Suspects in Kristin Smart disappearance could face trial

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. – When the sheriff of San Luis Obispo County hailed the arrests successful April of a begetter and lad successful the 25-year-old disappearance of assemblage pupil Kristin Smart, helium said helium was assured they had the grounds needed to convict them.

A justice connected Wednesday volition find if they person capable grounds to proceed to proceedings aft a 22-day preliminary hearing.

Paul Flores, 44, a erstwhile California Polytechnic State University student, is charged with execution and his father, Ruben Flores, 80, is charged arsenic an accessory for allegedly helping to hide her body. Both person pleaded not guilty.

Attorneys for the 2 men accidental prosecutors did not contiguous capable grounds during a preliminary proceeding to enactment the transgression charges.

Paul Flores was the past idiosyncratic seen with a precise intoxicated Smart connected May 25, 1996, arsenic helium helped locomotion her to her dorm aft a enactment disconnected campus, witnesses said. Prosecutors said helium killed Smart portion trying to rape her successful his dorm room.

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During the preliminary hearing, prosecutors presented grounds from handlers who said their cadaver dogs stopped astatine Flores' country and alerted to the scent of decease adjacent his bed.

Archaeologists who utilized crushed penetrating radar and dug up the ungraded beneath Ruben Flores' backmost deck, said they recovered indications the ungraded had been disturbed successful a mode akin to a gravesite.

Cindy Arrington, an archaeologist with Natural Investigations, Inc., said she recovered a “clear subsurface disturbance” and “a ample anomaly” that was “large capable to acceptable quality remains into,” the Tribune of San Luis Obispo reported.

Under cross-examination, she said determination were nary bones oregon teeth. Arrington said that she had ne'er examined a burial tract wherever nary remains were found. Prosecutors person said the assemblage was moved.

Superior Court Judge Craig van Rooyen prevented prosecutors from presenting grounds astatine the proceeding that Paul Flores allegedly drugged and raped 4 women and engaged successful dozens of acts including stalking, unwanted touching and assertive intersexual behavior.

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Some women who spoke with constabulary said Flores was referred to arsenic “Chester the molester” and “psycho Paul.”

The justice said the grounds had constricted relevance to the execution lawsuit and risked creating greater prejudice against Flores.

When Flores archetypal spoke with police, helium downplayed his interactions with Smart astatine the enactment and connected the locomotion home. He said she walking to her dorm nether her ain power, though different witnesses said Flores was helping clasp her up and she had been passed retired earlier successful the night.

William Hanley, caput of the territory attorney's investigative bureau successful 1996, said Flores yet stopped cooperating with authorities.

When Hanley asked Flores what helium thought happened to Smart, helium said she had near with idiosyncratic and "he thinks she’s dead,” Hanley said.

Defense lawyer Robert Sanger, who represents Paul Flores, said determination was nary existent grounds successful the case.

Defense lawyer Harold Mesick, who represents the father, said prosecutors tried to overgarment “lipstick connected a pig,” KSBY-TV reported.

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