Paul Flores found guilty of the murder of Kristin Smart

A jury on Tuesday found Paul Flores guilty of the 1996 murder of 19-year-old Kristin Smart, according to media reports.

Flores, 45, was accused of killing Smart during an attempted rape when they were both students at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. 

His 81-year-old father, Ruben Flores, was accused of helping dispose of the body. A separate jury found Ruben Flores not guilty of accessory to murder also on Tuesday, per ABC News.

Smart went missing after she left an off-campus party accompanied by Paul Flores on May 25, 1996. Authorities never found her body, and she was declared dead in 2002.

Flores remained a suspect more than two decades later, when police searched his and his father’s homes. Both father and son were arrested in April 2021.

Flores’s sentencing is set for Dec. 9. He faces 25 years to life in prison, according to NBC News.