Kristin Smart trial: Paul Flores showed interest in Cal Poly student, witnesses testify
A friend of Kristin Smart testified Tuesday in Monterey County Superior Court that he saw the man accused of killing the Cal Poly student in her dorm room multiple times before she disappeared.
Witness testimony in the Kristin Smart murder trial resumed Tuesday as a defense attorney continued his cross examination of Steven Fleming, one of Smart’s friends.
Paul Flores, 45, is accused of murdering Smart after the two left an off-campus party together in May 1996. His 81-year-old father, Ruben Flores, is accused of helping hide her body. The two were arrested in April 2021.
The trial against the two began in July in Salinas, after San Luis Obispo Superior Court Judge Craig van Rooyen ruled the Flores men were unlikely to receive a fair trial in San Luis Obispo.
Monterey County Superior Court Judge Jennifer O’Keefe is presiding over the case.
Fleming testified Monday that he would see Paul Flores “following” Smart around her Cal Poly residence hall, Muir Hall, and once spotted him inside Smart’s room.
He said Smart was clearly uncomfortable around Flores, and that other women also felt uncomfortable around the defendant.
Kristin Smart murder trial: Defense questions friend
During cross examination on Tuesday, defense lawyer Robert Sanger asked Fleming if he knew or had talked to Paul Flores while attending Cal Poly.
Fleming said he didn’t know Flores personally, but did “know of him.”
“I didn’t need to have a conversation with him to know who he was,” Fleming said.
Fleming added that he had spoken about Flores with at least two other friends prior to Smart’s disappearance.
When Sanger questioned Fleming about details of those discussions, the witness said he couldn’t recall specifics, only that one of them had felt weird about Flores.
Sanger also questioned Fleming about the mood in Muir Hall after the disappearance, further conversations about Flores during that time and Fleming’s statements to police that he had seen Flores in Smart’s dorm between five and six times.
Fleming stood by his previous statements saying he could not remember specifics 25 years later, but if it was what he had told investigators at the time, then he stood by it.
Sanger attempted to ask Fleming about male friends of Smart and her past relationships in multiple ways, but San Luis Obispo County Deputy District Attorney Christopher Peuvrelle objected to these questions and the judge sustained.
Sanger also alleged Fleming once described himself as a “playboy” when he was 18, and asked him whether he offered to walk women to locations on campus following Smart’s disappearance. Peuvrelle again objected to this line of questioning.
During further cross-examination, Ruben Flores’ attorney, Harold Mesick, asked Fleming why he did not immediately go to the police with the information that he had seen Flores following Smart.
“I’m an African American kid,” Fleming said. “I’m from Oakland. I grew up not trusting police. I was 18 years old and scared of police. Ironic because I later joined law enforcement.”
Mesick noted that Fleming went to high school near Berkeley. Fleming replied that just because he went to high school there does not mean he grew up there.
Fleming testified that he grew up in east Oakland.
Peuvrelle objected to this line of questioning, saying it was irrelevant to the case.
Mesick then asked Fleming about his basketball statistics during his time at Cal Poly, such as his height and weight, and Peuvrelle objected again for the same reason.
“It is relevant because as a 6-foot-5, 225-pound starting forward you didn’t intervene” when he saw Paul Flores in Smart’s room, Mesick said, before asking Fleming: “You grew up in Oakland, right?”
Court returned to order and Fleming was excused after clarifying some questions he had answered earlier.
He was on the stand from 3:30 p.m. Monday through 3 p.m. Tuesday.
Paul Flores thought Cal Poly student was ‘hot,’ witness testifies
Matthew Toomey, who attended the Crandall Way house party at which Smart was last seen, was called to the stand Tuesday after Fleming.
Toomey testified he was roommates with Ross Ketcham, and the two attended the party together.
Toomey said Smart approached him and Ketcham at the party.
After engaging in casual small talk with the two boys, Smart asked Toomey if he thought she was attractive, and he replied that she was. She then asked if Ketcham thought she was attractive, and Toomey told her he didn’t know.
Toomey testified that Paul Flores approached him at the party and asked how Toomey knew Smart and whether she was in a relationship with Ketcham.
Toomey said they had just met that night, so neither he nor his roommate really knew her. Toomey said Flores also made a comment to the effect that he thought Smart was “hot or good-looking”
“He was definitely asking questions as if he was interested in her and attracted to her,” Toomey said.
The only other time Toomey saw Smart before leaving the party was when he saw her kiss Trevor Bolter, who was a sophomore at Cal Poly at the time.
When leaving the party, Toomey said, he and Ketcham saw Smart facedown in the front yard outside the Crandall Way house.
He said the two tried to help her, told her she couldn’t stay there and offered to walk her back to her dorm, but Smart said she didn’t want help.
Smart’s eyes were mostly closed during this time, and her speech was “a little slurred,” Toomey testified.
Toomey said the two figured she had other friends at the party. While Ketcham went back to the dorms, Toomey testified, he went to see the girl he was dating at the time at her apartment.
Sanger asked Toomey is Smart was attracting attention to herself at the party, and Toomey said she wasn’t.
“She was tall and good-looking, but I wasn’t monitoring her at the party,” he said.
Smart introduced herself as Roxy, Toomey said.
Toomey said he recognizes Paul Flores as being the person who asked him about Smart, but did not know Paul Flores’ name until he identified as the last person seen with Smart before she disappeared.
What’s next in the case
Trevor Bolter began his witness testimony with about five minutes left in court.
In his testimony, Bolter said he was at the party talking to a friend when Smart approached him, introduced herself as Roxy and kissed him. She then took his hand and pulled him into the bathroom, he said.
Bolter will return to finish his testimony Wednesday morning, followed by more witnesses.
The trial is expected to last through October.
This story was originally published August 2, 2022 at 12:59 PM.
