The man convicted for killing Kristin smart, the California college student that disappeared in 1996, was sentenced to 25 years to live in state prison.
Paul Flores’ sentencing marks the end of a case that has been in the news for nearly a quarter-century. Flores had been a suspect in Smart’s death for a long time. In 2021, he was arrested and convicted of first degree murder in October.
Smart was 19 when she disappeared as she returned to California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo. Flores was also an undergraduate at the school.
Smart’s remains are not known to have been found. However, in 2002 she was declared legally deceased.
Prosecutors alleged that Flores, now 46 years old, attempted to rape Smart on May 25, 1996 in his dorm. They were both first-year university students. Smart saw him as he was walking her home from an on-campus party.
Flores was also arrested along with his father in 2021. They were accused of hiding Smart’s body.
After Flores and his father were denied fair trials in their home counties, the trial was held in Salinas County in Monterey County.
Flores was convicted of first-degree murder by a jury in October. Ruben Flores, aged 81, was found not guilty of first-degree murder by another jury.
Robert Sanger, defense attorney at Paul Flores’ trial tried to link the murder to someone else. Sanger mentioned that Scott Peterson, later convicted of murdering his wife and the unborn child, was also a student at the campus located 200 miles away from Los Angeles.
Sanger filed motions to the Monterey County Superior Court on February 24th, asking that the charges be dropped and that his client be acquitted.
Sanger refuted the prosecution’s forensic evidence. He claimed Flores’ rights to a fair trial were violated due to prosecution errors and “the acceptance of junk science in evidence.”
“There was a reason why a case against Paul Flores wasn’t brought for the past 25 years,” said the motion. “There was not evidence of a crime or that Paul Flores committed it,” the motion stated.
Paul Flores was a long-time suspect in the crime. Investigators found a black eye on him when they interviewed him. He said he got it from playing basketball with friends. They denied his story. According to court records, he later changed the story to claim that he hit his head while working on the car.
Over two decades, investigators tried dozens of unsuccessful searches to find Smart’s body. In the last two years, they focused their attention on Ruben Flores’ residence in Arroyo Grande. It is located 12 miles from California Polytechnic State.
Prosecutors said that archaeologists working under the deck of the large house at the dead end street found soil disturbances the size and composition of a casket. The blood was too contaminated to be able to extract DNA samples.