Ruben Flores and the Kristin Smart Case: Acquittal and Civil Suit

Ruben Flores’s role in the Kristin Smart case was as the father of the man convicted of her murder and as a co-defendant accused of helping hide her body. He was charged in April 2021 as an accessory after the fact to murder, tried alongside his son Paul in Monterey County before separate juries, and acquitted on October 18, 2022. Smart’s remains have never been found.

Why Prosecutors Focused on Ruben Flores

Paul Flores was the last person seen with Kristin Smart in the early morning of May 25, 1996, near the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo campus. He was identified as a person of interest almost immediately, but the case went cold for years.

New leads surfaced through Chris Lambert’s podcast “Your Own Backyard,” which San Luis Obispo County Sheriff Ian Parkinson credited with producing information valuable to investigators. A former colleague of Paul’s mother, Susan Flores, told Lambert that Susan had said Ruben left the house in the middle of the night after a phone call shortly after the weekend Smart went missing. A former tenant at Susan Flores’s property said she had heard a digital watch alarm beeping at 4:20 a.m. daily from the backyard, a detail that mattered to investigators because Smart set an early alarm for lifeguard shifts.¹

Prosecutors developed a theory that Smart’s body had been buried beneath a deck at Ruben Flores’s Arroyo Grande home and remained there until February 2020, when it was moved shortly before a search warrant was served.² A civil lawsuit later filed by Smart’s parents alleged Ruben Flores and two unnamed individuals moved the remains on February 9, 2020, to prevent discovery.³

Arrest, Charge, and Bail

Ruben Flores was arrested at his Arroyo Grande home on April 13, 2021, the same day Paul Flores was arrested in San Pedro. The next day, the San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office charged Ruben Flores as an accessory after the fact to murder, alleging he had helped conceal Smart’s body.⁴

Deputies executed a search warrant at his property in the 700 block of White Court, spending two days searching with power tools, cadaver dogs, and ground-penetrating radar.⁵ Investigators reported finding biological evidence indicating the victim had been buried under the deck at one time and believed the body had recently been moved.⁶

Bail was initially set at $250,000. On April 21, 2021, Superior Court Judge Craig Van Rooyen reduced it to $50,000 after defense attorney Harold Mesick cited his client’s age (80) and recent triple bypass heart surgery. Flores was released on conditions that included an electronic ankle monitor, surrendering his passport, and remaining within San Luis Obispo County.⁵

The Trial and Dual Juries

After a 22-day preliminary hearing in the fall of 2021, both defendants were bound over for trial. Judge Van Rooyen granted a change of venue due to pretrial publicity, moving the case to Monterey County, where Judge Jennifer O’Keefe presided at the Salinas Valley Courthouse.⁷

Because statements Paul Flores made in a 1996 interview could implicate his father, Judge O’Keefe ordered dual juries. Each defendant had a 12-member jury with eight alternates, drawn from a pool of 1,520. Ruben Flores’s panel was removed from the courtroom when testimony applied only to Paul. Jury selection began on June 20, 2022; opening statements followed on July 6.⁸

What the Prosecution Showed

At trial, prosecutors identified a roughly six-foot-by-four-foot anomaly beneath the deck at Ruben Flores’s home. Soil samples from that area tested positive for human blood.⁹ Ground-penetrating radar had been used across 11 areas of the backyard, and four were excavated. Investigators reported soil staining consistent with human decomposition at a depth of about two to two-and-a-half feet, fibers matching what Smart was wearing, and signs the ground had been recently dug up and refilled.¹⁰ Forensic serologist Angela Butler testified that the soil samples tested positive for human blood, although no DNA was detected.¹¹

Prosecutors also referenced an encounter from 1996, when Kristin Smart’s father visited Ruben Flores’s home to ask about his daughter. Ruben reportedly told him to leave or “someone will get shot.”¹¹

How the Defense Answered

Mesick told jurors the theory was “ludicrous,” arguing that after 26 years of “FBI stings, wiretaps, search warrants, excavations, seers, and ‘wonder dogs,'” there was still no definitive evidence of what happened to Smart. He described his client as a Navy veteran who had volunteered with the Redondo Beach Police Department, had once received a commendation from the FBI for helping with a bank robbery investigation, had been named citizen of the year, and belonged to the Elks Lodge.¹²¹³

The defense attacked the physical evidence. A forensic expert called by the defense, Dr. Elizabeth Johnson, testified that the positive blood results were likely false positives because blood breaks down in soil over time, and she noted that the soil’s pH had never been tested even though pH affects the reliability of the blood test used.²¹³¹⁴

Trial coverage gives no indication that Ruben Flores testified in his own defense.

The Verdict

On October 18, 2022, both juries returned their verdicts at the same time. Paul Flores was found guilty of first-degree murder. Ruben Flores was found not guilty of being an accessory after the fact.¹⁵

Ruben’s jury had actually reached its verdict a day earlier, on October 17, but the decision was sealed while Paul’s jury continued deliberating; Paul’s panel took nearly two weeks to reach a unanimous verdict.¹⁶ Ruben Flores showed no visible reaction as the verdict was read. Outside the courthouse, he told reporters, “I am relieved and I’m worried about my son, of course,” and said of Kristin Smart’s family, “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.”¹⁵

Civil Suit and Asset Transfers

The acquittal ended the criminal exposure but not the civil one. In April 2021, shortly after the arrests, Kristin Smart’s parents, Stan and Denise Smart, filed a civil suit against Ruben Flores alleging intentional infliction of emotional distress. The suit accused him of repeatedly hiding and moving their daughter’s remains, preventing the family from burying her. The Smarts were represented by attorney James Murphy.³ By September 2023, attorneys for both sides indicated the civil cases (which also included a longstanding wrongful death action against Paul Flores filed in 2002) were headed toward settlement within roughly 60 days.¹⁷

Ruben and Susan Flores had established the Flores Family Living Trust in May 2011 to hold their Arroyo Grande properties. After the April 2021 arrests, the family moved ownership stakes in the Arroyo Grande homes and in Paul’s San Pedro residence between themselves and the trust. Two weeks after Paul’s sentencing in March 2023, Susan and Ruben purchased Paul’s San Pedro home through the trust, removing that asset from reach for restitution to the Smart family.¹⁸

In February 2023, Ruben Flores was approved for a $2.35 million reverse mortgage on his Arroyo Grande home. Legal analysts noted that because the trust is revocable, it generally would not shield assets from creditors of the trust’s beneficiaries, but the transfers complicated collection. In June 2024, a judge ordered Paul Flores to pay approximately $351,159 in restitution to the Smart family, with 10% annual interest; the California Department of Corrections collects 50% of his prison wages toward the balance. Denise Smart publicly offered to waive the restitution if the Flores family provided information leading to her daughter’s remains. Mesick declined on the family’s behalf, saying they did not know where the remains are.¹⁹

The 2026 Search and Where Ruben Flores Stands

Kristin Smart’s remains have never been found. In May 2026, investigators served a new search warrant, this time at the Arroyo Grande home of Susan Flores on East Branch Street, prompted by soil vapor sampling that detected volatile organic compounds “consistent with the possible presence of human remains,” according to Sheriff Parkinson. Investigators secured a follow-up warrant on May 8, excavated the side yard, removed concrete pavers, and sifted soil. The search concluded on May 9, 2026, after four days. Deputies recovered “several items considered evidentiary in nature,” but no human remains.²⁰²¹

No new search warrants or legal actions against Ruben Flores have been reported in connection with the 2026 search.²² Because he was acquitted in 2022, double jeopardy bars a retrial on the accessory charge; his continuing exposure has been civil rather than criminal.

1
KCRA. Kristin Smart Case: Podcaster Helped California Cops Solve Cold Case Killing
2
KSBY. Forensic Expert Questioned About Soil Sample Evidence From Ruben Flores Property
3
Courthouse News Service. Kristin Smart’s Parents Sue Man They Say Moved Her Body
4
San Luis Obispo County District Attorney. Paul Flores and His Father Ruben Charged for 1996 Disappearance
5
Lompoc Record. Kristin Smart Case: Ruben Flores Released on Bail From SLO County Jail
6
San Luis Obispo Tribune. Ruben Flores Arrest and Bail Details
7
San Luis Obispo Tribune. Kristin Smart Murder Trial: Jury Details
8
KSBY. Paul, Ruben Flores Make First Monterey Co. Court Appearance
9
KTLA. Signs of Human Remains Found at Mother of Kristin Smart Killer’s Home
10
KSBY. Testimony Thursday Will Wrap Up Week 6 of Flores Preliminary Hearing
11
San Luis Obispo Tribune. Flores Preliminary Hearing Details
12
KCRA. Kristin Smart Murder Trial: Ruben Flores Defense
13
KEYT. Closing Arguments for Ruben Flores Begin in Kristin Smart Murder Trial
14
Los Angeles Times. Kristin Smart Murder Trial: Prosecutors Show Graphic Images
15
KSBY. Jurors Reach Verdicts in Kristin Smart Murder Trial
16
ABC News. Kristin Smart Verdict: Paul Flores Guilty
17
San Luis Obispo Tribune. Kristin Smart Civil Lawsuits Headed Toward Settlement
18
San Luis Obispo Tribune. Flores Family Asset Transfers and Restitution
19
San Luis Obispo Tribune. Restitution Ruling in Kristin Smart Case
20
Noozhawk. SLO Sheriff Says Kristin Smart Search Turned Up Several Items at Arroyo Grande Home
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San Luis Obispo Tribune. Kristin Smart Search Concludes Without Remains
22
Los Angeles Times. Kristin Smart Search Resumes in SLO County