MESA, AZ — A Mesa minister has been sentenced after pleading guilty to child abuse.
Ishmael Amon Collins, 33, began a nine-month sentence in a Maricopa County Jail last week. He was also given 20 years of probation after pleading guilty to two counts of child abuse.
Collins was initially charged in October 2018, with five counts of having sex with a minor after smoking marijuana with her for several hours.
According to court documents on September 10, 2018, an underage teen girl was picked up by Collins, who plays the keyboards and preaches at his church. Collins and the girl drove on the freeways around the Valley, smoking marijuana together for a couple of hours. He then took the girl to an apartment complex parking lot where they had sex.
Ten days later, the girl reported the incident to the police. During a recorded phone call, Collins made several admissions to having sex with the girl saying, "she could not be pregnant because it had only been a week and a half."
Collins admitted being a minister at the church the girl attends.
He is scheduled to be released from jail in September 2020.
