Kristin Smart murder trial resumes Aug. 24, week ends with dog handler testimony
SALINAS - Jurors in the Kristin Smart murder trial heard more from human remains detection dog handlers Tuesday, the last day of testimony before a five-day scheduled break in the trial.
Adella Morris and Wayne Bahrons', human remains detection dog handlers who assisted law enforcement in a search of Paul Flores' Cal Poly dorm in June 1996, took the stand on Tuesday, both as expert witnesses.
Morris began where she left off Monday, taking questions as part of cross-examination by Paul Flores' attorney, Robert Sanger, and questions submitted by jurors.
One of the questions focused on the specificity of the trained dog's detection skills. The question centered on there being many rooms in the dorms, so "isn't it inevitable that someone had a cut finger or something in one of the rooms? Why didn't the dogs alert to any of the rooms."
Morris answered this inquiry by saying that she did not know what happened in all of the dorm rooms. In later questioning, Adella reassured the court that her dog, Cholla, who identified the target scent of human remains in Paul's dorm room, was "very clear" about the alert.
Morris was also questioned by Ruben Flores' attorney, Harold Mesick, who asked about the process that brought Morris to Cal Poly to search with her detection dogs in the first place.
"What was the basic story they gave you? said Mesick."
"We were told Kristin was missing, the date she was last seen, had attended a party and was last seen with a fellow male student, and she had not been seen or heard from since," responded Morris.
Mesick clarified and asked if, at the time, law enforcement told Morris if they were looking for a body. She said they were "assuming" that the person they were searching for, Smart, was deceased at the time.
Like on Monday, during Morris' first day of testimony on the witness stand, Sanger asked about cases where Morris and the human remains detection dogs did not find a body. Mesick, Tuesday, took the same path in questioning. This is a line of questioning that was outlined during opening statements as both Flores' attorneys argue that there is no evidence to link Smart's disappearance or death to Paul and Ruben.
"There is no body," Sanger said during opening statements and has rephrased throughout the last two days of testimony through questions about Morris' success rate.
The second dog handler, Bahrons, followed Morris' testimony with many of the same details about the nature of their search in June 1996. He, like Morris, had a three-decade career and handled more than three certified dogs.
San Luis Obispo County Deputy District Attorney Chris Peurvelle walked jurors through Bahron's expertise and experience that, ultimately, had him designated by the court as an expert witness.
Like two trained dogs brought into the Santa Lucia Hall dorm where Flores lived by Morris, Bahrons shared about his experience during the search, too. He and the certified dog, Sierra, began their search at Cal Poly outside the building through bushes and trees or terrain like it.
When Sierra got up to the dorm, Bahrons explained, she put her paws up to the window of one of the dorms as she was "clearly trying to work as close as she could to it," he said.
After more time, it was clear to Bahrons, he said, Sierra "wanted to get into that room." Sierra showed no interest in anything besides that one window, but Bahrons could not remember exactly which one it was. From this note, Bahrons suggested the pair search inside the dorm using a blind search procedure. This, he explained, means the person doing the search doesn't know where the object is/if the object is there.
"I knew a student was missing... I did not know whose dorm it was," Bahrons said.
Once the inside search was complete, Bahrons was able to cross-reference the mattress inside, what he would later learn was Flores' dorm and the window where Sierra showed interest. The window was opposite the hallway to the room searched inside Santa Lucia Hall.
Flores' attorneys both questioned Bahrons along the same line of questioning as Morris. Again, this is an opportunity for the defense to reiterate a key point to their case outlined during opening statements; without tangible evidence and Smart's body, the Flores father and son are not connected to Smart's disappearance.
The Kristin Smart murder trial will resume next Wednesday after a 5-day scheduled court break.
Nicolás Viñuela is a CBS contributor to this post and is a general assignment reporter for the Mustang Daily News.