COALINGA, CALIFORNIA: Paul Flores, who was convicted of murdering Kristin Smart, who disappeared from a California college campus more than 25 years ago, was sent to the hospital after being attacked in state prison, said his legal team on Wednesday, August 23.
According to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Paul Flores was transferred from Pleasant Valley State Prison in Coalinga to an outside hospital on Wednesday where he was listed in a severe condition.
Why was Paul Flores hospitalized?
The department reportedly declined to acknowledge that Flores had been attacked, noting in an email that an inquiry was being conducted into the circumstances of his injury and that no information would be made public right away, as per ABC 7.
The attack on Flores happened on Wednesday, according to his lawyer Harold Mesick, who did not have any other information.
Flores' attorney, Harold Mesick, said he was informed by correctional officials that Flores was attacked on Wednesday, but he didn't have any other information. "I just pray for his recovery," the lawyer stated.
According to Mesick, Flores was only sent from North Kern State Prison to the Central Valley Prison last week.
Prior to being allocated to another facility, inmates are first accepted and processed in North Kern.
Flores was given a sentence of 25 years to life in prison in March for the murder of Smart.
What happened to Kristin Smart?
The 19-year-old Kristin Smart went missing from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo on the state's picturesque Central Coast over Memorial Day weekend in 1996.
Her remains were never discovered, but she was formally proclaimed deceased in 2002.
When was Paul Flores convicted?
Prosecutors claimed Flores, now 46, murdered Smart during an attempted rape on May 25, 1996, in Smart's dorm room at the university, where both were first-year students. He was last spotted with Smart, walking her home from an off-campus party.
In 2021, Flores and his father were arrested on suspicion of aiding in the concealment of Smart's body. Flores was found guilty of first-degree murder last October. Ruben Flores, 81, was cleared of being an accessory after the fact by a different jury.
