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The judge denied a motion from Paul and Ruben Flores to dismiss the case. Robert Sanger, Flores’ attorney, told the judge there was “no evidence of a murder case, no evidence of a rape and no evidence in this case.”
Ruben Flores’ lawyer, Harold Mesick, went even further. He told the judge, “We don’t even know if Kristin Smart is dead.”
Those attorneys Wednesday (9/20) began to chip away at the prosecution theory, knowing that without a body and DNA connecting Paul Flores and Smart despite the days of testimony, they need to convince jurors only that there is reasonable doubt of the crimes.
Seeking to undermine the theory that Smart was buried beneath Ruben Flores’ deck for decades before being moved, Sanger called to the witness stand David Carter, a professor in forensic sciences at Chaminade University in Honolulu who spent 20 years studying decomposition. Carter said that he saw nothing in the data to suggest the presence of human remains and that decomposing bodies are messy and leave trace evidence behind even when they are removed from the soil.
It's a shame that he wasn't captured after the murder and was able to rape other young women. I think the prosecutor has done enough for a conviction but after OJ one never knows about California juries !
A jury on Tuesday convicted Paul Flores in the murder of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo student Kristin Smart, ending a more than two-decade mystery that both captivated and outraged the Central Coast college town.
Flores was found guilty of first-degree murder even though authorities never found Smart’s body, an oversight long considered a stumbling block in the case.
His father, Ruben Flores, 81, was acquitted of being an accessory to murder. A second jury that heard evidence at the same time during the 12-week trial of the two men thought there was reasonable doubt that he had helped his son cover up the crime by burying Smart’s body under his house’s deck and keeping the remains hidden there for years.
Paul Flores was sentenced Friday to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murder of fellow Cal Poly San Luis Obispo student Kristin Smart, who disappeared on Memorial Day weekend more than 25 years ago and whose body was never found.
After hearing from Smart’s loved ones, Monterey County Judge Jennifer O’Keefe sentenced Flores, 46, for Smart’s 1996 murder. Prosecutors believe he raped or attempted to rape Smart in his dorm before killing her and hiding her body.
O’Keefe delivered the sentence after rejecting a motion from Robert Sanger, Flores’ defense attorney, for a new trial because the prosecutor had erred during his closing argument by misstating the standard for reasonable doubt. She also rejected overturning the guilty verdict, saying the evidence supported the verdict.
Paul Flores was sentenced Friday to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murder of fellow Cal Poly San Luis Obispo student Kristin Smart, who disappeared on Memorial Day weekend more than 25 years ago and whose body was never found.
After hearing from Smart’s loved ones, Monterey County Judge Jennifer O’Keefe sentenced Flores, 46, for Smart’s 1996 murder. Prosecutors believe he raped or attempted to rape Smart in his dorm before killing her and hiding her body.
O’Keefe delivered the sentence after rejecting a motion from Robert Sanger, Flores’ defense attorney, for a new trial because the prosecutor had erred during his closing argument by misstating the standard for reasonable doubt. She also rejected overturning the guilty verdict, saying the evidence supported the verdict.
Thank you for the update and it's great news the Smart family has some level of justice...wish the old man(Flores senior) would come forward and tell where her body is...maybe on his deathbed?
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