‘Your Own Backyard’ podcaster won’t take stand during Kristin Smart hearing. Here’s why
A podcaster credited with renewing interest in the 1996 disappearance of Cal Poly freshman Kristin Smart will not have to testify in court, a San Luis Obispo Superior Court judge ruled Wednesday.
Chris Lambert, whose “Your Own Backyard” podcast explores the Smart case, was initially called to testify by the defense team for the man accused of murdering Smart.
That move was quashed by Superior Court Judge Craig van Rooyen on Wednesday, with van Rooyen saying to compel Lambert to testify and release his records would have a “chilling effect” on reporters’ abilities to communicate freely with sources.
Testimony resumed Wednesday in the weeks-long preliminary hearing for Paul Flores and his father, Ruben Flores, who are accused in Smart’s disappearance.
Paul Flores, now 44, is the last person known to have seen the 19-year-old freshman alive after walking her back from the party toward the Cal Poly campus residence halls on May 24, 1996.
Smart’s body has never been found, but investigators said in court documents that her remains were buried at Ruben Flores’ Arroyo Grande home but recently moved.
Ruben Flores, 80, is charged with felony accessory after the fact, while his son, San Pedro resident Paul Flores, is charged with one count of murder.
Wednesday marked the 20th day of proceedings as the evidentiary hearing progresses into its sixth week.
The hearing, which began Aug. 2, is tentatively scheduled to conclude Friday, but the parties indicated Wednesday that witness testimony may remain to be heard following this week.
At the conclusion of the weeks-long preliminary hearing, Superior Court Judge Craig van Rooyen will rule whether prosecutors established probable cause — a lesser standard of proof than guilt beyond a reasonable doubt — to proceed the case toward trial.
Here’s what happened in court Wednesday.
‘Your Own Backyard’ podcast creator won’t testify during hearing
On Wednesday morning, the court heard arguments over the defense’s subpoena for testimony and records of Chris Lambert, whose “Your Own Backyard” podcast investigated the case. Lambert, through his attorney, had filed a motion to quash the subpoena and not testify.
The defense had previously argued that Lambert attempted to influence the testimony of witnesses, namely Jennifer Hudson, who testified that Lambert told her not to tell investigators of their conversations.
Attorney Robert Sanger said Wednesday that the defense has no way of knowing what Lambert told witnesses in the case without putting the podcaster on the stand and having access to his notes and recordings.
“(Lambert) has the cloak of a journalist sometimes while doing his podcast ... but when he crosses over to someone trying to influence proceedings in this court, he is not protected,” Sanger said. “There’s no good reason to quash the subpoena.”
Lambert’s attorney, Diana Palacios, argued that Lambert is protected as a journalist by shield laws that allow him to refuse to testify, as well as the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Palacios also argued that the defense hasn’t showed that they couldn’t get the information they’re seeking from the witnesses who already testified.
She said the defense didn’t meet their threshold to compel Lambert’s testimony.
Palacios told judge the defense is trying “to trade off my client’s First Amendment rights” so that they can impeach previous witnesses.
“They want to impeach these witnesses, and that’s not enough,” she said.
Van Rooyen granted Lambert’s motion to quash the subpoena, and Lambert will not take the stand.
Serologist: Human blood found in soil — but no DNA
Also on Wednesday, the court heard testimony from Angela Butler, a forensic serologist who examined and tested soil samples collected under Ruben Flores’ deck following law enforcement searches there in March and April.
A forensic specialist for the Sheriff’s Office testified last week that she collected numerous soil samples in patches of dirt underneath the deck after dogs trained to detect human remains showed noticeable changes in behavior at those locations. The forensics specialist described staining within the soil indicative of a body having been buried there.
Butler, who works for the Serological Research Institute in Richmond, testified Wednesday that she received and examined samples in both March and April.
Butler explained that, as part of the process, she took presumptive tests to first detect the presence of human blood, then conducted confirmatory tests to verify the findings.
Several of the samples came back positive for the presence of blood, and several more came back with “weak positive” results. Other samples she examined also came back negative, she said.
She said the samples also contained fibers, though she did not conduct any tests on those because that was outside her expertise.
Under cross examination by Sanger, Butler said that she’s performed tests for the presence of blood thousands of times over her roughly 20-year career, but the Smart case represents just the fourth time she’s examined soil for the presence of blood.
Asked if, given the negative results, whether she was “100% certain” the soil contained traces of blood, Butler said, “That’s correct.”
However, the tests could not rule out that the blood was either primate or ferret blood, she said.
The tests also revealed no DNA evidence that would confirm the blood was human, Butler said.
Asked if she would expect to find DNA in blood samples, Butler said, “It depends.”
“In this instance it was damp. It had been out in the elements,” Butler said, adding that the age of a sample could also affect results, as could moisture, which can dilute a sample.
Butler said on the stand that she’s never seen a verified false positive for blood in her experience with the lab, but conceded that serological tests are “absolutely not” infallible.
Testimony is expected to resume Thursday morning.
This story was originally published September 8, 2021 at 11:37 AM with the headline "‘Your Own Backyard’ podcaster won’t take stand during Kristin Smart hearing. Here’s why."
