Exclusive: Paul Flores jury was wrong on Kristin Smart verdict, Ruben Flores juror says
Paul Flores’ jury made the wrong decision in finding him guilty of murdering Kristin Smart, according to a juror on the panel that found Ruben Flores not guilty of helping to conceal the killing.
In an exclusive interview with The Tribune, the juror said there was “no hard physical evidence” to convict Paul or Ruben Flores, but his job was to only decide Ruben Flores’ fate. The juror spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect his privacy and safety.
“I cannot sleep and say, I’m gonna go put somebody in prison because (of) the little things that the prosecutor was throwing out there,” the juror said. “For me, it just wasn’t enough.”
He said he feels for the Smart family because he’s lost a loved one to murder as well, but he couldn’t ethically convict anyone in the case because of the lack of evidence.
The juror said that they began deliberations, they first tried to figure out if a murder could have happened the way the prosecution said it did without Ruben Flores knowing. They also discussed the evidence against Paul Flores at length, because there was no reason to convict Ruben Flores if they didn’t find his son committed a crime.
Prosecution’s theory ‘didn’t make sense,’ Ruben Flores juror says
Once jurors determined Ruben Flores would have had to have known if a body were to be buried underneath his deck, they began to examine the evidence.
“It was a long trial. When I was sitting there listening to everything, a lot of stuff — it didn’t make sense. It didn’t just connect,” the juror said.
The trial was “a little boring, to tell you the truth, because there just wasn’t a whole lot there,” the juror told The Tribune.
He said that there was no semen, hair, blood or anything found in Paul Flores’ dorm room to physically connect him to Smart’s murder, and that the blood found under Ruben Flores’ deck could not be be confirmed to be human blood since no DNA was found, and the test also reacted with ferrets and higher primates.
“They dug up his house and they didn’t find nothing,” the juror said.
He noted that the fibers found could not be proven to be hair or connect with anything of significance, and that shovels used were not cleaned or sterilized between digs in different spots on the property.
He said he believes that if a body had been buried — even wrapped — for 26 years, a lot more blood would have been found underneath the deck.
The juror also said that some witnesses — particularly Jennifer Hudson, who testified Paul Flores confessed to the crime — were not credible.
He noted that it came up that Hudson and Paul Flores used to party together, and that Hudson said Paul Flores drove a 4-wheel-drive truck when Paul Flores only had a 2-wheel-drive truck.
Los Angeles County should prosecute Paul Flores for the women who testified they were drugged and raped in later years if law enforcement believes it truly happened, the juror added.
“If he did something like they say he did, like the raping,” the juror said, “Los Angeles, they probably gotta put charges on him over there. But that’s different from murder.”
Juror excused for talking with priest wanted guilty verdict
On Oct. 13, all members of Ruben Flores’ jury had all come to the conclusion they couldn’t convict Ruben because of the lack of evidence except one, the juror said. The juror who wanted to find Ruben Flores guilty was the one who was excused for talking to his priest.
“He couldn’t really comprehend what was all going on and (couldn’t) try to see how he was not guilty,” the juror said of the man who was excused. “He couldn’t really say that he wasn’t (guilty), even though the rest of the other jurors decided that, ‘no, we cannot convict him.’”
He said the juror reached out to his priest because of his struggle of wanting a guilty verdict while the rest of the jury didn’t.
The juror said when they welcomed in the alternate juror, they walked her through how they came to their decision and they took a day discussing whether or not there was enough evidence to convict. Then after the weekend, the alternate juror had also come to the conclusion that there was not enough physical evidence to convict.
“It’s been 26 years. I know the (Smart) family has had to deal with this with their daughter missing, and that’s bad for them,” he said. “But I got to go put somebody away, but there’s no physical evidence.”
The juror said he feels sorry that Ruben Flores had to go through the trial — something the juror believes shouldn’t have happened in the first place.
As for the attorneys’ performance in the case, the juror said San Luis Obispo County Deputy District Attorney Chris Peuvrelle “cracked me up with his facial expressions” and was “prosecuting through straws.”
Harold Mesick, Ruben Flores’ lawyer, didn’t talk a lot and Paul Flores’ lawyer, Robert Sanger, did a good job and fought hard for the case, he added.
“If I was in the other jury, I wouldn’t have changed my mind or had the other jurors try to convince me that he’s guilty,” the juror said. “It would have been a hung jury.”
Tribune reporter Stephanie Zappelli contributed to this report.
Any jurors who served on Paul or Ruben Flores’ juries and wants to talk about their time on the case can reach Tribune reporter Chloe Jones at cjones@thetribunenews.com.
This story was originally published October 19, 2022 at 2:46 PM.
