Appeals court denies Paul Flores new hearing on Kristin Smart murder conviction
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Court of Appeal denied Flores’ rehearing, upholding his 2022 conviction.
- Defense claimed trial errors on witness testimony, juror bias and alerts.
- Flores may petition the California Supreme Court within ten days of Dec. 8.
The convicted killer of Cal Poly freshman Kristin Smart, Paul Flores, will not have a new hearing in his appellate case, the California Court of Appeal ruled last week.
Flores, 49, was convicted of Smart’s 1996 murder in October 2022 following a three-month trial. He was sentenced to 25 years to life in state prison.
Flores argued his right to a fair trial was violated due to multiple alleged judicial mistakes made throughout his three-month trial, including Monterey County Superior Court Judge Jennifer O’Keefe allowing two women who said Flores raped them to testify and refusing to dismiss a juror the defense claimed showed bias.
The Court of Appeal ultimately disagreed, upholding Flores’ conviction in a decision published on Oct. 24.
Flores asked for a new hearing on Nov. 5 after the court refused to overturn or reduce his first-degree murder conviction.
In that petition, his attorney, Soloman Wollack, claimed the Court of Appeal “omitted key facts” in its published opinion, with most of the alleged omissions being defense arguments on dog alerts, Flores’ characterizations of his intoxication and defense witness testimony that questioned the prosecution’s forensic experts.
The Court of Appeal denied the second petition on Nov. 21, court records show. It did not offer an explanation for its denial, according to the publicly available court docket.
Flores has ten days from Dec. 8, when the Court of Appeal’s decision becomes final, to submit a petition to the California Supreme Court regarding his appeal.
