California man helped son bury Kristin Smart’s body after killing college student: prosecutors

Every Sunday during her freshman year at California Polytechnic State University, Kristin Smart called home. After she went missing over Memorial Day weekend in 1996, her parents never got another call.

The murder trial for Paul Flores, accused of killing Smart, and his father Ruben, accused of helping his son bury her body, began Monday with opening statements, each side trying to explain the mysterious disappearance of the 19-year-old who was never heard from again.

According to prosecutors, then-freshman Paul Flores, now 45, took Smart back to his dorm room and attempted to rape her, then murdered her. Ruben Flores, now 81, allegedly helped bury her behind his Arroyo Grande home, then moved the remains later.

Kristin Smart was last seen in 1996.

Her body has never been found.

“While the entire community banded together to search for Kristin desperately, Paul and Ruben Flores did not join in,” Deputy District Attorney Christopher Peuvrelle told the jury.

“You will hear Ruben Flores would tear down missing posters of Kristin — tore down her smiling, beautiful face — called her a ‘dirty slut,’ all while her corpse was decomposing underneath his deck.”

Paul Flores is pictured during a preliminary hearing in 2021. (David Middlecamp/)

Multiple searches at Ruben Flores’ home turned up soil samples that tested positive for human blood, prosecutors alleged, and cadaver dogs alerted police to Paul Flores’ dorm room after Smart’s disappearance.

Puevrelle also pointed to three women who claim that Flores drugged at bars in Los Angeles County in 2007 and 2008, then sexually assaulted them.

Paul’s defense attorney, Robert Sanger, reminded the jury that no DNA evidence tied either Flores to the crime, but also accused Smart of “at-risk behavior,” including “going off” with men.

Ruben Flores, right, is pictured in September. (David Middlecamp/)

“You’re gonna hear evidence about Kristin Smart,” he said. “It’s not nice to talk about somebody that’s not here to defend herself.”

Paul Flores has been a suspect for decades but was not arrested until April 2021 after the “Your Own Backyard” podcast brought renewed attention to Smart’s case.

Both father and son are standing trial together, but will face different juries. Both have pled not guilty.

The trial was supposed to continue Tuesday but was “unexpectedly” delayed until Thursday due to a health concern, court officials told KSBY.

With News Wire Services