Don Kelsen/Los Angeles Instances by way of Getty Photos
After 25 years of thriller surrounding the disappearance of Kristin Good, a Cal Poly San Luis Obispo pupil who went lacking after a celebration, a jury on Tuesday lastly convicted a person of killing her.
Paul Flores, now 45, was convicted of her homicide. His father, 81-year-old Ruben Flores, who was accused of serving to his son cover Good’s physique, was discovered not responsible of accent to homicide by a separate jury on Tuesday afternoon.
Tuesday’s choice places to resttwo-and-a-half a long time of hypothesis into what occurred to Good, who was final seen alive as she walked alongside Paul Flores by college residence halls on Could 25, 1996, after a Memorial Day weekend get together the place the teenager turned “incapacitated” by one thing she drank.
Prosecutors had argued that Flores confirmed a sample of abuse towards girls, and that it wasn’t a coincidence he was round to stroll her residence after Good handed out on a garden.
Flores, additionally a college pupil on the time, “hunted” Good for months, prosecutors mentioned throughout the trial, regularly popping up in locations she’d been, or generally hanging round her dorm itself, regardless of dwelling in a special residence corridor.
Paul and Ruben Flores
Couuty of San Luis Obispo
Good’s outdated roommate advised investigators that Flores was “unnaturally keen on Kristin,” based on prosecutor Christopher Peuvrelle, however she was “too good to inform him off.”
On the night time of her disappearance, Peuvrelle mentioned Good’s pal noticed Flores emerge from the darkish to assist Good up after she handed out and he supplied to stroll her residence. The pal left the 2 collectively, a choice she’s “regretted ever since.” It could be the final time Good was seen, alive or lifeless.
The protection, in the meantime, argued that Flores was merely doing “a superb deed” by escorting Good residence, saying there was no concrete proof he “hunted” his classmate, and that’s why he wasn’t arrested for over twenty years.
Flores advised cops on the time that Good was “strolling actual gradual” and that he hugged her waist to maintain her heat as they walked to her residence corridor. He mentioned he dropped her off, then instantly returned to his room throughout campus.
Cops famous in police reviews that Flores had a bruise underneath his eye once they interviewed him. In addition they documented that he’d modified his story concerning the night time and the way, precisely, he received that bruise.
Regardless of these fishy particulars—and Good’s dad and mom personal accusations that Flores murdered their daughter—the case went unsolved for many years, largely as a result of Good’s physique was by no means discovered. This was a element the protection harped on always all through the 11-week trial, arguing there was no bodily proof that proved the daddy and son have been responsible.
“Kristin Good has by no means returned residence, she is believed now to be deceased, however there isn't any proof of what occurred to her,” mentioned Robert Sanger, Paul Flores’ protection lawyer.
Prosecutors countered that argument, nevertheless, by calling on two girl who claimed Flores raped them a number of years after Good had vanished. This, prosecutors claimed, supported their concept that he sexually assaulted Good, then killed her and hid her physique.
Paul Flores (left) and Ruben Flores (proper) hearken to testimony from a DNA knowledgeable throughout their trial.
Laura Dickinson/San Luis Obispo Tribune/Tribune Information Service by way of Getty Photos
The Every day Beast completely reported in 2016 that 4 girls had accused Flores of sexual assault, with one accusation courting again as early as highschool. That girl, only a tenth grader on the time, alleged that Flores and a pal drugged and raped her in 1994. A second girl, who additionally attended Cal Poly, alleged Flores groped her at a 1995 Halloween dance get together—and tried to rape her within the rest room at her pal’s birthday later that 12 months.
Within the trial for Ruben Flores, which ran concurrent with that of his son, prosecutors homed in on the place the daddy could have helped his son cover Good’s physique. Prosecutors referred to as on soil specialists to check an space underneath a deck at Ruben Flores’ California residence, which was rumored to be the place the duo hid the physique earlier than they allegedly moved it someday in 2020.
An investigation confirmed there was an “anomaly” within the soil underneath the deck at Ruben Flores’ California residence, which supposedly contained human blood and different bodily fluids in keeping with an individual having been buried there and eliminated. The world studied was 6 ft by 4 ft by 4 ft, testified archaeologist Cindy Arrington, and was dug by hand. There have been additionally fibers current that matched the colour of Good’s clothes the final time she was seen, she testified.
These particulars clearly tied Ruben Flores to the crime, prosecutors argued, however a jury disagreed on Tuesday.
Harold Mesick, Ruben Flores’ protection lawyer, efficiently argued that Arrington’s discovery wasn’t sufficient to warrant a conviction, insisting that the blood discovered underneath his residence might’ve belonged to anybody, presumably even Ruben Flores himself.
“The quantity of blood is so minuscule ... it could possibly be anybody’s blood. It could possibly be Ruben Flores’ blood,” Mesick mentioned. “I'm going to let you know it's not Kristin Good’s blood.”
Mesick later argued that Good was sad at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, suggesting the teenager could have ditched city on her personal and should be alive in the present day.
“The state has completed an important job of demonizing Paul Flores and my shopper,” Mesick mentioned in his closing remarks. “My shopper is totally harmless. He has not dug a grave in his life. I believe this case screams affordable doubt.”