Paul Flores will try to overturn his conviction for Kristin Smart’s murder. Here’s how
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Paul Flores will argue appeal of 2022 murder conviction on Oct. 9 in Ventura.
- Defense cites juror bias, improper testimony, and legal misstatements in appeal.
- State Attorney General's Office rejects all claims, calls conviction fair and valid.
Paul Flores’ attempt to overturn or reduce his conviction for the 1996 murder of Cal Poly freshman Kristin Smart will be argued in court next month.
A Monterey County jury convicted Flores, now 48, of Smart’s first-degree murder on Oct. 18, 2022 — 26 years after Smart first went missing on Memorial Day weekend 1996. He was sentenced to 25 years to life in state prison in March 2023.
Flores filed his appeal in October, claiming his right to a fair trial was violated in various ways.
His appeal singled out one juror in particular — Juror 273 — alleging Monterey County Superior Court Judge Jennifer O’Keefe did not remove her despite multiple signs the juror was biased.
The appeal also argued the trial court improperly allowed two women to testify Flores raped them after Smart’s murder, a ball-gag photo to be shown at the end of the trial and an alleged eyewitness to describe “roofies.” It also alleged the court misstated the criminal definition of attempted rape.
The appeal argued that while just one of these errors doesn’t rise to a violation of due process on its own, the accumulation of all the errors does and deprived Flores of a fair trial. It asked for Flores’ conviction to be overturned completely or reduced to second-degree murder.
The California Attorney General’s Office, however, called Flores’ appeal “meritless” and argued his conviction and sentence should remain as is.
The Attorney’s General Office argued in an April briefing that not only did none of the supposed errors occur, even if they did, they did not affect Flores’ right to a fair trial or warrant a change to his conviction.
Flores filed his final response brief in July, reiterating all of the points in his initial appeal.
The California Court of Appeal set oral arguments to take place in the Ventura County 2nd District, 6th Division courthouse on Oct. 9 at 1:30 p.m.
This story was originally published September 11, 2025 at 4:30 PM.
