A California father and son charged in connection with the disappearance of 19-year-old college student Kristin Smart in 1996 pleaded not guilty Monday.
Paul Flores, 44, is charged with first-degree murder in the murder that happened to authorities when he tried to rape Smart in his dorm room to an off-campus campus on the California Polytechnic State University campus in San Luis Obispo, 160 km northwest of Los Angeles. Witnesses said Smart was intoxicated and Flores said he would walk her home.
Ruben Flores, 80, who denied hiding the young woman’s body, pleaded not guilty to the charge of aiding and abetting murder.
Paul Flores was detained without bail.
KRISTIN SMART CASE: PAUL AND RUBBLE FLOWERS COLLECTED IN THE 1996 STUDENT DISAPPEAR; FAMILY REACTIONS
Smart’s family has issued a statement saying in part: “Our family is strongly against the bail offered to Paul Flores. Given the charges against him that he killed our daughter, sought help and received from his father, Reuben, and then the two worked together to hide her and deny that any knowledge of their actions for the next 25 years is simply reprehensible. This is not how mature, responsible adults behave! “
Paul Flores’ lawyer, Robert Sanger, filed a motion, pointing out that his client “poses no risk to public safety and is not a flight risk.”
He told jail Paul Flores “would have an impact on his ability to participate in his defense and make informed decisions about his case.”
“Mr. Flores has been subjected to a significant amount of pre-arrest and indictments over the past 25 years,” Sanger wrote. “He and his family are also subject to numerous interrogations and many published searches of their premises and property. Nevertheless, Mr. Flores remained in the Southern California community.”
Paul Flores, 44, is charged with first-degree murder. Ruben Flores, 80, pleaded not guilty to the charge that he was an aid to murder.
(Sheriff at San Luis Obispo County via AP)
Judge Craig van Rooyen, high court in San Luis Obispo, said he would release the father on bail he could afford, which would be determined at a later trial in court.
The arrests last week followed significant developments in the case over the past few years as new witnesses emerged, investigators monitored Paul Flores’ cellphone and text messages and investigations were conducted in separate homes where Flores, his father, mother and sister live.
A search of Ruben Flores’ home, 13 miles south of the Arroyo Grande campus, using ground-penetrating radar and cadaver dogs, found evidence related to Smart’s death, authorities said.
They did not disclose what was found, but were seen digging in the backyard on April 13 after the arrests.
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Defense attorneys, however, question the value of the evidence disclosed to them so far in the case.
“The evidence is so little that it shocks the conscience,” said attorney Harold Mesick, who represents Ruben Flores.
Prosecutor Christopher Peuvrelle has denied that investigators have found significant new evidence since the series of searches last year that eventually led to the arrests.
“The council said, ‘There was very little new evidence,’ ‘Peuvrelle said, referring to Sanger. ‘Well, then he should not have read the same warrant as I did. There is considerable new evidence. ‘
The Associated Press contributed to this report.