Monterey County Superior Court will host the trial in a 25-year-old murder case.

Cal Poly student Kristin Smart’s unsolved disappearance in 1996 has remained a live wire, sparking more than 25 years of investigations, newspaper stories and highway billboards. Smart’s body was never recovered, but in April 2021, the San Luis Obispo Sheriff’s Department arrested Paul Flores for murder, and his father, Ruben Flores, as an accomplice. The Floreses are now set to get their day in court, and Monterey County Superior Court in Salinas will play host.

Monterey County Judge Jennifer O’Keefe will oversee the trial after a SLO County judge decided that, given that the case has been so high-profile for decades, there was a good chance a jury of locals would be biased against the Floreses. Jury selection is set to begin on Monday, June 20, and the trial on July 6.

Christopher George Peuvrelle, a deputy with the San Luis Obispo District Attorney’s Office, will lead the prosecution. The Floreses will be defended by Robert and Sarah Sanger of the Santa Barbara firm Sanger, Swysen & Dunkle.

Paul Flores, 45, who was the last person witnesses saw with Smart on the Cal Poly campus, is charged with murdering Smart on May 25, 1996. Ruben Flores, 81, is charged as an accessory to the crime after the fact for helping to hide the body. The prosecution argues her body was buried near some avocado trees at Ruben Flores’ Arroyo Grande home, but was eventually dug up and moved.

Chris Ruhl, executive officer at Monterey County Superior Court, says court employees have been placed under a broad gag order and cannot discuss any aspects of the case. An order from O’Keefe, which reiterates courthouse policy prohibiting unauthorized photos or video in the courthouse and says no hallway disruptions will be tolerated, indicates the court is expecting some fanfare attached to the case.

It is uncommon for a case to be tried outside of the jurisdiction of the alleged crime; however, there have been a couple of high-profile examples for Monterey County. In 1993, a local jury gave 64-year-old Dorothea Puente a life sentence for killing three residents she hosted in her Sacramento boarding house in the 1980s. Police dug up seven bodies around the Sacramento boarding home, some of which were buried under an avocado tree in her garden.

In July 2021, a Monterey County jury sentenced Rex Krebs to death for the murder of two college students in San Luis Obispo – Rachel Newhouse in 1998 and Aundria Crawford in 1999.