New location for Kristin Smart murder trial expected later this month
The location of the Kristin Smart murder trial is expected to be decided later this month, San Luis Obispo Superior Court Judge Craig van Rooyen said in a hearing Monday.
The trial date was pushed back to May 31 but is expected to be pushed back further once a new location is decided.
Paul and Ruben Flores, who are charged in connection with Smart’s murder, are expected to return in-person to court on April 20 for a hearing where the jury trial location is expected to be decided.
The new date comes after van Rooyen ruled last week that the two would not likely receive a fair trial in San Luis Obispo County.
“I don’t think this case is discussed around dinner tables in other counties like it is in this county,” van Rooyen said in last week’s hearing.
Paul Flores is alleged to have killed Kristin Smart after an off-campus Cal Poly party in May 1996. Ruben Flores, Paul Flores’ father, is alleged to have helped hide the body, which has still not been found. The two were arrested in April 2021 — 25 years after Smart’s disappearance.
Potential locations for the trial have not been announced, but past SLO County criminal trials have moved to Monterey, Santa Barbara and Alameda counties.
The Flores trial is the fourth criminal trial in San Luis Obispo County to move locations in the past five decades. The most recent trial to move was the 2001 trial of Rex Krebs. Moving Krebs’ pushed back the date for nine months.
This story was originally published April 4, 2022 at 10:03 AM.
