Rios murder case will go forward

Bill Gang

Tuesday, Nov. 23, 1999 | 9:42 a.m.

The mental state of murder defendant John Flowers still is in doubt, but a district judge has ruled that until he is determined to be mentally incompetent, he will have to face charges in the bizarre slaying of Las Vegas singer Ginger Rios.

District Judge Michael Douglas on Monday ordered the case returned to Las Vegas Justice Court for the setting of a preliminary hearing.

Douglas also ordered that a state psychiatrist examine Flowers because two psychiatrists hired by the public defender's office say he still is mentally unfit for trial.

The question, according to the judge, is whether Flowers is simply faking.

That was the conclusion of one psychiatrist who examined the defendant last year and is the suspicion of Deputy District Attorney Ed Kane.

While the state psychiatrist tries to answer that question, Douglas said the criminal case will go forward.

Kane has fumed in recent court hearings that continuing delays are unwarranted and the criminal charges in the 1997 slaying need to be resolved.

There has been concern by the Rios family and prosecutors that Flowers is attempting to be declared too infirm mentally to ever stand trial. That would result in his being dispatched to a long-term mental facility.

In addition to the Rios murder, Flowers is a suspect in the slaying of a second still-unidentified woman whose body was found buried in a grave in a southern Arizona desert near that of Rios. Both graves were concealed beneath concrete caps.

Rios was killed April 4, 1997, after her husband, Mark Hollinger, drove her to the Spy Craft store, 3507 Maryland Parkway, managed by Flowers.

Hollinger told police the 20-year-old victim never emerged from the store, but Flowers said she left after buying a book about how to kill people and then disappeared.

It was Flowers' wife who came forward in August 1997 with information that led police to the recovery of the woman's body as well as the second body.