Kristin Smart murder trial’s closing arguments begin

SALINAS, Calif. (KRON) — Prosecutors delivered closing arguments for the Kristin Smart murder trial Monday and highlighted key pieces of evidence revealed over the past three months. Smart was a 19-year-old college freshman when she vanished on May 25, 1996 from California Polytechnic State University’s campus in San Luis Obispo.

One of her fellow students, Paul Flores, murdered Smart as he attempted to rape her in his dorm room, according to prosecutors. Smart’s body has never been found. For the trial, Deputy District Attorney Christopher Peuvrelle relied on presenting circumstantial evidence gathered over 26-year-long murder investigation.

Flores did not testify in self defense.  Monterey County Judge Jennifer O’Keefe told the jury as part of her instructions on Monday, “Do not consider for any reason at all that the defendant did not testify. Do not discuss that in your deliberation.

” Flores, wearing a mask, suit and tie, sat in silence next to his defense attorney. His parents, Ruben and Susan, sat behind him in the courtroom gallery. Smart’s friends and family packed the courtroom gallery as well as an overflow courtroom.

Smart’s friends cringed as the judge explained in detail the charges against Flores, including murder with malice, rape, and sodomy by force. Paul Flores listens in court on July 18, 2022. (Pool photo by Daniel Dreifuss / Monterey County Weekly) Prosecutor Peuvrelle’s Closing Argument Peuvrelle told the jury that Smart’s 1996 disappearance is no longer a mystery.

Evidence from the trial demonstrated exactly what happened. She was “hunted” around campus for months by Flores until he saw his chance: Smart was “incapacitated” and passed out face-down on the front lawn of the party house. He promised other students to make sure she made it home safe, brought her back to his dorm room, murdered Smart, and buried her under the backyard deck of Flores’ father’s home, according to the prosecutor.

Kristin Smart “Now you know where she was all along. She was under their deck. The community moved Heaven and Earth to try to find her.

Paul and Ruben, they moved the dirt under their deck to hide her. Justice delayed does not have to be justice denied. We know now the truth.

The truth is out. The truth is Kristin was plucked off the face of the Earth by Paul Flores,” Peuvrelle said in closing arguments. “For crimes that happen in a bedroom, there are no witnesses.

But ground-penetrating radar, a forensic archeologist, and a lab supervisor tell us what Kristin could not. We don’t have a full intact body in this case, but we have her blood. A couple grains of bloody sand.

That’s all the Smart family has left of their daughter. (Rape victims) ‘Sarah Doe’ and ‘Rhonda Doe’ tell us what Kristin could not. That she was raped.

They speak for Kristin. You have everything you need to render a guilty verdict,” Peuvrelle told the jury. Flores’ defense attorney will deliver his closing argument Monday afternoon.

This breaking news story will be updated. Closing arguments for the Kristin Smart murder trial will begin in minutes. There are A LOT of Smart supporters, friends, and family here.

I’m in the courthouse and will have updates on @kron4news pic. twitter. com/YQo9K0WijA— Amy Larson (@AmyLarson25) October 3, 2022 Key Witnesses from the Trial Jennifer Hudson  Hudson was hanging out at a skate park in San Luis Obispo in 1996 watching her boyfriend skateboard when an announcement was made on the radio about Smart’s disappearance.

Hudson, who was a teenager at the time, said Flores was also skateboarding at the park and made a chilling confession to her. Hudson testified that Flores had a “serious, dead look in his eyes” as he told her, “I was at a party with this b**ch d**k tease. All she did was lead me on and I finally had enough of her sh*t so I took care of her.

” Prosecutors said Hudson was so terrified that she never told anyone about it until years later. Alleged rape victims “Jane Does” Several women were preyed on, drugged, raped, and sodomized by Flores in the years following Smart’s murder, prosecutors said. Investigators found thousands of digital images stored in Flores’ home computers and drives of Flores sexually assaulting unconscious women — some tied up and gagged — in his Los Angeles County home.

“Rhonda Doe” testified that she met Flores inside a nightclub in 2008. Flores offered her a ride home from the nightclub. But instead of driving the woman home, Flores took her to his house.

After Flores offered her a drink, she started slipping in and out of blackouts. “She remembered a red ball gag with black straps being forced on her. She never consented to any of this.

She remembers sobbing to herself with a ball gag in her mouth,” Peuvrelle said. Kristin Smart’s killer preyed on more women, prosecutor says Steve Fleming In the days after Smart vanished, Campus police zeroed-in on Flores because he was the last person seen with Smart while they were walking back to campus from a party. Cal Poly students, including Smart’s friend Steve Fleming, told police that his nickname was “Chester the Molester” because of his creepy and overly-aggressive behavior toward female students.

Flores told police that he did not find the 6-foot-tall blonde woman attractive.  “Like, if someone’s promiscuous, I don’t find them attractive,” Flores told police.  But Smart’s friends told police otherwise.

One friend said, “Paul would try to get Kristin’s attention and she was too nice to tell him off,” according to prosecutor Peurvelle. Police also had a hard time believing that someone nicknamed “Chester the Molester” would be turned off by a “promiscuous” young woman at a party. Cadaver dog handlers Multiple cadaver dogs signaled alerts for detecting scents of human remains inside Flores’ Cal Poly dorm room in Santa Lucia Hall.

The dogs were led through several dorm buildings and only alerted for Flores’ room. The judge told the jury Monday that they cannot conclude Flores is guilty based on the cadaver dogs alone. “That is only one factor to consider with all the other evidence.

(Prosecutors) must prove each charge and allegation beyond a reasonable doubt,” O’Keefe said.   Derrick Tse  Tse was Flores’ Cal Poly roommate in Santa Lucia Hall. He was out of town the weekend that Smart vanished.

Prosecutors said Flores knew he had three days to get rid of Smart’s body before his roommate returned from Oakland. When Tse heard that Smart “went missing,” he joked with Flores and said, “You probably did something with her,” Tse testified. Flores replied, “Yeah, she’s at my mom’s house right now,” Tse testified.

Flores’ mother and father lived in separate houses in Arroyo Grande, about 11 miles south of Cal Poly. His father, Ruben Flores, is also on trial and accused of burying Smart’s body in his home’s backyard. The father and son’s trials are happening simultaneously with different juries.

Cheryl Anderson Several witnesses who attended the party testified that Smart was too intoxicated to walk on her own.  “Predators are creatures of opportunity,” Peuvrelle said. Cheryl Anderson was one of two students who walked with Smart and Flores from the party back to campus.

Flores assured Anderson that he would make sure Smart made it safely back to her room.  Anderson testified that she was “creeped out” by Flores because he tried to kiss her before she parted from the group, but, “I didn’t think anything horrible was going to happen,” to Smart.  Anderson testified that when she looked back, she saw Flores leading Smart toward his dorm, Santa Lucia Hall, not Smart’s dorm, Muir Hall.

Detective Mike Kennedy Kennedy interrogated Flores in May of 1996.  Kennedy told the jury that he noticed Flores had a black eye. Flores said he got the black eye while playing basketball with friends, Kennedy testified.

A basketball player from the game told investigators that Flores already had the black eye when he arrived to play. Kennedy testified that Flores looked so nervous during the interview, “his heart was beating out of his chest. ” Prosecutors said Flores wasn’t able to conceal his nervousness, “because on May 28, where he was being interviewed in his dorm room, just days earlier, Kristin’s lifeless body was laying on his mattress.

” Kristin Smart’s family – Father, mother, and brother Smart’s mother testified that Smart would always call her family on Sunday to update them on her college life and continue to be her younger sister and brother’s “biggest cheerleader. ” Smart left a voicemail message for her mother days before she vanished, saying she had exciting, good news to share during their Sunday family phone calls. Smart’s father testified that he was very close with his daughter and she would never disappear willingly.

Smart went to the party on the night of Friday, May 25, 1996. On Sunday, May 27, 1996, her family eagerly waited for a phone call that never came.  .