Plea deal made in rape, drugging case

Erica D. Johnson

Friday, Nov. 28, 2003 | 9:12 a.m.

The former Marine who was granted a new trial after he was convicted of drugging and raping a Las Vegas woman negotiated his case with prosecutors on Wednesday.

Raymond Flores, 25, pleaded guilty to one count each of attempted sexual assault, coercion and perjury stemming from the woman's allegations that he slipped her a drug at a local nightclub and raped her in August 1999.

"She was not in the frame of mind to consent," Clark County prosecutor Becky Goettsch said. "She was under the influence of what was suspected to be the date-rape drug, GHB."

Flores made the plea pursuant to the Alford decision, which means Flores maintains his innocence but does not want to risk going to trial.

The alleged victim, a local mother of three, was in the courtroom when Flores entered the plea.

The attempted sexual assault charge alone carries a two- to 20-year sentence. Flores will also be eligible for probation when he is sentenced before District Judge Kathy Hardcastle on Feb. 25.

Flores was sentenced in January 2001 to 10 to 25 years in prison for raping the woman. A jury convicted him on one count of sexual assault and acquitted him on a sodomy charge because of a lack of physical evidence.

He was released from prison after a fellow Marine confessed that he had sodomized the woman and may have committed the other sexual assault. Lance Cpl. Ryan Fulton shared a motel room with Flores at the time.

Fulton later recanted his confession and told authorities he was pressured into confessing by military investigators and Flores' friends. Fulton was prosecuted in military court for obstruction of justice.

Flores' attorney, Dianne Dickson of the public defender's office, said her client entered into the negotiations because he did not want to risk going to prison.

"You never know what to expect with a jury trial," she said. "If he were convicted again he'd go back to prison. He doesn't want that."

Dickson said Flores would be returning to South Carolina where he is living and would return to Las Vegas in February for the sentencing.

The woman claims Flores slipped her a date-rape drug after running into her at The Beach nightclub. She said she remembered drinking a shot of tequila he had given her before waking up in his motel room.

Goettsch told Hardcastle that had Flores not pleaded guilty, the state would have been able to prove that Flores raped and sodomized the woman and that the woman's shoulder was injured as a result of the struggle that ensued.

"A great deal of force was necessary to complete these acts," she said.

The perjury charge came after Flores allegedly lied under oath during a prior court proceeding that he had not had any sexual contact with the woman.

He also gave the court false details regarding his academic record, Goettsch said.