Pinal sheriff says sex offender faked his death

The Pinal County Sheriff’s Office arrested Benjamin Hollins, 50, a convicted sex offender, for allegedly faking his own death to avoid registering.

The Pinal Regional SWAT Team arrested Hollins on Tuesday and booked him into the Pinal County jail. Chandler Police detectives tracked Hollins down to a home in Mesa, where he was living under a false identity, a PCSO release stated.

Hollins was originally convicted as a sex offender in California more than 20 years ago. By 2018, Hollins was living in Arizona City and had failed to register there, the press release stated. While working as a behavioral health counselor, he reoffended, kidnapping and attempting to molest a 16-year-old client. He ultimately took a plea deal, was sentenced to supervised probation, and was required to register as a sex offender every year.

PCSO alleged that in October 2023, Hollins had a woman help him file a false report by claiming she had witnessed Hollins commit suicide by jumping off the Roosevelt Bridge. A body was never found.

Once Hollins was "dead," his sex offender registration lapsed. He was living with a family with young children who did not know about his history, the release stated.

"Great work by my deputies, detectives and Chandler PD for keeping this guy accountable for his actions despite his best attempts to disappear," Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb stated in the release.