Plea agreement in entertainer’s death falls apart

Kim Smith

Monday, April 3, 2000 | 12:55 p.m.

A 29-year-old Las Vegas man scheduled to plead guilty but mentally ill in the 1997 death of a local entertainer backed out of his plea agreement this morning.

John Flowers said he understood and agreed with everything that was in his plea agreement, but when Deputy District Attorney Ed Kane told District Judge Michael Douglas he also wanted Flowers to admit that the state could prove that Flowers acted with malice and forethought, premeditation and deliberation in the death of Ginger Rios, Flowers responded "No way."

Douglas rescheduled the plea hearing for Tuesday to give Deputy Public Defender Will Ewing a chance to confer with Flowers. Flowers has been given the option of entering a plea in which he does not claim responsibility, but admits that the state could prove its case.

The delay angered Rios' parents, George and Denise, who have been waiting for justice.

"It's almost like he's controlling everything," Denise Rios said.

"We've been waiting three years and now this," George Rios said. "What's going to happen tomorrow? Who the hell knows?"

A minor snag had been hit earlier in the proceeding. When Flowers was asked if he understood that he has been charged with first-degree murder and battery with intent to kill, Flowers disputed that he intended to kill.

"I just want to say your honor, with intent to kill, I hit her one time," Flowers said.

Douglas replied that Flowers would be able to give his version of events at his sentencing hearing.

Under the plea agreement, Flowers would get a life sentence with possibility of parole after 25 years.

If Flowers goes through with the plea bargain Tuesday, he will be pleading guilty on the anniversary of Rios' death.

"We don't look at it as an anniversary because anniversaries are usually something you look forward to," George Rios said. "It's been a horrible three years. We don't belong here. We don't belong in court having to listen to what this man's done to our daughter."

According to police, Rios, 20, disappeared after walking into the Spy Craft bookstore on April 4, 1997, to buy a book on improving credit reports. Her husband of five months, Mark Hollinger, waited outside for her, but she never came out.

Four months later, Flowers' wife led police to Rios' body in the Arizona desert. She told police her husband told her he killed Rios after she "got in his face."

For the past two years Flowers has been hospitalized in a state mental institution, but he was recently declared competent to stand trial.

People who plead guilty but mentally ill receive the same sentence as those who plead guilty, but it guarantees that they receive treatment in prison.