Suspected killer to get more evaluation

John Flowers is still mentally incompetent to stand trial on murder charges in the slaying of Las Vegas singer Ginger Rios, but he could get better, psychiatrists told the courts.

But, said one doctor, there also is the possibility that he is just faking it.

That is a suspicion shared by her family as they track the case from court hearing to court hearing in their quest not only for justice but for relief from their pain.

Her death "has left a hole in our lives and it's not healing," said her father, George Rios, as he looked at a picture of his daughter outside the Clark County Courthouse.

District Judge Michael Douglas on Thursday ordered Flowers, who also is known as Craig Jacobsen, to undergo further evaluation and treatment at the state's mental health facility at Lake's Crossing, near Sparks. He will be back no later than six months for another hearing on his mental state.

What bothers Deputy District Attorney Gary Guymon and the Rios family is that Flowers could ultimately be declared too infirm mentally to ever stand trial and instead would be dispatched to long-term mental health treatment.

Flowers, according to court documents, has made claims that he was connected to the FBI, the CIA and Russian intelligence, but was in the federal witness protection program as a result of the Russians turning on him.

"We think he's trying to fool the psychiatrists and is doing a very good job of it," George Rios said.

"This guy is good for two murders," Guymon told the judge in asking for further evaluations that will keep alive the possibility of a trial and a murder conviction.

He was referring not only to the murder of Rios, whose body was found buried in a grave in the southern Arizona desert, but also to the death of a still-unidentified woman whose body was buried nearby. Both graves were concealed beneath concrete caps.

Rios was killed April 4, 1997, after her husband, Mark Hollinger, drove her to the store she managed on Maryland Parkway.

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 disappear.

Hollinger on Thursday called that "an Academy Award-winning display that had me totally fooled."

"I think he's still continuing the act," he said, speculating that Flowers' intent may be to get into a minimum security mental facility from which he could escape.

"If that happens, he will kill again, and the blood will be on the hands of the legal system at that point," Hollinger said.

Several years ago, Flowers spent time in a mental institution as a result of criminal charges in a federal court of transporting stolen property.

In the Rios case, 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.

As a result, Flowers was arrested in Los Angeles on murder charges and returned to Nevada.

While George Rios and Hollinger are pleased with Thursday's court ruling keeping the criminal case alive, they admit they are struggling with their loss.

"The family and I are condemned to a life of pain," Hollinger said.

"The case goes on and on and the pain goes on and on," Rios added. "We're happy Flowers is being held, but we'd like to seem him punished."

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