Kristin Smart murder case: Here’s what happened on Day 2 of preliminary hearing
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A former resident of Cal Poly freshman Kristin Smart’s campus dorm on Tuesday described the man accused of killing her as “a lurker, a creep” who hung around Smart’s residence hall room in the months leading up to her disappearance in 1996.
Another former student who helped the Cal Poly freshman back toward her residence hall following a late-night party testified that the last memory she has of Smart is of Paul Flores carrying her up Perimeter Road with his arm around her waist.
“I didn’t think anything bad was going to happen to her,” Cheryl Manzer, previously known as Cheryl Anderson, testified in San Luis Obispo Superior Court on Tuesday afternoon.
Witness testimony resumed Tuesday morning in the preliminary hearing in the case of Smart, who was allegedly murdered more than 25 years ago.
Paul Flores, 44, is the last person to see the 19-year-old Smart alive after walking her back from the party toward the Cal Poly campus residence halls on May 24, 1996. He is accused of raping or attempting to rape Smart in his dorm room before killing her.
Smart’s body has never been found, but investigators believe it was buried at the Arroyo Grande home of Paul Flores’ father, 80-year-old Ruben Flores, and “recently” moved, according to a San Luis Obispo County probation report.
Tuesday marked the second day of testimony in an evidentiary hearing for Paul and Ruben Flores that’s expected to last at least 12 days.
The preliminary hearing, originally scheduled for early July, had been postponed several times as the defense continued to gather alleged evidence in the case from the prosecution.
Proceedings are not being live-streamed and media in attendance are under strict rules prohibiting the use of electronic devices in the courtroom.
At the conclusion of the hearing, Superior Court Judge Craig van Rooyen will rule whether prosecutors established probable cause — a lesser standard of proof than guilt beyond a reasonable doubt — to proceed the case toward trial.
Here’s what happened during the hearing’s second day.
Former neighbor testifies about seeing Paul Flores in Kristin Smart’s room
On Tuesday morning, van Rooyen heard testimony from Steven Flemming, a close friend of Smart’s during their freshman year.
Flemming said the two hit it off shortly after he moved to the building in 1996.
He and Smart would talk about their problems including his own homesickness, Flemming said, though she was more mature and listened more than shared.
“In school, you have certain people who just get you, and she got me,” Flemming said. “She helped me through some stuff. ... Sometimes I feel like I failed her.”
Flemming recalled two occasions where he saw Flores, who lived in nearby Santa Lucia Hall, sitting alone in the common area of the Muir Hall at about 1 a.m. — “lurking,” in Flemming’s words.
On another occasion, Flemming said he saw Flores in Smart’s dorm room, though he didn’t know why. He recalled seeing Smart being “standoffish” to Flores. Flemming said Smart was too kind of a person to tell Flores off.
“Everyone knew Paul (Flores) was creepy. A lot of women felt uncomfortable around him,” Flemming said on the stand. “He was not welcome.”
Paul Flores’ defense team attempted to poke holes in Flemming’s recollection of seeing Flores in Smart’s dorm room.
Defense attorney Robert Sanger asked Flemming under cross examination about how details of his account changed between the time he was first interviewed by the FBI in 1999 and when he was next interviewed, this time by San Luis Obispo County investigators, in July 2021.
Flemming testified early Tuesday that he witnessed Flores in Smart’s ground-floor room in Muir Hall with a friend of Smart’s.
“It was definitely weird. It was like it was not warranted” for Flores to be there, Flemming said. “It didn’t seem right. It seemed like she was uncomfortable.”
But Flemming hadn’t used such strong language when he spoke to FBI agents in 1999, Sanger pointed out, and made a statement along the lines of thinking that Smart and Flores might have been dating.
In his recent interview with local officials, however, Flemming was much more critical of Flores, repeatedly using words such as “creepy” and “creeper” as well as profanities in describing Flores.
At one point in the recent interview, Flemming said, “Can I say with 100% certainty it was Paul (in Smart’s room)? No,” according to Sanger’s reading of an investigative report.
Flemming said in response that the case has “brought back memories” from that time that he’s tried to suppress for decades.
“I wanted to dump everything about this out of my memory,” he said. “You wish, if I could just push the rewind button.”
He never watched a TV show or news report about the Smart case in the years since his first interview, he said, and a career of the military and law enforcement service has changed his perception of what could have happened to Smart.
“So you formed an opinion?” Sanger asked him.
“This is America. I can have an opinion,” Flemming responded.
“Now you’re 100% sure (it was Flores in Smart’s room)?” Sanger asked.
“Yes,” Flemming responded. “I do recognize Paul (in the courtroom). Paul was in Kristin’s room.”
Asked by Sanger if he felt responsible for Smart’s disappearance, Flemming replied, “Responsible? I don’t feel responsible. I just miss her.”
Flemming was excused just before the lunch recess.
Defendant inquired about Smart at party, former fraternity member says
Matthew Toomey, who was a Cal Poly fraternity member and student in May 1996, attended the party on Crandall Way. He testified following the lunch recess that Smart approached him at the house early into the party.
Toomey described her as in a moderate state of intoxication.
He said Smart approached him about his male friend at the party, asking if the man would find her attractive. She then asked Toomey if he thought she was attractive, to which he said “Yes,” he recalled.
Smart then walked off, Toomey said.
Shortly thereafter, Toomey said, Flores walked up to him. He asked if Toomey knew anything about Smart, he testified.
“You could tell he was interested,” Toomey said.
He later saw Smart lying on the lawn in the front yard of the house as he was leaving around midnight, he said. Toomey walked up to her and told her she couldn’t stay there.
She told him to “Leave me here. Leave me alone,” Toomey said.
Ex-student describes seeing Smart walk away from party with Flores
Manzer, the former Cal Poly student student who helped walk Smart toward the dorm after the party with Flores, testified Tuesday in San Luis Obispo Superior Court that Paul Flores joined her and another student as they attempted to walk a heavily intoxicated Smart back to her Muir Hall dorm room.
He soon began trying to convince Manzer to leave the two alone, promising to return Smart safely to her dorm, she said on the stand Tuesday.
Manzer said she attended the May 24, 1996, party on Crandall Way and saw both Smart and Flores there.
She said Flores came up to her at one point and put his arm around Manzer. It was not a welcome advance, Manzer said.
After her friends left her behind, Manzer asked another friend, Tim Davis, to walk her back to her room at the Sierra Madre residence halls, she said.
As they left the house at about 1 a.m., Davis saw Smart lying on the ground outside and helped her to her feet, Manzer said.
Smart was “definitely intoxicated” and stumbling, Manzer said.
Not far from the house, Flores walked up and joined the three, and Davis soon departed the group, Manzer said, after she told him he should turn back.
“I didn’t want to inconvenience him,” she said.
The remaining three continued on slowly, with difficulty due to Smart’s inebriation, she said.
Flores had his arm around Smart’s waist to steady her, Manzer said, though she said under cross examination that she didn’t see Flores touching Smart inappropriately.
“Paul said, ‘You can go back,’ “ Manzer testified. “I said I did not want to walk back alone.”
He insisted a second time, and at the corner of Perimeter Road and Grand Avenue, Flores tried to kiss her, Manzer said. When she said “No,” he asked for a hug, she said.
“I asked him if he was going to get Kristin to her room, and he said ‘Yes,’ ” Manzer said.
Beyond those exceptions, there wasn’t much conversation during the walk, she added.
Asked if she had any personal knowledge of what happened to Smart that night, Manzer responded: “I know that she walked the rest of the way home with Paul Flores.”
Manzer, who said she did not know Smart by name prior to that night, knew Flores from a mutual class and from other parties.
At the tail end of the proceeding, Det. Clint Cole, the lead San Luis Obispo Sheriff’s Office investigator in the case, briefly testified to how he obtained a 1996 Arroyo Grande Police Department mug shot of Flores that hasn’t yet been admitted as evidence.
That testimony is scheduled to resume at 9 a.m. Wednesday.
Paul Flores, father accused of killing Kristin Smart, hiding body
After a decades-long investigation, Paul and Ruben Flores were arrested in connection with Smart’s disappearance on April 13 in San Pedro and Arroyo Grande, respectively, and the San Luis Obispo District Attorney’s Office announced the criminal charges against the men the following day.
Paul Flores, a San Pedro resident, is charged with one count of murder. Ruben Flores, who lives in Arroyo Grande, is charged with felony accessory after the fact.
Paul Flores and his father pleaded not guilty at their arraignment on April 19, when van Rooyen ordered Paul Flores be held without bail.
Paul Flores remains in San Luis Obispo County Jail, where he’s being held without bail for the remainder of proceedings.
Ruben Flores was released from County Jail on April 22, hours after Superior Court Judge Craig van Rooyen significantly lowered his bail because he is not a flight risk or a risk to public safety.
Ruben Flores remains out of custody.
Paul Flores faces a sentence of 25 years to life if convicted of first-degree murder.
Ruben Flores faces a maximum of three years if convicted of the accessory charge, though it is not clear if that sentence would be served in County Jail or state prison.
Court records related to an unsuccessful prosecution attempt to charge Paul Flores with two counts of rape involving female victims in Los Angeles were unsealed in court last month.
In addition to information from 29 women about Flores’ alleged sexually predatory behavior, the San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Statement of the Case also showed that investigators found video evidence of rape of an intoxicated person against Flores at his San Pedro home, as well as traces of human blood in disturbed soil underneath Ruben Flores’ home.
This story was originally published August 3, 2021 at 11:00 AM.
