California jury finds man guilty in 1996 murder of Kristin Smart
Image: ABC News Image: ABC News (The family of Kirstin Smart stand along side attorney’s during a new conference following a guilty verdict in the 1996 murder case.)
Image: ABC News (The family of Kirstin Smart stand along side attorney's during a new conference following a guilty verdict in the 1996 murder case.)
(ABC News) — 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 guilty of accessory to murder in connection with the crime.
Paul Flores, a former classmate of Smart, was charged with murder, while his father was charged with being an accessory to the crime. Prosecutors say he helped hide Smart’s body on his property in Arroyo Grande before moving it in 2020.
Smart went missing walking home from a party at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. Her body has never been found, but authorities arrested Paul and Ruben Flores in April 2021 and found alleged evidence related to Smart’s murder in their homes.
Paul and Ruben Flores were tried at the same time, but with separate juries hearing the case together. A verdict was reached in Ruben Flores’ case on Monday; that decision was sealed until Paul Flores’ jury reached its verdict Tuesday and they could be announced simultaneously.
“This case will not be over until Kristin is returned home,” he said during a press conference Tuesday with the family. “That I remain committed to.”
Smart’s body was never found after she disappeared in 1996.
Oct 18, 7:38 PM EDT
He called the journey to the trials a “long, overwhelming and emotional” one, and spoke directly to his daughter.
“To our Kirstin, almost three decades ago our lives were irreparably changed on the night you disappeared,” he said. “Know that your spirit lives on in each and every one of us.”
“Not a single day goes by that you aren’t missed, remembered, loved and celebrated,” he continued.
Kristin Smart’s mother, brother and sister were also present at the press conference.
Oct 18, 6:03 PM EDT
Ruben Flores: ‘There were a lot of made-up things’
“There was a lot of made-up things,” Ruben Flores told reporters. “You look through it and there is no evidence against anybody, me or Paul.”
When asked if he had any comments for Kristin Smart’s family, he said, “I feel bad for them because they didn’t get no answers about what happened to their daughter, and we don’t know what happened to their daughter.”
Ruben Flores’ attorney, Harold Mesick, said his client never should have been charged and that the verdict was the “just outcome.”
He said “there is a reasonable inference to be drawn” that Smart might still be alive, and that prosecutors never proved her death.
Commenting on the split verdict, Ruben Flores said the jurors who found his son guilty “were carried away with feelings about the family.”
