Paul Flores

A jury has found Paul Flores guilty of murdering Cal Poly student Kristin Smart in 1996, according to the San Luis Obispo Tribune.

The blood was too degraded to extract a DNA sample. He later changed his story to say he bumped his head while working on his car. On May 25, 1996, witnesses say, Smart got drunk at a party about a 10-minute walk from her dorm room at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo. They said he later dug up the remains and moved them. He told them he got it playing basketball with friends, who denied his account, according to court records. Sanger dismissed the prosecution's forensic evidence as "junk science," The Tribune reported.

A California jury has found Paul Flores guilty in the murder of 19-year-old college student Kristin Smart in 1996. His father, Ruben Flores, was found not ...

"This case will not be over until Kristin is returned home," he said during a press conference Tuesday with the family. "Know that your spirit lives on in each and every one of us." "You look through it and there is no evidence against anybody, me or Paul." Paul and Ruben Flores were tried at the same time, but with separate juries hearing the case together. Prosecutors say he helped hide Smart's body on his property in Arroyo Grande before moving it in 2020. A California jury has found Paul Flores guilty in the murder of 19-year-old college student Kristin Smart in 1996.

A Monterey County jury has reached a verdict in the case against a man accused of raping and murdering Cal Poly student Kristin Smart, and his father.

Prosecutors have charged Flores with murder, which they say he committed while raping or trying to rape Kristin in his dorm room. On May 25, 1996, witnesses say, Smart got drunk at a party about a 10-minute walk from her dorm room at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo. Prosecutors accused one of Smart's fellow students, Paul Flores, of killing her during a rape or attempted rape in his dorm room. During the trial, which began in June, they presented evidence that attempted to show his father, Ruben Flores, helped dispose of Smart's body. Sanger dismissed the prosecution's forensic evidence as "junk science," The Tribune reported. The two were arrested in April 2021.

Authorities never found Kristin Smart's body, an oversight long considered a stumbling block in the case. She was declared legally dead in 2002.

“It was his version of a 911 call.” In their cases, the prosecutor noted that Flores had offered to give the women rides home after meeting them, only to drug and repeatedly rape them at his house. Four cadaver dogs would eventually key in on Flores’ room because of the “smell of death on his mattress,” Peuvrelle told jurors, summarizing testimony from the dog handlers. As she and two other students began to leave, Flores appeared out of the darkness to help her walk home, witnesses testified. “It would be nice if the community would actually honor the presumption of innocence. The prosecutor told jurors that was when father and son moved Smart’s remains as investigators made new inquiries about the property. Chris Peuvrelle alleged that Paul Flores raped or attempted to rape — and eventually killed — Smart before hiding her remains under his father’s Arroyo Grande house deck. “It wasn’t about facts,” said Flores, who did not get to speak with his son before he was taken away. The disappearance was the subject of a true crime podcast. A second jury that heard evidence at the same time during the 12-week trial of the two men thought there was reasonable doubt that he had helped his son cover up the crime by burying Smart’s body under his house’s deck and keeping the remains there for years. [ensure fair legal proceedings](https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-04-21/kristin-smart-case-paul-flores-murder-trial-monterey). Ruben Flores’ jury had to restart deliberations after an alternate had to replace one juror who was removed after he [spoke to his priest](https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-10-13/kristin-smart-murder-trial-juror-replaced-after-talking-to-priest) about the case.

After a three-month trial, a Monterey County jury has unanimously found Paul Flores guilty of the first-degree murder of Kristin Smart.

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