California Attorney General Rob Bonta is pushing back against Paul Flores, the man convicted of murdering California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) freshman Kristin Smart in 1996, for his request to overturn or reduce his convictions, calling his request “meritless.”
Flores is currently serving a 25-year-to-life sentence for Smart’s murder following a three-month trial in October 2022.
In a new 107-page court filing, Flores’ defense claimed that Monterey County Superior Court Judge Jennifer O’Keefe abused her discretion multiple times, including not dismissing a juror that Flores argued showed signs of bias and allowing a ball-gag photo to be shown at the end of the trial.
His appeal argued that while just one of the alleged errors did not deprive him of his right to a fair trial, but that the accumulation of all the errors did.
CALIFORNIA MAN TO BE SENTENCED FOR KILLING KRISTIN SMART DURING ATTEMPTED RAPE IN COLLEGE
However, Bonta’s office argued that all of Flores’ claims did not affect his right to a fair trial or warrant that his conviction be overturned or modified.
“The cumulative error argument lacks merit,” Bonta’s office wrote. “Each alleged error lacked merit and was harmless.”
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Flores’ first claim was about Juror No. 273, who was not removed from the jury, despite several attempts by the defense to remove her throughout the trial, claiming that she showed several signs of bias throughout the trial.
Bonta’s office argued that the judge was correct in not dismissing the juror.
“Substantial evidence supports the trial court’s finding that Juror No. 273 had not lost her ability to remain neutral,” the report read.
Read the AG’s court filing:
Flores said the rape testimonies also led to an unfair bias.
Three jurors shared with the San Luis Obispo Tribune in April 2023 that the women’s testimonies were important in their deliberations as they established a pattern and made them believe Flores attempted to rape or raped Smart before her death.
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Bonta’s office countered and argued that the victims’ testimonies were properly admitted to the court and that “a defendant does not need to be directly charged with a sex offense in order for that kind of evidence to be admitted.”
“Appellant (Flores) was entitled to a fair trial, not a perfect one,” the filing read.
One of the last people believed to see Smart alive is reportedly urging Flores to confess where he buried her, nearly 30 years since her disappearance.
“Paul Flores needs to come clean and tell the Smart family where Kristin’s body is located,” Trevor Boelter, who was with Smart on the night she vanished, told DailyMail.com.
Flores, now 48, was convicted in October 2022 of the first-degree murder of Smart, a 19-year-old freshman at Cal Poly, who vanished in May 1996 after leaving an off-campus party in San Luis Obispo.
Prosecutors accused Flores of killing Smart during an attempted rape inside his dorm room and later discarding her body in an unknown location.
“Soon, when his appeals have been exhausted, he will have to grapple with living behind bars for the rest of his natural life – and the best way he can begin to atone is by offering the Smart family closure,” Boelter told the Daily Mail.
Smart’s remains have never been found, but she was declared legally dead in 2002.
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According to the court schedule, Flores is expected to respond to the attorney general’s brief by May 5.