Austin prosecutors probe slaying on Flores' ranch

The Travis County district attorney's office is reviewing more than just travel records in its ongoing criminal investigation into state Rep. Ismael "Kino" Flores.

Prosecutors have requested documents connected to the September slaying of a ranch hand on Flores' Mission property and federal agents have also taken an interest in the representative's past, authorities said Monday.

"(They) asked us if we would supply them all the reports and affidavits on the murder case," Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Treviño said. "We sent them what we had."

Treviño said he did not know why Austin authorities were interested in records involving the death. But the request suggests a wider probe than initially reported.

Flores, D-Palmview, was not suspected of any involvement in the slaying of Mexican national Adin Jaret Rodriguez on Sept. 1 but admitted to hiring the lead suspect - a Mexican national with no legal status to work in the country - for odd jobs on his ranch.

The state representative said at the time that he hadn't checked the man's status because he didn't look like an illegal immigrant.

Gregg Cox - head of the Travis County district attorney's public integrity unity - refused to discuss his interest in Rodriguez's death Monday.

Flores' lawyer, Roy Q. Minton of Austin, said that while he was aware Cox's office had subpoenaed his client's travel records, he did not know the full scope of their probe.

He also acknowledged that at least one FBI agent had been looking into the representative's background. A bureau spokesman in San Antonio did not return calls for comment Monday.

Minton suggested Friday that three trips his client took on a donor's private plane may have raised prosecutors' interest.

State law prohibits lawmakers from accepting gifts of free or discounted travel without declaring it on financial disclosure forms.

But Flores maintains that rides he hitched on an aircraft owned by LaMantia family were paid for at fair market value at about $500 per trip. The LaMantias own the McAllen-based Anheuser-Bush distributor, L&F, and are major investors in a planned Hidalgo County racetrack that Flores helped secure licensing for last year.

Flores denied any wrongdoing last week and vowed to cooperate with investigators' inquiries.

An 11-year incumbent, he was re-elected to a seventh term last week.

Jeremy Roebuck covers courts and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4437.