LOS ANGELES (AP) 鈥 The father of Kristin Smart, the California Central Coast college student who vanished from campus 26 years ago, says a murder conviction hasn't ended the 鈥渁gonizingly long journey" to find the truth about his daughter.
鈥淲ithout Kristin, there鈥檚 no joy or happiness in this verdict,鈥 Smart鈥檚 father, Stan Smart, said at a news conference after a jury on Tuesday found Paul Flores 鈥 the last man seen with Smart 鈥 guilty of first-degree murder.
Prosecutors , then 19, while trying to rape her in his dormitory room at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, where they were first-year students. His attorney argued that prosecutors used an outlandish conspiracy theory and 鈥渏unk science" to accuse him and his father, who was charged with concealing Smart's body to hide the crime.
Flores, who is 45, could face 25 years to life in prison when he is sentenced on Dec. 9. His attorney, Robert Sanger, declined to comment on the verdict Tuesday.
A day earlier, a separate jury acquitted Ruben Flores, 81, who was under the deck of his house in the nearby community of Arroyo Grande for years but later digging up and moving it.
Her body has never been found.
Both verdicts were announced Tuesday.
鈥淎fter 26 years, with today鈥檚 split verdict, we learned that our quest for justice for Kristin will continue,鈥 Smart's father said. 鈥淭his has been an agonizingly long journey, with more downs than ups."
However, he also thanked both juries for their diligence and said his faith in the justice system 鈥渉as been renewed."
鈥淜now that your spirit lives on in each and every one of us, everyday," he said of his daughter. 鈥淣ot a single day goes by that you aren鈥檛 missed, remembered, loved and celebrated.鈥
Smart over Memorial Day weekend in 1996. The father and son weren鈥檛 arrested until 2021. Their attorneys had suggested that someone else killed her or even that she may still be alive, although Smart was legally declared dead in 2002.
San Luis Obispo County Sheriff Ian Parkinson told reporters that the search for Smart's remains will continue.
鈥淭his case will not be over until Kristin is returned home, and we have committed to that from the beginning,鈥 he said. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 take a breath. We do not put this aside.鈥
Paul Flores was seen with Smart on May 25, 1996. The defense said Flores was seen helping Smart walk to her dorm after she became drunk at an off-campus party. Prosecutors suggested she may have been drugged and that Flores took her to his own room where he killed her during an attempted rape.
Paul Flores had long been considered a suspect in the killing. He had a black eye when investigators interviewed him. He told them he got it playing basketball with friends, who denied his account, according to court records. He later changed his story to say he bumped his head while working on his car.
During Paul Flores' trial, the prosecution also told jurors that four cadaver dogs had alerted to the 鈥渟mell of death on his mattress鈥 but Sanger called it 鈥渏unk science" and noted there wasn't any forensic evidence of Smart having been in the room.
鈥淭his case was not prosecuted for all these years because there鈥檚 no evidence,鈥 Sanger said during closing arguments. 鈥淚t鈥檚 sad Kristin Smart disappeared, and she may have gone out on her own, but who knows?鈥
Investigators conducted dozens of fruitless searches for Smart鈥檚 body over two decades. In the past two years they turned their attention to Ruben Flores鈥 home.
Behind latticework beneath the deck of his large house on a dead end street, archaeologists working for police in March 2021 found a soil disturbance about the size of a casket and the presence of human blood, prosecutors said. The blood was too degraded to extract a DNA sample.
After Tuesday's verdict, Ruben Flores maintained that both he and his son are innocent and said he feels badly that Smart鈥檚 family will never have a resolution. He said the case was about feelings, not facts.
鈥淲e don鈥檛 know what happened to their daughter,鈥 he told reporters.
鈥淭hey鈥檝e had searches and everything,鈥 he said. 鈥淭hey come to my house and say she was buried here, and that鈥檚 a surprise to me.鈥
鈥淗e should have never been charged,鈥 said his attorney, Harold Mesick. 鈥淚t would be nice if the community would actually honor the presumption of innocence. There is so much animosity toward this man and his family.鈥
The trial was held in Salinas, 110 miles (177 kilometers) north of San Luis Obispo. after the defense argued that it was unlikely the Floreses could receive a fair trial with so much notoriety in the city of about 47,000 people.
