Singer’s killer sentenced to life in prison

Kim Smith

Tuesday, May 16, 2000 | 11:41 a.m.

Two members of a Las Vegas family stared John Flowers straight in the face as they swore to the killer that they would make every parole hearing he will ever face in the 1997 death of local entertainer Ginger Rios.

Flowers, 29, pleaded guilty but mentally ill last month to first-degree murder and battery with intent to kill in connection with Rios' death. This morning District Judge Michael Douglas sentenced him to life in prison with parole eligibility after 20 years and five to 13 years in prison on the battery charge. The two sentences will be run one after the other.

Rios, a 20-year-old singer and dancer, disappeared after walking into Flowers' 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 desert outside Tucson, Ariz. She told police her husband told her he killed Rios after she "got in his face."

Flowers, who appeared in court cleanly shaved and with a buzz haircut for the first time, declined to speak on his own behalf after Rios' father, George, and her uncle, Lee Wadsworth, addressed the court.

George Rios, who bore a picture of his daughter on his shirt, spoke of the guilt he has for not teaching his daughter about finances and the martial arts. If he had taught her either one, perhaps she would still be here, he said.

"I don't know what we're doing here," Rios said. "We should be out there enjoying ourselves, spending time with our families, spending time with Ginger. She was -- she is -- a big part of our lives."

Rios said there will always be an empty spot at the dinner table when his family enjoys holidays, but they will persevere.

"We appreciate our family even more so because we don't know from day to day what's going to happen," Rios said. "Our daughter went shopping and she didn't come home."

Twenty-five years is nothing, Rios said, and if he can't be at the parole hearings, someone in Ginger's family will be.

"We'll always carry this wound with us and we will always be there," Rios said.

Authorities believe Flowers is also responsible for the death of an unidentified woman found buried near Rios.

Flowers owned and operated Spy Craft bookstores in Las Vegas and Tucson.

It wasn't until recently that Flowers was declared competent to stand trial. If he had gone to trial, he could have received the death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of parole.

By pleading guilty but mentally ill, Flowers is guaranteed mental health treatment while in prison.