Paul Flores wants to vacate or reduce murder conviction

October 23, 2024

By KAREN VELIE

Paul Flores, the former Cal Poly San Luis Obispo student who was convicted of murdering Kristin Smart in 1996, appealed his conviction Monday, alleging miscarriage of justice.

A jury found in 2022 that Flores murdered Smart in a rape attempt following a fraternity party at Cal Poly. After the party, Flores helped escort Smart, who was found unconscious on a lawn outside the party, back to her dorm room. She was never seen again.

Flores, the prime suspect in the case, sported a black eye when questioned by law enforcement, who concluded he had repeatedly lied. Still, it would be years before charges were brought against Flores.

After the jury found Flores guilty of Smart's murder, 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' rights under the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments by repeatedly refusing to remove a juror “who had lost her ability to remain neutral and uphold her oath.”

Paul Flores

During the trial, Juror 273 became emotional and later told a bailiff that she was beginning to think Flores was guilty, the appeal states. On two other occasions, the same juror told the court she was concerned about attorney Robert Sanger's aggressive questioning of prosecution witnesses. Sanger, Flores' attorney, repeatedly asked the judge to dismiss Juror 273.

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

“Because the prosecutor did not provide a threshold for determining that plaintiff had committed a sexual offense against Smart, the trial court abused its discretion by admitting the uncharged evidence,” the appeal states. “By admitting this irrelevant and extraordinarily prejudicial statement, the court abused its discretion and committed reversible error.”

During a raid on Flores' San Pedro home in 2020, officers discovered several rape videos with titles such as “Drugged and raped unconscious” and “Blonde high school girl in skirt gets raped.” According to prosecutors, investigators also found two bottles of date rape drugs in Flores' home.

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

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

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

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

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