Mugshot unsealed in Kristin Smart case shows Paul Flores with black eye

Editor’s Note: This is another in a series of stories examining hundreds of improperly sealed documents in the Kristin Smart trial. The Tribune obtained the documents by joining with three other media companies to form a coalition that took the issue to court. The coalition won its argument, and the documents were unsealed.

Only two days after Kristin Smart disappeared from Cal Poly after attending a house party, the primary suspect in her murder turned himself in to police for an outstanding warrant for allegedly driving drunk, newly released court documents show.

He was photographed with a black eye — an injury that would become a key detail in the case after he lied about its origin.

On Memorial Day 1996, Paul Flores was driven to the Arroyo Grande Police Department station by his father, Ruben Flores, “to handle a warrant that was outstanding for his DUI arrest from February 1996,” according to the documents.

The arresting officer, future Arroyo Grande Police Chief Beau Pryor, took a mugshot photo of Paul Flores — one that shows the then-Cal Poly student with a black eye.

That black eye has been a major topic throughout the murder trial against Flores, who’s accused of killing Smart — chiefly because the younger Flores told law enforcement several different stories on how he came to have the bruise.

The trial against Flores and his father, who’s accused of helping his son hide Smart’s body, began in Monterey County Superior Court in July.

It has included testimony from dozens of witnesses, including former Cal Poly students, cadaver dog experts, law enforcement investigators and women who claim to have been assaulted by Flores.

On Tuesday, the defense rested its case; closing arguments are scheduled for Monday and Tuesday.

Why was Paul Flores at police station days after Smart disappearance?

Details of Flores’ 1996 DUI case have not previously been made public.

In May 2021, soon after Flores was arrested on suspicion of murder, San Luis Obispo Superior Court staff confirmed to The Tribune that a DUI case against Flores was filed on Feb. 6, 1996 — but the case had since been purged from court records due to its age. As a result, details were no longer public.

Unsealed court documents, including Flores’ interviews with law enforcement during the Smart investigation, reveal more details.

According to documents included in a motion to introduce the mugshot of Flores with a black eye in the Smart trial, Flores arrived at the Arroyo Grande police station sometime before 11 p.m. on Monday, May 27, 1996.

Flores was arrested on an outstanding arrest and on suspicion of failure to appear, according to the documents. His occupation was listed on the arrest report as “Cal Poly student.”

Pryor, who at the time was an officer with the department, prepared the arrest report.

“He came into the AGPD to turn himself in for an outstanding arrest warrant,” Pryor wrote on the report, referring to Flores. “I arrested Flores for warrant No. M242916.”

Flores was then released on $1,500 bail, with a court date set for June of that year, according to the documents. His license was also suspended, according to the report.

Details of Flores’ DUI arrest were not included in the unsealed report.

In an interview with investigators with the Cal Poly Police Department and San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office on May 30, 1996 — five days after Smart’s disappearance — Flores told investigators he had been arrested for a DUI in February and missed a court date.

He added that he “drove without a license.”

“So then uh, on Sunday night I went to — no, Monday night, I went to the Arroyo Grande police station to have them ... post my bail,” Flores said, according to a transcript of the interview.

He also alluded to meeting with university police several days prior and bringing the DUI to their attention at that time.

According to notes from the Cal Poly police investigation into Smart’s disappearance, the agency previously contacted Flores on May 28, 1996, at about 5 p.m. and Flores was visibly nervous.

“He said he thought we were going to arrest him for a warrant that was outstanding,” the notes read. “He said he paid the bail on the warrant and had a receipt.”

The transcript from Flores’ June 1996 interview with Sheriff’s Office and San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office investigators also alludes to the DUI, but doesn’t disclose further details.

How did Paul Flores get black eye? Story changes in interviews

The unsealed documents help to create a timeline for the black eye Flores had during initial interviews with law enforcement at the start of the Smart investigation.

The origin of that injury has been closely scrutinized over the decades.

In Flores’ mugshot from his Arroyo Grande arrest, a bruise can clearly be seen under his eye.

Notes from the Cal Poly police investigation note “a slight discoloration, yellowish, under his right eye” when officers first contacted Flores the day after he came to the Arroyo Grande police station: May 28, 1996.

When asked about the bruise during his May 30, 1996, interview with Cal Poly police and the Sheriff’s Office, Flores said he “got elbowed playing basketball” with friends the previous Monday.

Flores added he was with a friend on the night of Saturday, May 25, 1996 — and that the friend could back up that he didn’t have a black eye at that time.

Smart was last seen leaving a party around 2 a.m. that Saturday.

In his June 1996 interview with the Sheriff’s Office and District Attorney’s Office investigators a few weeks later, investigators pressed Flores on how he got the bruise and he admitted he had lied about its origin that May.

Instead of getting the black eye while playing basketball, as he had previously claimed, Flores said he got it while removing the radio in his truck early on the morning of Memorial Day 1996.

Flores said he went to pull some wires from the truck and hit the steering wheel with his face.

When asked why he lied about it, Flores said “because it doesn’t sound like a likely thing” and would make him “sound like a klutz,” according to the interview transcripts.

Flores seems to have told a number of different stories on how he got the black eye.

According to the transcripts, investigators told Flores in June 1996 they had heard from a friend who said Flores told them he didn’t know how he received it.

Meanwhile, a former Cal Poly student testified during the Smart murder trial on Aug. 4 that Flores told him he got the black eye because somebody pushed him at a party.

A report of a 1998 analysis of photos showing Flores’ black eye was among the unsealed court documents obtained by The Tribune.

That analysis — conducted by Dr. Kusomoto, whose first name was not identified — analyzed the bruise’s potential origins and how old it may have been in the photos.

The report does not specify which photos were provided to Kusomoto or when they were taken.

According to the report, Kusomoto concluded the bruise could be “either accidental or non-accidental” and “could have been inflicted by having been hit by another person or by an object such as a basketball.”

The bruise could not have been caused by hitting a steering wheel, Kusomota said in the report.

The injury was three days old at the most — though potential fresher — at the time of the photographs, Kusomoto said.

This story was originally published September 30, 2022, 5:12 PM.

Kaytlyn Leslie

805-781-7928 (voicemails only)

Kaytlyn Leslie writes about business and development for The San Luis Obispo Tribune. Hailing from Nipomo, she also covers city governments and happenings in San Luis Obispo. She joined The Tribune in 2013 after graduating from Cal Poly with her journalism degree.