Kristin Smart verdict: Paul Flores convicted of 1996 murder - The Washington Post

Flores’s father, Ruben Flores, who had been accused of helping his lad conceal Smart’s remains, was recovered not blameworthy of being an accessory to the murder. Smart’s assemblage has not been found.

“Without Kristin, there’s nary joyousness oregon happiness,” Stan Smart, her father, told reporters aft the verdict. “This has been an agonizingly agelong journey, with much downs than ups,” helium said, earlier thanking prosecutors for securing the blameworthy verdict for the younger Flores. But helium said that with the elder Flores acquitted, the Smarts’ “quest for justness volition continue.”

Paul Flores, 45, faces 25 years to beingness successful prison, prosecutors said. He is scheduled to beryllium sentenced connected Dec. 9 astatine the Monterey County Superior Court successful California. His attorney, Robert Sanger, declined to comment, saying “the substance is inactive pending.”

Ruben Flores, 81, told reporters Tuesday aft the verdict that the grounds against him and his lad had “too overmuch made-up stuff,” and that the ruling was based connected “feelings alternatively of facts.” He expressed sorrow for the Smarts, saying helium believed they didn’t get answers astir what had happened to their daughter. His lawyer did not instantly reply to a petition for remark Tuesday night.

After Smart’s disappearance, Paul Flores was initially designated a idiosyncratic of involvement by authorities. He had a achromatic oculus astatine the clip that helium told investigators helium had gotten during a hoops crippled with friends, who aboriginal contradicted his statement, the Associated Press reported. He past changed his story, saying helium had bumped his caput portion moving connected his car.

Detectives interviewed a caller witnesser successful 2019, which led to hunt warrants for the homes of Flores and his family, officials said. In March 2021, investigators searched the location of Ruben Flores successful Arroyo Grande, Calif., wherever authorities said they recovered “additional grounds related to the execution of Kristin Smart.”

In April past year, authorities arrested the younger Flores and his father, calling the erstwhile a “prime suspect.”

Prosecutors aboriginal told the assemblage that investigators had recovered a “clandestine grave” beneath the platform of the location of Ruben Flores, “believed to person antecedently held Kristin’s body.” Archaeologists moving for constabulary recovered a ungraded disturbance astir the size of a casket and the beingness of quality blood, though the humor was excessively degraded to extract a DNA sample, the AP reported.

Prosecutors person antecedently said that they judge Flores raped, oregon astatine slightest tried to rape, Smart earlier sidesplitting her. The San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office and the territory attorney’s bureau could not beryllium reached connected Tuesday night.

In a statement aft the verdict Tuesday, Sheriff Ian Parkison thanked Smart’s household for their “patience and support” during the agelong investigation. “I made a vow to them galore years ago, that we would not fto Kristin’s representation beryllium forgotten. Nor would we fto her slayer spell unpunished … But determination is nary existent justness until Kristin is reunited with her family. This probe volition not beryllium closed until we find Kristin.”