Flowers pleads guilty to murder

Tuesday, March 28, 2000 | 10:42 a.m.

A Las Vegas man accused of murdering a singer and dancer inside a local store while her new husband waited for her outside has decided to plead guilty, but insane, in connection with the three-year-old case.

John Flowers, 29, is scheduled to officially plead guilty to the murder charge and a charge of battery with intent to kill on April 3. He will have to serve at least 25 years in prison before he is eligible for parole. He was not given credit for three years already spent in a state mental institution.

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

When Hollinger tried to go into the store, Flowers, the store's owner, slammed the door in his face, closing the store two hours before its posted closing time.

Flowers told police Rios left his store after buying books on how to disappear.

Four months later, Flowers' wife, Cheryl Ciccone, 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."