A Verdict 26 years Too Late: The Case of Kristin Smart

Trigger warning: the following article contains graphic information that may be upsetting to some readers. The piece includes details of murder, sexual assault, and violence.

Note: All of the information in this article is compiled from varying sources linked throughout the article. The purpose of this article is to provide a brief overview of the tragic disappearance of Kristin Smart. For further information on the case, the accredited podcast, Your Own Backyard, provides a thorough exploration of the night of the crime and follows the involved families throughout later years. 

The Verdict

On Memorial Day Weekend in 1996, Kristen Smart went missing. Smart was a 19-year-old college freshman at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo at the time of her disappearance and would be 45 years old today. 26 years later, on October 18, 2022, Paul Flores was found guilty of her murder. Paul’s father, Ruben, who was on trial with his son facing charges of accessory to murder, was found not guilty. 

The Disappearance

Smart was last seen with Paul Flores at a party on Crandall Way near the Cal-Poly campus on the night of May 25, 1996. The campus was eerily quiet that night — a fact confirmed by Paul in an interview with investigators. Fellow students, Tim Davis and Cheryll Anderson, remember finding Smart passed out on a lawn outside of the party and Paul Flores offering to walk her home. Tim Davis was interviewed by campus police on May 31, 1996, and urged them that “the main point [he wanted] to make with [the police, was] that this guy Paul was a little weird and everyone realized it.” In the trial, Smart’s prosecutors alleged that “her behavior was consistent with someone who had been drugged.” Your Own Backyard podcast host, Chris Lambert, believes that Paul Flores drugged Kristin Smart in an attempt to sedate and rape her. This behavior is not out of character for Flores, as two women in the trial testified having been drugged and sexually assaulted by him in 2008 and 2011. Prosecutor San Luis Obispo County Deputy District Attorney, Chris Peuvrelle, asked the jury in his closing arguments, “do you see a pattern here?” referring to Paul Flores as a “serial drugger and rapist.” In fact, Paul has a history of violent aggression, including “stomping a kid’s head in middle school hard enough to put him in the hospital, threatening to stab another player on his soccer team, holding a girl underwater in his pool until an adult had to pull him off of her, [and] body-slamming a girl for ‘cock-blocking’ him at a party.” It is also possible that Smart’s cause of death was asphyxiation on her own vomit during or after being raped. A jury found Paul Flores guilty and reached a verdict that Paul Flores “with malice aforethought murder[ed] Kristen Smart” while “engaged in the commission of, or attempting to commit, the crime of rape.” He was charged with murder in the first degree.

The Investigation Timeline

Just two days after Smart disappeared, Paul Flores turned himself in to the Arroyo Grande Police Department for an outstanding DUI. His mugshot from this day pictures Flores with a black eye. When questioned by authorities about the injury, his answer varied over time.

Throughout the summer of 1996, Cal-Poly police forces and volunteers searched the campus for any evidence of Smart’s body, but nothing was found.

Cadaver dogs — trained to pick up the scent of human remains — alerted to the mattress, window, and other areas of Paul Flores’ dorm room.

On October 17, 1996, Paul testified before the grand jury, calling frequently upon his fifth amendment right to remain silent. No arrests were made.

Six years after her disappearance with no evidence of a body, Kristin Smart was legally declared dead in 2002. A memorial was held to commemorate her, but it brought the Smart family little peace.

In September of 2016, 20 years after her disappearance, a dig and investigation were conducted on the hill above the Cal-Poly campus related to the case of Kristin Smart, but no evidence was discovered.

In February 2020, there was a warranted FBI search of Ruben Flores’ house in Arroyo Grande. Officials returned on March 15 with cadaver dogs and ground-penetrating radar equipment. Traces of blood were found in disturbed soil underneath the property near where neighbors had reported seeing activity one night.

In a 2021 civil lawsuit against Ruben Flores, a witness alleges seeing Ruben Flores and two others remove something from under the deck with a trailer after the FBI search in February 2020, but prior to the March 15 search.

Court documents reveal that investigators believe Smart’s body was buried at the Flores’ Arroyo Grande home and “recently” moved.

Paul and Ruben Flores were arrested on April 13, 2021.

The Trial

The preliminary trial began in August 2021 at San Luis Obispo Superior Courthouse. After 22 days, the judge ruled that there was enough evidence to hold Paul and Ruben Flores for a murder trial and that while 45-year-old Paul Flores would be held in jail without bail, 80-year-old Ruben Flores was permitted to return home with an ankle monitor. When the defense attorney filed an I95 motion, a second judge was called in to review all 22 volumes of preliminary testimony, and in January 2022 ruled there was “sufficient probable cause” to hold the trial. The trial was held in Monterey County Superior Court after a change in venue and began on July 18, 2022. The trial included two juries — one evaluating the charges against Paul Flores and the other considering charges against his father, Ruben. After 12 grueling weeks in the courtroom, Deputy District Attorney Christopher Peuvrelle finished his closing arguments on October 3 and Robert Sanger, Paul Flores’ defense attorney, concluded closing arguments on October 4, 2022. The verdicts finding Paul guilty and Ruben not guilty were read on Tuesday, October 18, 2022.

Next Steps

Following the verdict, a press conference was held where the Smart family expressed their gratitude for the jury but stated that “without Kristen, there is no joy or happiness with this verdict.” During the press conference, district attorney Dan Dow thanked Your Own Backyard podcast host Chris Lambert for his dedication to the case. Dow added that Lambert’s podcast renewed public interest in the case, kept Kristin’s memory alive, and was “critical in the prosecution of [the] case” by identifying necessary witnesses and evidence.

Paul Flores’ sentencing hearing is scheduled for December 9, 2022 and he faces 25 years to life in prison. 26 years after the abduction of their beloved daughter, Stan and Denise Smart are one step closer to a forever unattainable peace. This case will not be over until the remains of Kristen Smart are found, and the case will forever haunt the hearts of those who knew and loved her.

For more information on the case and how to support the Smart family, visit www.kristinsmart.org.

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