Paul Flores, convicted of murdering Kristin Smart, loses appeal

October 24, 2025

By KAREN VELIE

Paul Flores, the man convicted of murdering Kristin Smart, lost his appeal on Friday.

A jury in 2022 found that Flores murdered Smart during an attempted rape following a 1996 frat party held near the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo campus. Monterey County Superior Court Judge Jennifer O’Keefe sentenced Flores to 25 years to life in prison in March 2023.

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

In his appeal filed in Oct. 2024, Flores accuses the trial court judge of violating his 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,” for allowing victims of other alleged rapes to testify and for allowing evidence of intoxication and rape at his trial.

In their lengthy decision, the appellate court judges detail the evidence against Flores, including interviews, soil samples, searches by dogs trained and certified in the detection of human remains, and wiretaps.

On Jan. 6, 2020, a wiretap recorded part of a phone call between Paul Flores and his mother, Susan Flores.

Susan Flores: “I’m asking for you but I need you to make the call. I would think ‘cause uh – I need to know where it’s at.”

Paul Flores: “Yeah.”

Susan Flores: “You know to make sure that you’re covered ‘cause the rest of us are.”

Paul Flores: “Yeah.”

Susan: “And they’re gonna work together, these four attorneys, if we ever get to that point. Which I don’t know if we will or not. The other thing I need you to do is to start listening to the podcast. I need you to listen to everything they say so we can punch holes in it. Um, wherever we can punch holes. Maybe we can’t. Y-you’re the one that can tell me.”

Detectives went to Paul Flore’s father Ruben Flores with a warrant to collect DNA samples from Ruben Flores, Susan Flores, and the person who owned the trailer seen at Ruben Flores’ home.

Upon reading the warrant, Ruben Flores said, “They haven’t committed no felonies.” After a brief pause he said, “only me.” Ruben then stammered a correction saying that he was the only one arrested.

The judges also discussed allegations from witnesses who said Paul Flores raped them, one in 2008 and the other in 2011.

The trial courts refused to dismiss a juror following mutiple requests from Paul Flores’ attorney.

In response to Paul Flores argument that the trial court denied him his rights under the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments by refusing to dismiss a juror, the appellate court dismissed his arguments.

“In summary, the record shows a credible and conscientious juror, concerned with doing the right thing for everyone involved including Flores,” according to the appellate court decision. “Flores’ objections taken separately or together do not show the trial court abused its discretion in refusing to discharge the juror.”

Paul Flores also argued the trial court erred in admitting evidence of two uncharged rapes.

The appellate court decision says the evidence shows that Paul Flores “brought Smart in a semi-conscious state to his room where he killed her. Why would he do that? The reasonable answer is that he raped or attempted to rape her. Flores got a black eye when Smart unexpectedly resisted.”

Paul Flores also argued in his appeal that the prosecutor committed misconduct by misusing evidence admitted for a limited purpose to advance an improper character inference.

Both women who testified that Paul Flores raped them said he inserted a red ball gag in their mouths during the rapes. The police found videos on a computer in Paul Flores’ home were he appears to rape woman with a red ball gag in their mouths.

The prosecutor wanted to show clips from the videos that showed Paul Flores’ face. While the judge did not allow prosecutors to show the tapes, they did permit a photo showing a woman with her eyes closed and a red ball gag in her mouth as evidence he owned a gag.

During rebuttal the prosecutor stated: “Did it look like the woman with the ball gag in her mouth was having fun in this conspiracy theory?” The trial court then overruled Paul Flores’ attorney’s objection.

“There was no misconduct,” according to the appellate court decision. “The prosecutor’s argument comment was nothing more than a brief rhetorical flourish in response to defense counsel’s argument.”

Paul Flores also argued that the trial court’s instruction on intoxication misstated the law.

Two witnesses testified Paul Flores drugged and raped them. The appellate court found that there was ample evidence that Paul Flores had a propensity for raping women that he knew were too intoxicated to resist.

“As the prosecutor told the jury, ‘For you to vote not guilty you would have to believe that a serial drugger, who enjoyed raping drugged women, had Kristin Smart to himself, by himself, feet from his dorm room, and yet let her go,” according to the appellate court decision. ‘You would have to believe that, which is so absurd as to be ridiculous.’”

The appellate found no substantial evidence that Paul Flores was too intoxicated to form the intent to rape Smart. “In fact, the evidence is to the contrary,” according to the court decision.

Following two attempts on his life, Paul Flores is currently incarcerated at California State Prison in Corcoran, at a high security facility.

After serving 15 years, in 2036 Paul Flores will be eligible for a parole board to review his case. It is unlikely he will be paroled unless he admits his crime and discloses the location of Smart’s remains.

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