Kristin Smart’s case was solved 26 years later.
After deliberating for two weeks, jurors found Paul Flores guilty on Tuesday and convicted him of first-degree murder of Smart, a college freshman at Polytechnic State University, who disappeared in 1996.
Paul Flores was the last known person to see Smart alive as he walked her home from a college party Memorial Day weekend that year, per the New York Post.
Prosecutors said that on the night of May 25, 1996, Paul Flores tried to rape Smart, which likely took place in her dorm room, and killed her.
When investigators interviewed him, Paul Flores who was also a freshman in college at the time, had a black eye which he claimed he got after playing pickup basketball, per court records that the New York Post cites. However, Paul Flores later claimed that he hit his head working on his car, per court records.
Paul Flores’ attorney, Robert Sanger, claimed that someone else killed Smart, and during the trial, he revealed that Scott Peterson also attended the same school when the murder occurred.
Scott Peterson was later convicted of murdering his wife, Laci, and their unborn son, Conner, in 2004.
“This case was not prosecuted for all these years because there’s no evidence. It’s sad Kristin Smart disappeared, and she may have gone out on her own, but who knows?” Sanger said.
Paul Flores’ father, Reuben Flores, was acquitted of charges alleging that he helped his son cover up the crime.
He was accused of burying Smart in his yard and investigators found blood and soil that was interfered with under his deck, but were unable to link it to Smart through DNA testing.
When asked if he had any words for Smart’s family, Reuben Flores said, per KSBY-TV, “I feel bad for them because they didn’t get no answers about what happened to their daughter and we don’t know what happened to their daughter.”
After the verdict was read, Smart’s mother and sister cried “for several minutes” and her father and brother looked “relieved,” as KSBY-TV reported.
Paul Flores will officially be sentenced on Dec. 9. and faces 25 years to life.