Paul Flores seeks to have murder conviction reversed or reduced

October 23, 2024

By KAREN VELIE

Paul Flores, the former Cal Poly San Luis Obispo student who was convicted in the 1996 murder of Kristin Smart, appealed his conviction on Monday claiming judicial error.

A jury in 2022 found that Flores murdered Smart 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.

Flores, the primary suspect in the case, was sporting a black eye when interviewed by law enforcement who determined he lied repeatedly. Even so, it would be years before Flores faced charges.

After the jury found Flores guilty of murdering Smart, Monterey County Superior Court Judge Jennifer O’Keefe sentenced Flores to 25 years to life in prison.

The appeal accuses the judge of violating Flores’ Sixth and Fourteenth Amendment rights by repeatedly declining to remove a juror “who had lost her ability to remain neutral and abide by her oath.”

During the trial, juror 273 became emotional and later told a bailiff she was starting to view Flores as guilty, according to the appeal. On two other occasions, the same juror told the court she was experiencing anxiety because of attorney Robert Sanger’s aggressive questioning of prosecution witnesses. Sanger, Flores’ attorney, repeatedly asked the judge to dismiss juror 273.

The appeal also argues the judge should not have allowed two women who said Flores raped them to testify because there was no evidence Flores raped or attempted to rape Smart.

“As the prosecutor made no threshold showing that appellant committed a sexual offense against Smart, the trial court abused its discretion by admitting the uncharged offense evidence,” according to the appeal. “By admitting this irrelevant and extraordinarily prejudicial testimony, the trial court abused its discretion and committed reversible error.”

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’ home, prosecutors said.

In a file labeled “practice,” Paul Flores stored homemade rape videos of himself having sex and sodomizing women. Los Angeles Police Department investigators tracked down two women who said Flores drugged and then raped them. No charges were ever filed.

The appeal also accuses the judge of giving the jury two “erroneous instructions” on attempted rape of an intoxicated person.

“The described errors deprived appellant of the fair trial to which due process entitled him,” according to the appeal. “He, therefore, asks this court to reverse his murder conviction or, alternatively, reduce the crime to second degree murder.”

Flores, 48, is currently serving his sentence at California State Prison in Corcoran.

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