Kristin Smart case: Opening statements in trial of father and son charged in her disappearance
SALINAS (CBS13) -- On Memorial Day weekend 1996, a college freshman at California Polytechnic State University went to an off-campus party in San Luis Obispo but never returned to her dorm.
Her body was never found. A suspect in her disappearance has never been convicted.
Kristin Smart, the 19-year-old college student from Stockton has had her smile, blonde hair, and legacy flashed on television screens and in headlines since her disappearance. Now, 26 years after she disappeared, the man considered the "prime suspect" in the disappearance will face a jury and a charge of murder.
Paul Flores, now 45, was charged with murder in the killing of Smart while trying to rape her in his dorm room at Cal Poly, according to prosecutors, where Flores was also a freshman at the time. His father, Ruben Flores, now 81, will also face a jury for the crime of Accessory After the Fact, for what court documents say, was his role of harboring, concealing, and aiding his son with knowledge of the crime of murder.
The two will have separate juries, chosen last week from more than 1,500 prospective jurors, screened before selection. The trial is expected to last about four months and separate juries will weigh the evidence against each defendant throughout.
Before the trial, San Luis Obispo Superior Court Judge, Craig Van Rooyen, ruled after a 22-day preliminary hearing that there was a "strong suspicion" Flores and his father committed the crimes they've been charged with. As such, a location change was announced in April 2022, due to the amount of publicity surrounding Smart's disappearance. The LA Times reported that the location shift for the trial delayed the start, which will have opening statements on Monday.
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Podcast Sparks New Interest in Smart's Disappearance
On September 30, 2019, 23 years after Kristin Smart's disappearance, a podcast episode titled, "A Face On A Billboard" premiered as the first episode of the podcast, "Your Own Backyard Podcast" The creator and narrator, Chris Lambert, begins by explaining his connection to California's Central Coast (it's where he grew up) and what he knew about Smart before research (her face and name on a billboard in the Village of Arroyo Grande.)
"Who is Kristin Smart?" The episode description asked, and within the first hour of the premiere episode, Lambert is in Smart's childhood home in Stockton with her parents, Denise and Stan Smart. Her parents, Lambert explained to the listener, are who he needs to make the most authentic and factually correct documentary.
They agree to speak with Lambert, and in the process, open their world, and Smart's, to his thoughtful line of questioning to get to the bottom of how Smart lived, not just how she disappeared.
In 10 episodes, plus an 11th episode about the Flores' charges and motions related to the trial released in June, Lambert walks the path Smart took before she disappeared. He speaks to her childhood friends, college friends, and family. He dives into what happened as told by witnesses in San Luis Obispo on May 25, 1996.
Lambert walked the listener through Paul Flores' history: his friendships, and notable concerns with women throughout his life, that at one time, had him called "Scary Paul" by women who knew him before he arrived on Cal Poly's campus.
Now, as father and son Flores sit in a Monterey County Courtroom on trial for charges related to Smart's disappearance and murder, Lambert's podcast is credited with shifting focus back on Smart's cast, and encouraging more people with information to speak with investigators.
When the Flores' were arrested, the Smart family thanked Lambert and the "Your Own Backyard Podcast" for helping reignite the public interest in Smart's case.
"Chris, along with four incredible angels (C, J, J, and J), balanced Kristin on their shoulders while lightening our burden and held our hearts and hopes with fierce resolve and commitment. There simply are 'no words!'" Smart's family wrote in April 2021.
Lambert was subpoenaed by the Flores' lawyers ahead of the trial, but was granted a motion to "quash" the subpoena served to Lambert, according to a post on the podcast's Twitter account. The court found that Defense Attorney Robert Sanger, "had not made an adequate showing to overcome CA Shield Law and First Amendment reporter's privileges," according to Lambert's post after the fact on social media.
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Trial Expectations: Rueben Flores' Home
Kristin Smart's remains have not been found and the mystery of her disappearance from Cal Poly's campus in May of 1996 will likely be at the center of the trial. Prosecutors have long said that Paul Flores was the last person to see Smart alive and told classmates the night she disappeared he would help Smart get to her dorm, safely. It took authorities six days to interview Flores, according to 48 Hours reporting.
Dozens of searches have taken place over the last two decades, but within the last three years, Ruben Flores' home, which is about 12 miles south of Cal Poly in Arroyo Grande, took center stage for investigators to search.
In March of 2021, the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Office announced they served a search warrant at Ruben's home. During this search, investigators used cadaver dogs and ground penetrating radar.
At Paul Flores' home in Los Angeles, search warrants were served in 2020, alongside other locations in California and Washington state. Before this, in 2016, a dig was done on Cal Poly's campus.
In April 2021, Smart's family sued Rueben Flores in San Luis Obispo County Superior Court. The lawsuit said that Smart's body was buried in Flores's backyard and that he moved the body "under the cover of darkness" to another location after a search of his property in February 2020.
The trial for Paul and Ruben Flores will start with opening statements on Monday, and is expected to last four months. Camera and video or audio recording is not permitted inside the courtroom.
