Key takeaways:
- Paul Flores was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for the 1996 murder of college student Kristin Smart.
- The case was thrust back into the public eye in 2019 with the launch of a podcast called “Your Own Backyard”.
- The sentencing of Flores marks a close to a nearly 27-year mystery and the Smart family expressed their hope that the sentence will bring them closure.
Paul Flores, 46, was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison without parole on Friday in a California court for the 1996 murder of college student Kristin Smart. Smart, a 19-year-old first-year student at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, vanished in 1996 and her body has never been located.
Flores was the last person to see Smart alive and prosecutors argued he raped or attempted to rape Smart and then killed her in his dorm room. A Monterey County jury found Flores guilty of first-degree murder in October.
The case was thrust back into the public eye in 2019 with the launch of a podcast called “Your Own Backyard”, which looked into Smart’s then-unsolved disappearance. The podcast sparked renewed interest in the case and prompted a renewed investigation by the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office.
The sentencing of Flores marks a close to a nearly 27-year mystery. San Luis Obispo County District Attorney Dan Dow said in a statement that “the sentence imposed today is a fitting end to a long and difficult journey for the Smart family and our community.”
The Smart family released a statement thanking the community for their support and expressing their hope that the sentence will bring them closure. “We are grateful to the jury for their verdict and to the court for the sentence imposed today,” the statement said. “We hope that this brings some closure to the Smart family and to the community.”
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