Content warning: This story discusses sexual assault.
After more than 26 years since Kristin Smart's disappearance, a verdict has been reached in her murder case.
A jury found Paul Flores guilty of first-degree murder in connection to the 1996 disappearance of the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo student. In July, Paul went on trial after prosecutors accused him of killing the 19-year-old while attempting to sexually assault her during the early hours of May 25, 1996. He had pleaded not guilty.
Paul's father, Ruben Flores, was found not guilty of being an accessory to Kristin's murder after authorities accused him of helping Paul bury Kristin's body in the backyard of his Arroyo Grande, Calif. home. He had pleaded not guilty.
In an Oct. 18 press conference following the verdict, Ruben's attorney Harold Mesick stated he was "pleased with the outcome."
"It would be nice if the community would honor the presumptive of innocence. There is just so much animosity toward this man and his family and there is so much hate," Mesick said. "I understand people are upset that Kristin is missing. I wish the community would disabuse themselves of those feelings."
Meanwhile, Paul's defense attorney Robert Sanger told E! News in an email that the matter was still pending and that he does not comment on pending cases.
In a press release, San Luis Obispo County's District Attorney Dan Dow said the verdict will provide "some sense of justice" for Kristin, her family and the local community.
"The impact that Kristin's disappearance and its investigation have had on the Smart family and our community, spanning a quarter century, is profound," Dow said. "We thank them for the tremendous trust and patience they have placed in the investigation and prosecution of this terrible crime. Today, justice delayed is not justice denied."
In court, Deputy District Attorney Christopher Peuvrelle said Kristin was "too nice" to stand up to Paul, alleging, "What we would see as kindness, he would see as a d-ck tease. In his predatory, vile, rapist mind, that's what he saw her as," per broadcast station KRON4.
Paul did not testify at the trial, according to KRON4, and Sanger said during the trial that prosecutors had "no evidence of a murder" and that Peuvrelle's argument was riddled with "conspiracy theories."
Though Kristin's body has not been found, Paul and Ruben were arrested and charged in April 2021 after a county probation report seen by The San Luis Obispo Tribune revealed that authorities said they had "damning evidence that a body had been buried in that location and then recently moved." During the trial, prosecutors used evidence of Kristin's alleged burial location to guide their argument.
"For crimes that happen in a bedroom, there are no witnesses. But ground-penetrating radar, a forensic archeologist, and a lab supervisor tell us what Kristin could not. We don't have a full intact body in this case, but we have her blood," Peuvrelle told the jury in his Oct. 4 closing argument. "A couple grains of bloody sand. That's all the Smart family has left of their daughter."
The conclusion in the case comes after 26 years of unresolved questions of what happened to the free-spirited Kristin—who was a freshman in college at the time—on the night of May 24, 1996 when she did not return to her dorm room after going out for a party Friday night.
According to KRON4, at the trial, Cheryl Anderson said during her testimony that she and another student joined Kristin and Paul as they walked home from the party. Cheryl said she last saw Kristin with Paul, as they headed in the direction of Paul's dorm Santa Lucia Hall, and not Kristin's Muir Hall dorm.
Kristin's roommate Crystal Calvin said during her testimony that she contacted law enforcement after not hearing from Kristin and seeing that Kristin had left behind all her personal belongings, per broadcast station KSBY6. Calvin said that law enforcement didn't initially take her concerns seriously.
Mounting frustration followed Kristin's disappearance as years went by and her family still had no answer as to what happened to their daughter. The college student was legally declared dead in 2002 at 25 years old.
The 2019 podcast Your Own Backyard, hosted by Chris Lambert, brought renewed interest to the case.
Upon Paul's arrest in 2021, nearing Kristin's 25th anniversary of her disappearance, her family issued a statement.
"We now put our faith in the justice system and move forward," the statement read, "comforted in the knowledge that Kristin has been held in the hearts of so many and that she has not been forgotten."