Who is the judge in Kristin Smart murder case? Ex-prosecutor handles controversial trials
The judge in the ongoing Kristin Smart murder case is a former San Luis Obispo County prosecutor who’s played pivotal roles in some of the county’s most controversial jury trials, including two other ongoing murder cases involving young female victims.
Known in the local legal community as well-prepared, thoughtful and humble, San Luis Obispo Superior Court Judge Craig van Rooyen has been praised by jurors, attorneys and even convicted defendants after grueling trials that sometimes span months. He’s a cyclist, surfer and poet in his spare time.
Van Rooyen is presiding over the ongoing criminal case against San Pedro resident Paul Flores, the last person seen with 19-year-old Cal Poly freshman Kristin Smart before she vanished following a late-night house party on Memorial Day weekend 1996.
Flores, 44, is charged with Smart’s murder, which District Attorney Dan Dow has said occurred during a rape or attempted rape.
His father, 80-year-old Ruben Flores, is also charged as a co-defendant with being an accessory to murder. Prosecutors say the elder Flores hid Smart’s remains under his Arroyo Grande home before moving them to a location that is either unknown or yet to be disclosed by authorities.
Smart’s disappearance has long gripped the Central Coast. The case has attracted international attention in recent years thanks to “Your Own Backyard,” popular true crime podcast produced by Orcutt resident Chris Lambert.
Since his appointment in the Smart case, van Rooyen, who is currently serving as San Luis Obispo Superior Court’s assistant presiding judge, has said in court that ensuring the defendants’ rights to a fair trial is his highest priority.
The media attention surrounding the Smart case prompted him to grant a defense gag order request preventing all parties from commenting on proceedings outside the courtroom. That type of restriction is rare in San Luis Obispo County.
The judge also had to weigh public safety and Ruben Flores’ constitutional rights under a new state law regarding pre-trial detention before making the controversial decision to significantly reduce the elder Flores’ bail, finding that Ruben Flores couldn’t be legally held in jail simply because he couldn’t afford the $250,000 bail.
Ruben Flores was granted $50,000 bail, which he posted, and was subsequently released April 22 on orders not to leave San Luis Obispo County.
On Monday, van Rooyen set a preliminary hearing in the case — when testimony and evidence will be presented in court for the first time — for July 6. The hearing is expected to take at least two weeks, according to the prosecutor in the case, San Luis Obispo County deputy district attorney Christopher Peuvrelle.
Prosecutor handles Cal Poly hazing, gang-related shooting cases
As both a prosecutor and a Superior Court judge, van Rooyen is no stranger to cases with strong public interest, some of which were highly polarizing.
As a prosecutor, his polite demeanor and approachability helped make him an effective victim’s advocate and a calming presence during sometimes contentious courtroom debates.
Van Rooyen told The Tribune in 2011 that he was working as a partner at a prestigious civil litigation firm in San Francisco when he decided to take a job as a prosecutor with the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office. He spent four years there before moving to the San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office in 2007.
“With some legal work, you feel like you’re just pushing along files,” van Rooyen said in 2011. “I wanted to reconnect with the human aspect of law. Speaking up for victims who have been bullied is satisfying.”
His work as a prosecutor included the prosecution of a group of Cal Poly students whose fraternity-related hazing resulted in the death of Cal Poly freshman Carson Starkey in December 2008.
Starkey died of acute alcohol poisoning after being subjected to a hazing ritual during a Sigma Alpha Epsilon party.
While prosecuting that case, Van Rooyen had to navigate a new state hazing law, and arguments reached the state Supreme Court.
Starkey’s parents said van Rooyen’s work in the case “sent a strong message” that hazing is wrong and won’t be tolerated.
Van Rooyen represented the government in the state’s case against Dan De Vaul, a San Luis Obispo rancher and owner of the 72-acre Sunny Acres sober living facility.
In 2008, De Vaul was charged with code violations on his property, which houses low-income clients, many of whom have sex offender registration requirements and have barriers to receiving treatment elsewhere.
The public’s strong support of the prosecution in the Starkey case was a far cry from the community’s response to the case against De Vaul, who many saw as sympathetic because of his housing of local homeless people.
“The easy thing to do would have been to ignore the problems and let his building situation continue,” van Rooyen previously said of the De Vaul case. “But our job requires addressing controversial facts when they arise. Allowing people to continue living in illegal and unsafe facilities would have been irresponsible.”
Van Rooyen and his wife Mimi, a local orthopedic surgeon, are known to volunteer through church and the local homeless center.
In 2013, van Rooyen secured a first-degree murder conviction for Armando Yepez, a gang member from Los Angeles who killed 17-year-old Arroyo Grande resident Gabriel Salgado in a 2011 drive-by shooting in Oceano. Yepez received a 158-year prison sentence.
In one of van Rooyen’s final cases as a prosecutor, a jury acquitted two former prison guards of manslaughter in the homicide of well-known North County vineyard manager Alvaro Medrano, who suffered fatal brain injuries in a fight involving at least eight people outside the Elkhorn Bar in San Miguel in 2011.
Following a highly charged weeks-long trial that included emotional testimony from Medrano’s family members, the jury found Travis Woolf of San Miguel, and Sergio Aranda of Salinas not guilty of manslaughter and assault charges. They faced up to 11 years in prison if convicted.
“The (San Luis Obispo County) Sheriff’s (Office) and our office gave it everything we could, and we believed strongly in this case from the beginning,” van Rooyen said at the time. “We wanted Mr. Medrano’s family to know law enforcement and our office wasn’t going to forget about this.”
SLO Superior Court judge presides over electioneering trial
Van Rooyen was appointed to the San Luis Obispo Superior Court bench by former Gov. Jerry Brown in June 2016.
The newly appointed judge’s first headline-grabbing trial was a politically contentious proceeding that proved San Luis Obispo County was not immune to a growing nationwide partisan divide.
Atascadero resident Edith “Edie” Knight, an elected member of the Republican Central Committee, was charged with two misdemeanors alleging she was illegally electioneering within 100 feet of a polling place during the June 7, 2016, primary election.
Witnesses testified during trial that Knight was making phone calls at the Atascadero polling place on behalf of the campaign to re-elect San Luis Obispo County Supervisor Debbie Arnold.
The California Attorney General’s Office, which prosecuted the case, offered to dismiss the charges and any fines if Knight agreed to admit guilt and apologize. She declined.
About 100 supporters of Knight, who had been politically active in San Luis Obispo County for more than 30 years, filled the courtroom and hallways during the verdict. Jurors took just 30 minutes to find her guilty of a single count and fine her $500.
Despite the verdict, Knight humbly asked for and was granted a mutually respectful handshake from the judge after her sentencing had concluded.
Trials involve drug-fueled murder, student’s hit-and-run death
It wasn’t long before van Rooyen earned a reputation as an organized and empathetic criminal trial judge as he presided over back-to-back murder and manslaughter cases.
In January 2018, van Rooyen oversaw the first-degree murder and arson conviction of Manuel “Manny” Perez, who stabbed his Grover Beach housemate, Joseph Charles Kienly IV, to death with steak knives in a drug-fueled paranoia following a disagreement related to their living situation.
Perez, a habitual methamphetamine user, then set Kienly’s body and the house on fire and fled. Van Rooyen sentenced Perez to 85 years to life in prison.
In another prominent case, Los Osos resident Gianna Brencola, then 17, drove into Cal Poly student Kennedy Love while under the influence of alcohol in San Luis Obispo, killing the bicyclist before fleeing in her vehicle in August 2017.
Saying there are no winners in vehicular manslaughter cases, van Rooyen sentenced Brencola before a packed courtroom to seven years in prison, with some of that time served, after Brencola entered an open plea for no more than 10 years in prison.
Before handing down the sentence, van Rooyen called criminal cases involving DUI “the most difficult for a judge — and there’s too many of them.”
“We know when alcohol and driving mix, terrible things happen,” van Rooyen said. “People become criminals who would not otherwise be criminals.”
Noting that Love’s family members said they believed Brencola was “not a monster,” the judge told the teenager that she will still be very young when she’s released, and should make the most of it.
“That’s a gift — that’s (the Love family’s) gift to you,” van Rooyen told her.
Predatory Uber driver raped and stole from female riders
In his most recent trial, van Rooyen imposed the maximum sentence against a former Uber driver who used the ride share service to stalk intoxicated women across the Central Coast.
Alfonso Alarcon Nunez was convicted in March of rape, assault and burglary charges for sexually assaulting and stealing from five women in separate incidents. Jurors heard testimony from those women, as well as others who said Alarcon Nunez tried to convince them into his vehicle.
After hearing heart-wrenching statements from three of the women about how the crimes have and continue to affect their lives, the judge made it clear that the victims were not to blame for Alarcon Nunez’s conduct.
“I want you to know that I heard you, and the jury heard you, and that this was not your fault,” van Rooyen told the women in the case. “This is not something that you asked for, and an Uber driver is someone who is in a position of trust.”
Noting that Alarcon Nunez exploited that trust to commit violent crimes against “particularly vulnerable” victims, van Rooyen sentenced the 40-year-old to serve nearly 55 years in prison before he’ll be eligible for parole.
Two SLO County women killed, defendants await trial
Van Rooyen also has experience in cases involving serious violent crimes against young female victims.
During an October 2018 preliminary hearing, the judge heard two days of testimony from San Luis Obispo detectives alleging that Robert Koehler of Arroyo Grande murdered 26-year-old San Luis Obispo resident Kristen Marti with a knife that January and weighed her body down in a flowing Prefumo Canyon creek.
Her remains were discovered in the creek more than two months later.
Detectives also testified that Koehler used a complex system of anonymous cell phone messaging apps and email addresses to hide his activity with several local prostitutes, and that he admitted to picking up Marti but told investigators she parted ways with him after his truck broke down.
Testimony presented at a preliminary hearing suggests Marti turned to sex work to support her and her boyfriend’s drug habit. Her boyfriend reported her missing soon after Marti went to meet a man for paid sex, a detective said.
Van Rooyen ruled that prosecutors established probable cause to order Koehler stand trial on the murder charge. His case is due back in court Wednesday.
In February, the judge ordered Daniel Raul Rodriguez Johnson to stand trial on two counts of murder and other charges for allegedly stabbing his longtime girlfriend, Carrington Broussard, to death in their Heritage Ranch home during an argument.
Broussard, 27, was a San Miguel native who graduated from Paso Robles High School and worked at Rock ‘N’ Robles Pizza. She was nine months pregnant at the time of her killing; the fetus did not survive.
Johnson, who later admitted to using methamphetamine prior to the attack, fled in a vehicle with the couple’s 2- and 4-year-old daughters.
After crashing, Johnson then stole a responding CHP officer’s cruiser and led officers on a high-speed chase that spanned rural Templeton to San Simeon. The two daughters, who were left behind, were not injured.
Should jurors convict Johnson and find true a sentencing enhancement, he will spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole. Johnson is due back in court next month.
Van Rooyen will preside over the next pre-preliminary hearing in the Paul and Ruben Flores case on June 21.
This story was originally published May 20, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
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