. And it speaks to how valuable the

sex offender registry is in terms of keeping track of people who've exploited children and committed other sexual offenses. People worry about having a registered sex offender in their town, and perhaps it's a good reason, but at least we know where that person is. We know if that person's reporting to their probation officer or if they're seeking the proper treatment and if they're behaving themselves and conducting themselves in a safe manner for society. It's the unregistered guy you have to worry about. And somebody who goes to this extent to avoid registration, that's somebody I think you have to worry about. What's concerning to me, I mean, what I think is really, really concerning

is the fact that this guy was working as a counselor. I mean, how on earth is he a sex offender in California? He moves to Arizona and he's able to work as a counselor in some capacity. He sexually abuses a teenage girl, a 16-year-old girl, and then he has to register as a sex offender. What is going on out West that he would even be able to get a job as a counselor? Well, it's not just out West. It happens all over the country, Anjanette. Unfortunately, you see people who try to duck registration. And you have to wonder, is the reason they want to work with young people after being a convicted offender, is that the reason they want to be there, to offend again? And you

have to worry about somebody who is not on the registration, somebody who is not seeking court mandated treatment, and in some cases, punishment, rehabilitation, if that's possible for some of these guys. And so, yeah, they go right back to where they're tempted to offend again. It's a dangerous and volatile situation. Thank goodness they caught him. A SWAT team actually took Hollins into custody. Here he is in court recently. Good morning, please tell me your name and your date of birth. Mr. Hollins, 4-13-74. Mr. Hollins, I've got a few matters to talk with you about. Apparently, you have,

you were arrested on two, on, it looks like, two felony offenses. Failure to register and annual registration. I am sending a secured appearance bond in the amount of $50,000 on both of those charges. I've set your first hearing in the Pinal County Superior Court for Tuesday, May 21, 2024 at 830 in the morning. Now if you're able to be released on bond prior to that date, you must appear in person for that hearing.

If you fail to appear, that court may issue a warrant for your arrest on the release order or standard conditions of release. If you are released, please review those conditions. If you violate a condition of release, you may be subject to arrest. I want to take just a really quick break to tell you about something new here at Law and Crime. It's called True Crime Goods. We know so many of our viewers get obsessed with the cases we cover, and we have a lot of law and crime armchair detectives out there. That's where our new store, True Crime Goods, comes in. It's the ultimate shop for the true crime addict. From True Crime Academy sweatshirts to In My True Crime Era t-shirts and Fueled coffee and true crime mugs,

True Crime Goods has it all. So whether you want a varsity forensic squad crew neck or law and crime beanie, True Crime Goods has everything you need for yourself and your friends. Our law and crime viewers can get 10% off their True Crime Goods order with our promo code LAWANDCRIMETEN. Check it out. And with me now is the man you saw at the top of the show. He is Sheriff Mark Lamb with Pinal County and his agency caught this guy. Sheriff, thanks for coming on. I find this story to just be unbelievable.

Benjamin Hollins. I mean, when you get the call that you have somebody who tried to fake his death so he didn't register, have to register as a sex offender, My God, what went through your mind? It's wild, right? I mean, that's how I let off the story. This is a wild story. You know, he originally, where he faked his death, or at least had somebody help him fake his death, she made that fraudulent police report saying, hey, he jumped off this bridge. That wasn't in my county. So the resources that were expended looking for him was a different county. However, it's wild that he went to that

lane to try to avoid registering as a sex offender. Is that woman who filed the false report, is she also facing charges? You know, we're going to follow up with the agency that received that call initially. I sure hope they do, you know, because there was a lot of resources that were wasted looking for this guy who wasn't dead. up, commit reoffending, which I don't know how he was out anyway. And then he gets probation and decides he's not going to register again. And then in October of last year, he faked his death. The thing that really stuns me about this too is, as you mentioned, he's in California. He's a sex offender there. He moves over to Arizona. He is working as a behavioral counselor and he sexually abuses a 16-year-old. I mean, my God, what is going on? How did he even pass a background check to get into that type of work? I mean, shouldn't they have been vetting him? What was going on

with that? Do you know? Absolutely, they should have been vetting him what was going on with that do you know absolutely they should have been vetting him i don't know whether he used a fake name or not because he was under a fake identity when we actually found him in mesa he was living with a family who had children they didn't even know what he was suspected of doing but the fact that he had violated a 16 year old tell how is this guy walking the streets and free? This is also a reflection on the poor job that the courts have done holding people accountable for some of the most heinous crimes which are against our children. This is an example of why we can't do that because this guy tried to, first he failed to register, then he ends up going and wasting resources by faking his death, trying to avoid being held accountable and responsible for his actions. But you know what?

We caught him. We're holding him accountable. And he was living with a family with children? Was he just renting a room or what was going on? I don't know all the details, but he was living with a family. They had no idea who he was, fake identity. They had children, probably at risk. I don't know whether there was any issues. I'm sure that Mesa PD, the agency where he was living, has probably done a little bit of follow-up. But thank goodness Chandler PD, which is one of our neighboring cities up to our county, they did a great job of not believing this death. They actually kept investigating, investigating, and they found him living in

Mesa with this family. And we were able to go and take him into custody with our SWAT team, or else he'd probably still be out there potentially harming or violating somebody else. He looked pretty stunned from the picture I saw. So was he stunned when the SWAT team scoops him up? I mean, SWAT teams usually aren't super quiet when they go in to arrest somebody. I mean, sometimes, you know, there's the big bullhorn, they announce they're there. And, you know, every once in a while, there's a flashbang or something like that. I mean, it just depends on what the circumstances are. Well, he was definitely stunned. We caught a couple of pictures of him and sure he was very stunned that we tracked him down. I think he truly thought he got away with this, that he was going to be able to change his identity and not be held accountable for his previous actions, but he was wrong. So what kind of trouble is he in now and is he still in your jail? Well, he still in your jail? Well, he's going to now have to face the full weight of those charges that he received initially where he was given probation.

I still think that was a terrible conviction where they give him probation for this. But he's going to have to face now the full weight of that conviction. He's probably going to face some more charges for failing to register. He's probably going to face more charges for the wasted resources for filing a false police report for his death. There's going to be a myriad of different things we're going to stack on him and he deserves it because this is a guy who's trying to circumvent the system, and he's putting the rest of us at risk. Well, it's very scary. It's scary that somebody can just be a sex offender in one state, hop over to another, not register, re-offend, and then kind of be on the run for a little bit. I mean, obviously, he wasn't able to get away with faking his own death, which is going to such extreme

measures and extreme lengths to avoid doing this. It's insane to me and mind-boggling. I've heard of faking your own death, but not to avoid registering as a sex offender. So to me, it seems like he's doing this so he can continue being a sex offender. I mean, doing these things and getting jobs to get in that position. That's the only reason I can see him not wanting to register. And I don't think you're wrong. You know, in nearly two decades of law enforcement, I've seen a lot of wild things. I've seen people fake their deaths. You know, they want insurance money or they're trying to get away from disappear. This guy, he clearly did it to

avoid registering as a sex offender. He clearly did it so that he could change his identity and not have to acknowledge that he's a sex offender. But in this situation, he's not dead. We found him. He's going to be held accountable. Well, good thing for that. Sheriff Mark Lamb, thank you so much. It was so great to talk with you. We appreciate you coming on. Thank you. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. I'll see you back here next time.