Friend of Kristin Smart says Flores behaved strangely, lurked around dorm room during testimony
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. (KION and KEYT) Paul and Ruben Flores appeared in a San Luis Obispo courtroom Tuesday for the second day of their preliminary hearing of the Kristin Smart murder case.
KION's sister station in the area, KEYT, reports that Steven Flemming, a friend of Smart and a resident of the Muir Hall dorm where she lived when she was a freshman at Cal Poly, took the stand.
Flemming reportedly told prosecutors that he had seen Paul Flores lurking around Smart's dorm room and saw him inside the room once. KEYT reports that Flemming described Flores' behavior as creepy and weird.
Two suspects arrested in the disappearance of Kristin Smart, San Luis Obispo County sheriff says
Prosecutors accuse Paul Flores of killing Smart during an attempted rape in a Cal Poly dorm room in May 1996, and investigators believe Ruben Flores helped to hide Smart's body. She has never been found.
Prosecutor: Missing student killed during 1996 rape attempt
On Monday, Paul Flores' defense attorney, Robert Sanger, said Smart struggled academically at Cal Poly and was in danger of flunking out, according to KEYT. He previously said that she may still be alive. Flemming testified Tuesday that Smart had struggled in school before her disappearance.
Smart's parents, Stan and Denise Smart, testified on Monday. Denise Smart spike about Kristin's close relationship to the family and the struggle they went through as they tried to find her after her disappearance. She said the last time they heard from their daughter was in a voicemail she left just before the disappearance.
Stan Smart said he spent months looking for his daughter after she disappeared and said that he was unsatisfied at first with the response from Cal Poly police, who said she may have gone camping. He said the lack of information led him to the home of Ruben Flores, the father of Paul Flores. KEYT reports that he said he went to the Arroyo Grande home after he found out that Paul had been questioned by police, and he said Flores told him to leave or "someone could get shot."
Investigators believe Kristin Smart’s body was buried and ‘recently’ moved, court document says
Paul Flores' mother, Susan Flores, reportedly invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and chose not to testify.
The preliminary hearing is expected to take three weeks, and when it is over, a judge will decide whether there is enough evidence for the case to go to trial.
