Kristin Smart trial: Woman says murder defendant Paul Flores raped her
Editor’s Note: This story contains details of sexual assault and may be troubling to some readers.
When Paul Flores was arrested in April 2021 on suspicion of murdering Cal Poly student Kristin Smart, a Redondo Beach woman recognized his photo.
He was her rapist, she said Wednesday in Monterey County Superior Court.
The woman, to whom the court referred as Ronda Doe, took the stand during the trial against Paul Flores, who is accused of killing Smart in 1996 and hiding her body with the help of his father, Ruben Flores.
Doe testified that she was raped by Paul Flores in 2008 after she met him outside a bar in Redondo Beach.
When she saw Flores’ photo in her news feed regarding his arrest in connection to Smart’s murder, she said she was “shocked.”
“I almost couldn’t breathe. I was in disbelief that it was the same person (who raped me),” she testified.
Kristin Smart trial: Woman says Paul Flores raped her
Doe testified that she lived in Grover Beach and attended Cal Poly from the fall quarter of 1995 through the winter or fall quarter of 1996, when she dropped out of the San Luis Obispo university. She lived in Grover Beach until some time in 1997, she said.
While Doe said she remembers hearing about Smart’s disappearance in 1996, she does not remember seeing any publicity about Flores’ potential connection to it.
Since leaving the San Luis Obispo County area, Doe testified, has not followed any of its local news feeds. She saw the coverage of Flores’ 2021 arrest via a Los Angeles County area news organization, she said.
Doe said she met Flores in Redondo Beach when she and her friends were waiting outside a bar to leave to her house in January 2008.
Flores rode up on his bicycle, one of her friends stopped him and invited him to join them to Doe’s house, Doe testified.
Doe said Flores said he needed to stop by his house to get something.
Although she tried to explain directions to her house, Doe said, Flores eventually asked Doe to go with him to his place, adding that they would then go together to her home.
The woman testified that her friends went to her house while she went with Flores to his.
Flores’ house was about a 10- to 15-minute walk from the bar, Doe said.
While she had had a few drinks that night, Doe testified, she was not intoxicated.
Once they were inside Flores’ house, Doe said he gave her a glass of water. She does not recall whether she saw him pour water into the glass, she testified.
After that, Doe’s memories of that night — other than a few bits and pieces — are blank, she said.
Doe began slipping in and out of consciousness, she said, and only three clear memories are stuck with her from that night.
Doe said that she remembers Flores being on top of her, naked, engaging in vaginal intercourse with her without consent.
She said he asked her if she knew his name, and at the time she didn’t recall. “He seemed satisfied with that answer,” she testified.
Doe said she remembers being face down with a ball gag in her mouth as Flores was engaged in anal sex with her — something to which she would never consent due to a medical condition, she said.
She also has a memory of sitting on the floor next to Flores’ bed, curled in a ball and crying, Doe said.
Flores drove Doe home, she testified, and Doe was bleeding and sore for two days.
She didn’t report the alleged rape because she was confused at how it happened, didn’t remember much of the night and knew that rape cases do not usually become closed, she said.
“There seemed to be no point,” Doe testified.
During cross-examination, Paul Flores’ attorney, Robert Sanger, questioned Doe’s memories of the night.
“You seem to not recall a lot of things,” Sanger told Doe, referring to her testimony in which she said she did not remember Flores’ name when she came to during the alleged rape.
“At that time I couldn’t recall it,” she said. “It’s very confusing waking up with someone on top of you.”
When Doe saw Flores’ photo from his April 2021 arrest, she double-checked he had lived in the South Bay area before contacting law enforcement, she said in court.
San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office investigator James “J.T.” Camp visited her along with another detective and she chose Flores’ photo out of a six-person photo lineup, Doe said.
When Doe identified Flores in the photo line-up, she said she was pretty sure he was the man who raped her but couldn’t be completely sure, she testified.
On Wednesday in court she said she had no doubt Flores was her rapist.
“There is something in his eyes that is ingrained (in my memory),” she said. “That is something I did not forget.”
Investigator testifies
On Wednesday, Camp testified to walking routes Doe and Flores could have taken from the bar and spoke his interview with Doe in May 2021 during which she identified Flores in a photo lineup.
The investigator confirmed Flores was living in a house on 170th Street with a sloped driveway within walking distance from the bar and near train tracks — all details corroborating Doe’s memory of the events.
This story was originally published August 24, 2022 at 1:52 PM with the headline "Kristin Smart trial: Woman says murder defendant Paul Flores raped her."
