Prosecutors maintained that Flores, now 46, killed Smart during an attempted rape on May 25, 1996, in his dorm room at the university, where both were first-year students. He was the last person seen with Smart as he walked her home from an off-campus party.The trial was held in Salinas, in Monterey County, about 110 miles north of San Luis Obispo, after the defense argued that the case's notoriety prevented Flores and his father from receiving a fair trial in their own county.
At Paul Flores' trial, defense attorney Robert Sanger tried to pin the killing on someone else. Sanger noted that, who was later convicted at a sensational trial of murdering his pregnant wife and the fetus she was carrying, was also a student at the campus about 200 miles up the coast from Los Angeles.
Sanger disputed forensic evidence offered by the prosecution. He contended that Flores' right to a fair trial was violated because of prosecution errors and “the admission of junk science as evidence.”“There is a reason that a case against Paul Flores was not brought for 25 years,” the motion said. “There was no evidence of a murder or that Paul Flores committed it.”
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. He later changed his story to say he bumped his head while working on his car, according to court records.
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