Juries in Paul and Ruben Flores' trials continue to deliberate
SALINAS -- Two juries are in deliberation in the Kristin Smart murder trial and will decide if Smart's former Cal Poly classmate and his father are responsible for her disappearance.
Paul Flores was charged with first-degree murder. It is alleged he caused Smart's death while in the commission of, or attempt to commit rape. Ruben Flores, Paul's father, is charged with being an accessory after the fact to the crime of murder. The San Luis Obispo County District Attorney's office alleges Ruben helped conceal Smart's body after she was murdered.
The father's and son's cases were heard together in a Monterey County courtroom in Salinas, but they are being tried separately. The verdict of one jury will not be influenced by the other. They will be read in courts at the same time one after the other.
The trial was moved out of San Luis Obispo County after a judge ruled that the father and son Flores may not receive a fair trial due to intense media coverage of the case for more than 20 years.
Smart disappeared during their freshman year at Cal Poly in May 1996. She was last seen leaving an off-campus party and Flores has long been a person of interest in the case but was only formally charged in April 2021.
The night she left the off-campus party, Smart, who was intoxicated, was told by Paul Flores that he would walk her to her dorm, witnesses said at his trial.
His attorney, Robert Sanger, argued that Flores got Smart home safely and the last time he saw her she was alive.
The more than 12-week-long trial included testimony from Smart's family, friends, forensic experts, and three women who accused Flores of sexual assault as an adult in Southern California.
In archive interviews with CBS13, Smart's mother, Denise, told CBS13 that she believed Paul and Ruben Flores had information about her daughter's disappearance. The family has long been silent about the accusations that Paul had anything to do with Smart's death.
Last week, after deliberations got underway, it was revealed that a juror on Ruben's jury spoke about the case with his priest. That juror was dismissed and replaced with an alternate. Ruben's jury had to restart deliberations on Friday.
The media will be notified at least 40 minutes before both verdicts are read in court.