Paul Flores, convicted killer of Kristin Smart, stabbed again in prison
COALINGA, Calif. - Paul Flores, the convicted killer of Kristin Smart, was stabbed in the prison where he's currently being held, according to reports.
According to KCRA, Flores was stabbed Wednesday around 3:25 p.m. in the recreation yard at the Pleasant Valley State Prison. Staff witnessed the attack and found at least two weapons possibly made by inmates.
No motive for the stabbing was immediately known.
Flores was taken to an outside medical facility and has since returned to prison in "fair condition," KCRA said. The inmate who allegedly attacked Flores was put into restricted housing.
This is the second time Flores has been stabbed in the prison. He was allegedly stabbed by Jason Budrow on Aug. 23, 2023. Budrow is serving a life sentence without parole for strangling his girlfriend fatally in Riverside County in 2010.
Flores is currently serving a 25-year-to-life prison sentence for Kristin Smart's murder, a 19-year-old California Polytechnic State University student who vanished in 1996 after leaving an off-campus party.
She was declared legally dead in 2002 and her body or remains were never found.
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Flores' father, Ruben Flores, was charged for allegedly helping his son Paul bury Smart's body under the deck of his Arroyo Grande home and re-digging her remains up after law enforcement returned years later.
A trial found Ruben Flores not guilty of acting as an accessory after the fact in 2023.
In March 2021, archaeologists working for police found soil disturbance around the size of a casket and human blood present under the Flores' home deck. However, the blood was too degraded to extract a DNA sample.
Fox News contributed to this report and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
