Paul Flores, who is serving a sentence of 25 years to life in prison for the 1996 murder of fellow Cal Poly student Kristin Smart, was reportedly stabbed and injured while in prison this week — and this is the second time he's been attacked in less than a year.
Flores was stabbed in the prison yard Wednesday at Pleasant Valley State Prison in Coalinga, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. As KPIX reports, Flores was stabbed by another inmate using a manufactured weapon, and needed to be transported for medical treatment at an outside facility.
Flores has since returned to the prison and is said to be in fair condition.
Flores's brief time in the Coalinga prison has not been easy, as we also heard that he was physically attacked by another inmate last August. Flores was subsequently hospitalized in serious condition. This was not long after Flores had been transferred to Pleasant Valley.
We later learned that Flores's attacker, Jason Budrow, also killed his former roommate at the prison, I-5 Strangler Roger Reece Kibbe.
Flores was sentenced in March 2023 to 25 years to life for the killing of Smart, whose body has still never been found. Smart disappeared after leaving an off-campus party in 1996 with Flores and two other friends, and Flores had been the last one seen with her, walking in the direction of his dorm.
Flores and his father, Ruben Flores, went on trial in the summer of 2022 after 26 years of being the prime suspect in the case. Circumstantial as well as physical evidence strongly suggested that Flores had killed Smart in his dorm room, likely after an attempted sexual assault, and had then gotten help from family members to dispose of her body. Investigators found traces of blood in some disturbed soil under a deck at the elder Flores's house, and it's believed that Smart's remains were moved sometime in early 2021 as investigators were closing in on the property.
Multiple former acquaintances of Paul Flores testified at trial, including a woman who recalled Flores bragging in front of friends about burying Smart's body after she had been a "dick tease."
Flores was convicted in October 2022, and his father was acquitted of accessory charges.
Previously: Kristin Smart's Convicted Killer Paul Flores Gets Attacked In Prison