Kristin Smart murderer to appeal conviction
The man convicted of killing Cal Poly freshman Kristin Smart has filed a notice of appeal, appellate court records show.
In October, a Monterey County jury convicted Paul Flores of killing Smart — 26 years after the she disappeared returning from an off-campus party.
Monterey County Superior Court Judge Jennifer O’Keefe called Flores a “cancer to society” on March 10, as she sentenced him to 25 years to life in state prison.
Flores filed his notice of appeal a month after his sentencing with the California Courts of Appeal’s Sixth District in an attempt to overturn his conviction.
It’s Flores 11th attempt to restart legal proceedings in the case.
Defense attorney Robert Sanger, who represented Flores during his murder trial, filed for a mistrial nine times before Flores was convicted, then filed a motion for a new trial before Flores’ sentencing.
Flores is currently in custody at North Kern State Prison, according to court records and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
A notice of appeal must be filed within 60 days of sentencing. It does not need to include the legal grounds for the appeal, and a brief making that case has not yet been filed.
Although Sanger represented Flores during more than two years of criminal proceedings, he does not appear to be representing Flores for the appeal.
Flores is currently represented by court-appointed attorney Soloman Wollack, the court docket shows.
According to the docket, the trial’s court reporter was granted an extension in April to produce court transcripts. She asked for a second extension Friday.
California Deputy Attorney General Michael Cannon Keller filed a motion to move the case to California’s Second District Court of Appeal, the docket shows, but Flores filed an opposition arguing for the case to remain in the Sixth District Court of Appeal.
The Second District court oversees San Luis Obispo County, where the case’s investigating jurisdiction resides, while the Sixth District court oversees Monterey County, where the trial took place.
A decision has not yet been made on whether the case will move districts or whether the court reporter will be granted a second extension, according to the docket.
Wollack and the California Attorney General’s Office will likely need an official court transcript of the entire case in order to file their briefs.
The murder trial was three months long, and it is unclear how much time is needed to accurately transcribe a trial of that length.