Kristin Smart Case: Paul Flores successful in getting murder trial moved to Montery County

A California choose on Wednesday allowed the trial for deceased Kristin Sensible‘s accused killer Paul Flores to be moved about 150 miles away from its unique location in San Luis Obispo County.

Flores, 45 is accused of murdering Sensible, who was legally declared lifeless in 2002 after she was initially reported lacking in Might 1996.

Authorities stated Flores was the final individual seen with Sensible when he walked her dwelling after a celebration on Might 25, 1996. They had been each 19 on the time and college students at California Polytechnic State College.

San Luis Obispo County Superior Court docket Decide Craig van Rooyen stated Wednesday that the trial can be moved to Monterey County after receiving steerage from the Judicial Council of California, which decided two potential places for the trial, together with Monterey County. Rooyen didn’t identify the opposite location, in accordance with KEYT, a neighborhood FOX, CBS and ABC-affiliated station.

Kristin Sensible went lacking on Might 25, 1996 whereas attending California Polytechnic State College, San Luis Obispo and has not been heard from since. 
(Axel Koester/Sygma through Getty Photographs)

Flores’ protection group filed a movement in March asking for the trial to be moved out of San Luis Obispo County in March attributable to heightened media and group consideration on the case in that space, the outlet reported.

Robert Sanger, an legal professional for Flores, additionally filed a movement on Wednesday, requesting that the court docket assist Flores’ protection receive proof from the prosecution, together with three dozen soil samples that could be re-tested, in accordance with KEYT.

Kristin Sensible went lacking on Might 25, 1996 whereas attending California Polytechnic State College, San Luis Obispo and has not been heard from since.
( Axel Koester/Sygma through Getty Photographs)

Paul and his 80-year-old father, Ruben Flores, had been arrested in April 2021 in connection to Sensible’s disappearance. Prosecutors say Paul Flores killed Sensible whereas making an attempt to rape her in his dorm room and the elder Flores helped get rid of her physique, which has by no means been discovered.

Flores pleaded not responsible to the suspected first-degree homicide of Sensible. His 80-year-old father, Ruben Flores, pleaded not responsible to being an adjunct to homicide.

Paul Flores, on the left, was charged with homicide. Ruben Flores, on the proper, was charged with accent after the very fact. 
(Courtesy | San Luis Obispo County Jail)

Throughout a preliminary listening to in 2021, prosecutors offered proof that traces of Sensible’s physique, together with human blood, had been as soon as discovered beneath a deck shielded by lattice behind Ruben Flores’s dwelling. Prosecutors stated the physique had been moved from that location, and it has not been positioned since.

Van Rooyen stated on the time that with the dearth of DNA, “nothing hyperlinks it definitively to Ms. Sensible,” however added that he had “a powerful suspicion it was Ms. Sensible’s stays.”

Fox Information’ Stephen Sorace, Louis Casiano and The Related Press contributed to this report.