Paul Flores attacked in prison, condition not public

August 23, 2023

By KAREN VELIE

Update: Paul Flores was airlifted to a hospital after he was stabbed in the neck or his throat was cut.

Paul Fores was attacked today at Pleasant Valley State Prison and airlifted to a hospital. He was stabbed in the neck or his throat was cut.

Corrections officials transferred Flores from a prison in Kern County to the prison in Coalinga last week.

In Oct. 2022, a Monterey County jury found Flores guilty of first-degree murder in the killing of Kristin Smart in 1996. Then in March 2023, Monterey County Superior Court Judge Jennifer O’Keefe rejected a motion made by Flores’s attorney for a new trial and sentenced Flores to 25 years to life in prison.

It is unclear the exact date Flores moved to Pleasant Valley State Prison. The Fresno County facility provides long-term housing for inmates of all custody levels.

Flores murdered Smart in 1996 during an attempted rape following a Cal Poly frat party. After the party, Flores helped escort Smart, who was found passed out on a lawn outside the party, back to her dorm room. She was never seen again.

The primary suspect in the case, Flores was sporting a black eye when interviewed by law enforcement, who determined he lied repeatedly. Even so, it would be years before deputies raided Flores’s home.

During a 2020 raid of Flores’ San Pedro home, deputies discovered multiple rape videos with titles including, “Drugged and raped while passed out” and “Blonde high school girl in skirt gets raped.”

Investigators also found two bottles of date rape drugs in Flores’s home, prosecutors said. In a file labeled “practice,” Flores stored homemade rape videos of himself having sex and sodomizing women.