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Paul Flores released on bail following weapons charge

February 21, 2021

Kristin Smart

Paul Flores, the lone suspect in the Kristin Smart disappearance case, was released from jail Thursday evening on bail.

On Feb. 11, Los Angeles police officers arrested Flores in Rancho Palos Verdes on suspicion of being a felon in possession of a firearm. Officers then booked Flores into the Los Angeles Metropolitan Detention Center.

In April 2020, San Luis Obispo County sheriff investigators served a search warrant at Flores’ Los Angeles area home as part of the Smart investigation. The arrest was the result of information gathered that search.

Smart, a native of Stockton, was nearing the end of her freshman year at Cal Poly when she vanished on May 25, 1996, after attending an off-campus party. The 19-year-old was last seen in the company of then-fellow student Flores, who claims he escorted Smart to her dorm, which was relatively empty over the Memorial Day weekend.

In January, Denise Smart, the mother of Kristin Smart, said authorities were planning on announcing a development in the case that could bring closure to her family.


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No disrespect to the Smart family but sadly for this small, everybody knows everybody town, San Luis Obispo, a decades old suspect is beyond the imagination of good police work. Then every time this suspect gets his hand slapped for something stupid, he’s all over the news as a suspect for a murder. I certainly hope this case gets solved and the suspect is definitively proven to be the accused. Should their be someone else proven guilty, these publicity opportunities may ripen into a legal victory $$ for Flores. Just sayin


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“Legal victory,” unlikely Jorge. If Flores were declared completely exonerated because they conclusively found the real murderer, the smoking gun, I venture a guess that he still would not have much standing in court or garner much sympathy due in part to his reported connection with Smart ( the last to see her) and the fact that at the outset he was uncooperative with local law enforcement. I doubt you could find a jury, at least in SLO County, that would be even remotely sympathetic to him, especially when local law enforcement and the Smart Family were just trying to get to the truth. They were just doing their job. No motive for malicious or reckless defamation of his character or “good name.”


Just my opinion as one who has been here for a while a remembers the case vividly.


8

derasmus,


It is just beyond my un-professional understanding why there are no forensic or conflicting data that would reasonably afford a trial? Street cams, vehicular fuel consumption, conflicting tire tread dirt or who knows, maybe the focus on Flores afforded someone else (very close) to expunged the trail. Yes, I’m somewhat puzzled when thinking of what search options are available today. Twenty years ago is a long time ago in technological achievements. Best to the Smart family for closure.


1

On we are in agreement.


Unfortunately, Barney Fife and company over at Cal Poly screwed the investigation up so bad that I believe full justice is not recoverable. Adding to that the university management has circled the wagons because they know to at least a small degree they have legal exposure. In my opinion that is where the civil lawsuit rests. Of course, the public will know nothing of the details.


Ahh…Cow Poly, “learning by scre…., I mean doing”


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