Kristin Smart podcaster will release new episodes for trial. Here’s what he has planned
Aside from some public searches here and there, the investigation into the 1996 disappearance of Cal Poly student Kristin Smart was relatively quiet for more than two decades.
Then, the first episode of Chris Lambert’s “Your Own Backyard” podcast aired in 2019.
Law enforcement officials and the Smart family have credited the true-crime podcast with renewing interest in the case and generating new leads and information, including several new witnesses.
Now, the notorious case is poised for its biggest development in 26 years as Paul Flores and his father Ruben Flores go on trial for Smart’s murder — and Lambert will be there to capture the next chapter in the mystery.
Paul Flores, 45, is accused of murdering 19-year-old Smart after an off-campus party in May 1996, while 81-year-old Ruben Flores is accused of helping hide her body, which has never been found. The two men were arrested in April 2021.
The podcast’s popularity has been a large part of Flores’ defense. Their legal team has alleged the podcast was “designed to convict Paul Flores,” and has helped create a bias against him, especially in San Luis Obispo. The podcast, along with more than two decades of news media coverage of the case, is part of the pretrial publicity that Superior Court Judge Craig van Rooyen cited when he moved the trial to Salinas.
The Tribune spoke with Lambert after the second day of pretrial motions. Here’s what he had to say.
Seeing case go to trial is ‘surreal,’ Lambert says
When Lambert started the podcast, he said he never imagined the case would ever see a trial.
“It’s pretty surreal because it happened incrementally,” he said.
As the podcast was airing, law enforcement carried out search warrants and eventually, Paul and Ruben Flores were arrested in connection with Smart’s murder.
“It seemed like things were suddenly in motion in a way that they hadn’t been for years,” Lambert said, reflecting on what it was like seeing the case gain momentum after the release his podcast. “And now, this year it’s been the most active that this case has been since 1996.”
Lambert’s podcast has 17 million downloads globally as of this week, he said, with top countries outside of the U.S. including Australia, the United Kingdom and New Zealand. It was ranked No. 1 on Apple’s top podcasts list in April 2021, and is currently ranked no. 26, according to Chartable, a podcast data platform.
A trial was never the goal of the podcast, Lambert said. In fact, he never saw one coming.
Best case scenario, he said, was someone coming forward with information about where Smart’s body is so that it could bring closure to her family.
“The weird part is, it’s exciting to see it go to trial, but still — the resolution for me needs to be where’s Kristin’s body at?” He said. “If that doesn’t come out of the trial, even if there’s a conviction, it’s still going to feel like a little bit of a letdown because it doesn’t answer the big question.”
Lambert and the Smart family have developed a close friendship, he said, and it’s been difficult to navigate that relationship with the gag order that was placed on the case.
The family cannot talk to media, and given Lambert’s podcast, they cannot talk to him.
“I’m looking forward to whatever the resolution is, to just having that friendship again,” he said. “Aside from the case, I think we really care about each other.”
How ‘Your Own Backyard’ will cover the trial
Lambert plans to be in the courtroom every day during the trial, living in Salinas from July through potentially October.
The court won’t allow the trial to be livestreamed and no recording of any sort is permitted inside the courtroom, so Lambert will take handwritten notes.
“My intention is to be there every day to take the best notes that I can and at the end of every week, to record some kind of audio presentation where I just walk through everything that we learned in court,” he said. “It won’t have the same production value as the rest of the podcast. ... But it will be a regular update.”
These summaries will be distributed as bonus episodes on podcast streaming platforms.
Lambert said he plans to also answer questions from listeners in these episodes.
Smart case is ‘in everything I do’ Lambert says
The podcast has changed his life in more ways than he’ll ever know, Lambert said, and it has become a large part of his life.
“It’s in everything I do,” he said.
Lambert said he was about halfway done with writing an album when the trial was scheduled, and he put finishing the album on pause so he could focus on the trial.
While it’s difficult to put his normal life on hold for the several months the case will be on trial, Lambert said it was an easy decision to make.
“What would be worse is to not be in the courtroom and just have no idea what’s going on,” he said.
Lambert said he doesn’t plan on continuing true crime podcasting unless he feels really connected to a new case. Once the Kristin Smart case is resolved, he plans to return to the life he had before the podcast: writing music.
But even during times when the case was stagnant and he was returning to his normal life, finding Smart remained in the back of his mind, he said.
“She’s still out there somewhere. She’s most likely on the Central Coast, which is my home,” he said. “How could I not keep looking?”
This story was originally published June 9, 2022 at 10:15 AM.
