Jurors who have spent months overseeing the trial for the men accused in the 1996 disappearance and presumed death of California college student Kristin Smart heard prosecutors’ closing arguments on Monday in a case that has riled the public for decades.
Smart was a 19-year-old college student at California Polytechnic State University in 1996 when she vanished after an off-campus party, investigators said. More than 26 years later, Paul Flores – the man who was last seen with Smart – and his father have stood trial for months.
Flores, now 45, has been charged with Smart’s murder. Ruben Flores, his 81-year-old father, was charged with acting as an accessory after the fact.
Dual juries – one panel assigned for Paul Flores, and other for his father – were selected from a pool of more than 1,500 Monterey County residents to oversee each case separately but simultaneously.
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This undated photo released by the FBI shows Kristin Smart, the California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo student who disappeared in 1996.
(FBI via AP, File)
On Monday, jurors received their instructions before they heard closing arguments only pertaining to the case involving Paul Flores. Closing arguments for Ruben Flores’ case will be made on Tuesday.
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The proceedings are not being televised or live-streamed, pursuant to a judge’s ruling. A handful of journalists — including those from The San Luis Obispo Tribune and the person behind the “Your Own Backyard” (YOB) Podcast, who is credited with renewing interest in the case — have been reporting from inside the courtroom amid the media limitations.
Kristin Smart went missing on May 25, 1996, while attending California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo and has not been heard from since.
(Photo by Axel Koester/Sygma via Getty Images)
“It’s been 1,370 Sundays since Stan and Denise Smart waited for that phone call — the phone call that would never come,” San Luis Obispo County Deputy District Attorney Christopher Peuvrelle told the jurors, according to the San Luis Obispo Tribune. “But now you know where she was all along.”
Peuvrelle reportedly went on, pointing toward Ruben Flores and his ex-wife, Susan Flores: “She was under their deck.”
Smart was a student at Cal Poly’s San Luis Obispo campus in 1996 when she was allegedly heavily intoxicated with Paul Flores after an off-campus party on Crandall Way. She was walked back from the party by three people — a man, a woman and Flores. The others slowly peeled off after Flores allegedly insisted multiple times that he could get Smart home safely.
Paul Flores, prime suspect in the disappearance of Cal-Poly San Luis Obispo Student Kristin Smart, a Cal Poly Student himself lived in this dorm room (nearest window in photo) in the Santa Lucia dormitory in 1996, when Kristin disappeared. Photographed on Friday, May 19, 2006.
(Photo by Don Kelsen/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
She was never seen again.
The state has said Flores killed Smart in his dorm room while he tried to rape her when they were both freshmen. The disappearance prompted a massive search.
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Prosecutors have argued their belief that Flores killed Smart in his dorm room during an attempted rape. They said his father then helped his son bury Smart’s body under the deck behind his Arroyo Grande home – and then later dug up her remains when law enforcement returned decades later.
This Tuesday, April 13, 2021, file photo provided by the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office shows suspect Paul Flores who was taken into custody in the San Pedro area of Los Angeles for the murder of Kristin Smart.
(San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office via AP)
They relied heavily on evidence gathered from ground-penetrating technology, K9-detection and soil analyses to further try to convince the juries. They also relied on the testimony from several women who had relationships or encounters with Paul Flores. Two women, named Rhonda and Sarah, both recalled separately on the stand how they were sexually assaulted by Flores after meeting him at a bar.
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“There are no witnesses to what occurred in Paul Flores’ dorm room,” Peuvrelle told the jurors, according to the YOB Podcast tweets. “Just like there are no witnesses to what Paul Flores did to Sarah Doe. To Rhonda Doe.”
Kristin Smart went missing on May 25, 1996, while attending California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo and has not been heard from since.
( Axel Koester/Sygma via Getty Images)
EXAMINING CALIFORNIA’S KRISTIN SMART TRIAL: THE ANATOMY OF A CASE WITH NO BODY
According to The Tribune, Peuvrelle then added; “Sarah Doe and Rhonda Doe tell us what Kristin could not: that she was raped. Or that Paul Flores tried to rape her. And they speak for Kristin.”
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“Paul Flores is guilty as sin,” Peuvrelle went on, according to the report. “Justice delayed does not have to be justice denied. You now know the truth of what happened.”
