More than 25 years later California Polytechnic University freshman Kristin Smart mysteriously disappearing from a brother’s party, an old classmate and his father are on trial for her murder.
Paul FloresThe 45-year-old, is facing murder charges after allegedly killing Smart despite claiming he only brought her home from an off-campus party over Memorial Day weekend in 1996. Prosecutors say that after the horrific crime, Flores’ father, Ruben Flores, helped his son. hide the body of a 19-year-old boy. The pair were arrested in April 2021 in connection with Kristin’s alleged death and disappearance, although her body was never discovered.
Now, two Monterey County Superior Court jurors must decide the fate of a notorious murder suspect and patriarchal prosecutors say became an after-fact accessory by purchasing the body of Smart in his yard — and then besiege her even to death.
“Evidence will show that Kristin was murdered by Paul Flores, and that Paul Flores and Ruben Flores buried her under the floor of Ruben Flores,” San Luis Obispo Deputy District Attorney Christopher Peuvrelle said during the opening debate in Monday, according to San Luis Obisco Tribune. “And while the entire community banded together in a desperate search for Kristin, Paul and Ruben Flores didn’t join. You’ll hear Ruben Flores tearing up Kristin’s missing posters – tearing the mould. her pretty smiling face – calling her a ‘dirty slut,’ “all while her body was decomposing beneath his deck.”
Paul Flores’ defense attorney, Robert Sanger, emphasized in his opening statement that although Smart’s death was a “tragic situation in one sense or another”, his client was not responsible. responsible for her death. Noting that Smart’s body had yet to be found, Sanger asserted that the Flores family had suffered a “coordinated media campaign” and been harassed for decades.
“Kristin Smart never returned home, it is now believed that she passed away, but there is no proof of what happened to her,” Sanger added. The attorney for Flores’ 81-year-old father, Ruben, began his opening remarks Monday afternoon. Both men pleaded not guilty.
Peuvrelle took time on Monday to introduce Smart to the jury, explaining how the 19-year-old calls her family every Sunday. On the night of the murder, Flores is said to have joined Smart and her friend Cheryl Anderson as they returned to the dorm from the party.
At the time, prosecutors said, Smart was “incapacitated” by something she drank. Anderson, who was supposed to testify in the trial, last saw Smart off with Flores. It was a decision “she has since regretted,” says Peuvrelle.
According to police, some of Smart’s college friends said the suspect would linger around the 19-year-old before the night of his interrogation. A former roommate told investigators that Flores was “uncharacteristically interested in Kristin,” while another college friend claimed Flores would hang out outside Smart’s dorm even though he don’t live there.
The friend “notices that Paul Flores will randomly pass through the halls of Muir Dorm. Paul would try to get Kristin’s attention and she was too nice to tell him. She’s so kind, “Peuvrelle speak.
As The Daily Beast reportedFlores told police that on the night she went missing, Kristin was “walking very slowly” and he held her waist to keep her warm as he strolled back to her Muir Hall dorm. Flores told authorities he returned to his room in Santa Lucia Hall after taking her away.
Peuvrelle noted on Monday that Flores displayed a slight bruise under his eye during his first police interview. In subsequent interviews, prosecutors said that Flores would frequently change his story about the night Smart went missing and how he ended up.
Despite the suspicion surrounding Flores – and Smart’s parents accusing him of harming their daughter in a wrongful lawsuit – authorities have been unable to establish a murder charge against him for several years. five. Peuvrelle on Monday launched the inquest to jurors, showing that a substantial search warrant in recent years finally allowed authorities to charge Flores and his father with murder.
The prosecutor noted that three women were supposed to testify against Flores, accusing him of drugging and raping them. In November 2016, The Daily Beast has exclusive coverage of Four women accused Flores of sexual assault. One of them alleges that Flores and a friend drugged and raped her in 1994 while she was a sophomore in high school. A second woman, also attending Cal Poly, claims Flores groped her at a Halloween dance party in 1995 — and tried to rape her in the bathroom on her friend’s birthday later that year.
Peuvrelle told jurors: “At the end of this case, I will ask you to review all the evidence to come up with a true full verdict. “I hope you find Paul Flores guilty for killing Kristin Smart and Ruben Flores guilty for being an accessory.”
