The Vivares family’s attorney Saad A. Aziz confirmed to Chron that Benson died Thursday morning. Patsy Vivares, his sister, announced Benson’s death on Facebook just before noon: “I love you forever.”
Benson, also known as “BJ,” lived in Pearland and graduated from Pearland High School. Before working in restaurants, he was a mail carrier for several years. In 2014, he and his sister, Patsy, opened Sticky’s Chicken inside a used FedEx truck. Neither had culinary training, but they told KPRC-TV they were inspired by their father’s dream of opening a food stand.
Sticky’s signature sauce, a recipe developed by Patsy and Benson’s father Ceferino, generated an intense following, enough for them to open a permanent space inside the Sawyer Yards development in December 2019.
In 2021, the Vivares siblings began experimenting with the idea of a smashburger concept with business partner Andy Nguyen. The recipe they came up with, the siblings later claimed in court, was the “OG Trill Burger.” That same year, the siblings connected with Bernard Freeman, better known professionally as rapper Bun B. The siblings, Bun B, Nguyen, and Nick Scurfield founded Trill Burgers as an independent smashburger concept.
The business relationship deteriorated in July 2022. Trill Burgers LLC sued Patsy and Benson in August 2023, and the siblings filed counterclaims and a third-party petition in January 2024. The parties went into arbitration in July 2025. In December, the arbitrator overseeing the case ruled against the siblings, finding that the parties had made a binding deal during a July 2022 video call for the siblings to leave the company.
In March 2026, Patsy and Benson moved to vacate or modify the arbitrator’s ruling, arguing he went beyond the scope of the proceeding by relying on the video call to reject their claims. Attorneys for Trill Burgers LLC dispute this and have asked the court to confirm the arbitrator’s ruling.
As of Thursday, the presiding judge has not issued a ruling on the case, and it’s not clear whether Benson’s death will have an impact on the ongoing litigation.