Kristin Smart case: Crime scene investigator describes stains in soil under Ruben Flores’ deck
A San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office crime scene investigator testified in court Thursday about discovering dark-colored stains in a patch of soil up to four feet deep underneath the home of Ruben Flores, father of the man accused of murdering Cal Poly freshman Kristin Smart.
Samples from the soil taken during the excavations in March and April allegedly showed the stained soil tested positive for traces of likely human blood, the prosecution has previously alleged in the preliminary hearing for Flores and his son, Paul Flores.
Paul Flores, now 44, is the last person known to have seen the 19-year-old freshman alive after walking her back from the party toward the Cal Poly campus residence halls on May 24, 1996.
Smart’s body has never been found, but investigators said in court documents that her remains were buried at the Ruben Flores’ Arroyo Grande home but recently moved.
Flores is charged with felony accessory after the fact, while his son, San Pedro resident Paul Flores, is charged with one count of murder.
Thursday marked the 17th day of proceedings as the evidentiary hearing nears the end of its fifth week.
The hearing, which began Aug. 2, is now tentatively scheduled to conclude by Sept. 10.
At the conclusion of the weeks-long preliminary 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 in court Thursday.
Cadaver dog handlers describe 2021 search of Ruben Flores’ house
The court has heard testimony from three handlers of human remains detecting K-9s regarding their searches in 1996 of Paul Flores’ Santa Lucia Hall dorm room. Each of the four dog alerted to the presence of a scent of remains in the room, namely around a mattress and bed frame.
But on Thursday, van Rooyen heard for the first time from two similar dog handlers who, in March, conducted cadaver searches of Ruben Flores’ home at 710 White Court.
The prosecution alleges that Ruben Flores concealed Smart’s buried remains in an enclosed area underneath Ruben Flores’ backyard deck. Those remains were recently removed and taken to an unknown location, according to unsealed court documents.
Kristina Black, a California Rescue Dog Association-certified human remains detection dog handler who volunteers for the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue team, testified Thursday morning that she was requested to respond to Flores’ home on March 15, 2021.
She and her Belgian Malinois, Annie, searched the backyard and was asked to search behind lattice underneath the deck. Annie “started to show change in behavior” at one location near a small doorway, Black said.
She characterized the change in behavior as Annie keeping her nose down, snorting and breathing heavily, but she said the dog “did not go to her final response,” or a bona fide alert to human remains.
Under cross examination, Black said that she and Annie searched a 1985 Volkswagen in the garage and the dog did not give any alert.
Karen Atkinson, another dog handler who was also present during the March 15 search, similarly testified following the morning recess that her dog, an English lab named Amiga, was also a seasoned and “reliable” human remains detection dog with more than 200 searches completed.
Underneath the deck, Amiga also exhibited a “change in her behavior” — but not what is considered a full alert — Atkinson said.
The court was expected to once again hear testimony from previous witness Jennifer Hudson, who said she heard Paul Flores admit to burying Smart in Huasna and is a party to defense allegations of misconduct against the head detective in the case.
Before the lunch recess, however, deputy district attorney Christopher Peuvrelle revealed that Hudson was ill and unavailable to testify Thursday, and he was granted permission to take another witness out of order Thursday afternoon.
Sheriff’s forensics specialist describes stained soil under deck
Sheriff’s Office forensic specialist Shelby Liddell testified Thursday afternoon that she’s been a forensic specialist, a non-sworn position, with the county Sheriff’s Office for three years. Forensic specialists document and collect evidence at crime scenes.
Liddell said that she reported to 710 White Court on March 15 and 16 while law enforcement searched the property.
Liddell was present when the two cadaver dogs conducted their search, and with the help of an archaeologist dug up a section of dirt under the deck that caused the dogs’ “change in behavior.”
Liddell described how investigators created a grid for excavation over the spot, with Liddell and the archaeologist taking over digging efforts once the hole reached about two feet deep and a stain started to become visible.
The two used small trowels to carefully dig further in thin layers of soil, with each layer revealing even more staining, which became darker and more pronounced the deeper the hole became.
Peuvrelle showed Liddell dozens of her photographs from the scene, focusing in on the alleged staining, which appeared as dried liquid-like shapes of discolorization surrounded by dark edges.
Liddell testified that she collected samples of the soil containing the dark edges — what she called “the thickest areas with the darkest staining” — and secured them in evidence bags. At about the 4-foot mark, the two hit rocky, solid soil and the two refilled the hole before the search wrapped up March 16.
She returned to the property April 13, she said, and investigators removed the stretch of deck above the patch of dirt in question to better access it, she said.
During this later dig, the patch was completely excavated and the staining was again photographed before more samples were taken of both that soil as well as control samples from different edges of the property.
On Wednesday, Sheriff’s Office Det. Clint Cole, the head investigator in the case, testified that a witness provided a photograph of “suspicious activity” at the White Court property in March 2020 in which the witness saw Ruben Flores, Susan Flores, and her boyfriend Mike McConville park a utility trailer at the house and activity occurring under the back deck.
Investigators seized that trailer and used chemical agents to discover a “very suspicious stain” near a side door that was “similar to a human body laying on its side,” Cole said Wednesday.
On Thursday, Liddell testified that she examined the trailer, using the chemical agent Bluestar to reveal the stain described by Cole.
A photograph projected in court showed a glimmering blue spatter on the trailer’s darkened plywood floor just inside from a side access door that, from where the trailer was parked, could back up directly in front of the lattice door leading underneath the deck.
Liddell said investigators cut out the floor of the trailer, which she said is owned by McConville, and sent it to a lab outside San Luis Obispo County.
Under cross examination, Liddell testified that she did not know the results of testing from that lab.
Beyond blood, she said that Bluestar has been documented to magnify certain household cleaners, some vegetables and foods, as well as certain paints and varnishes.
Defense attorney Robert Sanger asked whether a body that has been deceased for more than 20 years would release as much blood as was supposedly shown in the photograph, Liddell said that the staining was not likely caused by blood, but “decomposition fluid.”
Liddell is expected to resume cross-examination Friday morning.
This story was originally published September 2, 2021 at 6:55 PM.
