One by one, Kristin Smart’s family and friends approached a Monterey County Superior Court judge with a plea — for Smart’s murderer, Paul Flores, to receive the maximum sentence for his crime.

“Paul chose to take a life, my sister Kristin’s life,” her brother, Matthew Smart, said during a sentencing hearing Friday, calling Flores a “menace to society.” “Now he must pay.”

A Monterey County jury found Paul Flores guilty of first-degree murder on Oct. 18 while a separate jury acquitted his father, Ruben Flores, of helping his son conceal the crime.

On Friday, Superior Court Judge Jennifer O’Keefe sentenced the younger Flores to 25 years to life in state prison for murdering Smart, which is the maximum sentence for first-degree murder.

Paul Flores hardly moved during Friday’s sentencing hearing and stared straightforward the entire time. He didn’t turn his head or acknowledge the Smart family as they spoke about the anguish over their loved one’s disappearance and death.

“Watching Paul Flores sit stone-faced and remorseless behind his mask was emblematic of the hiding he has done for the last 26-plus years,” Smart’s mother, Denise Smart, said at the hearing.

Denise Smart then condemned Flores for concealing the location of her daughter’s body, which has never been found.

“Torturing a family by continuing to withhold the location of their sister and daughter is a cruel and visceral pain that no one should ever have to bear,” she said.

Kristin Smart’s Family Speaks About Impact of Murder

Before Flores was sentenced, Smart family members had the opportunity to give victim impact statements to tell the judge how her murder has affected them and advocate for the sentence they feel is the most appropriate.

Before giving their statements, the family played a video for the court that comprised of home movies of Kristin Smart growing up. They included pictures of the 19-year-old college freshman as a baby, videos of her playing with her siblings and her high school graduation.

The video brought nearly everyone in the courtroom gallery to tears, with Paul Flores’ jurors sobbing, the Smart family hugging one another in support and other friends and relatives of the Smarts passing tissues to one another. Stan Smart, Kristin Smart’s father, was among the family members who asked O’Keefe for the maximum sentence allowed by law.

Stan Smart talked about how his daughter’s disappearance following an off-campus party during Memorial Day weekend in 1996 “negatively impacted each family member’s outlook on life” — putting “considerable stress” on his marriage to Denise Smart, Kristin’s mother, and leaving her siblings, Matt and Lindsey, “scarred emotionally.”

“This is a parent’s worst nightmare — the disappearance and death of their child,” Stan Smart said, describing it as “devastating to our whole family.” “We shared her hopes, her dreams, her aspirations as she became a beautiful young adult, and now she will never be able to have a full life.”

“Kristin was destined for great things,” her brother Matthew Smart said. “She was building her legacy … until she was taken away from her friends and family far too soon.”

Denise Smart shared that her daughter was “loving, tenacious and beautiful.”

“She always approached life through the lens of what was possible,” Smart said. “To her, every dream was within reach.”

The days after her daughter vanished, Denise Smart said both Cal Poly and law enforcement were unresponsive.

Five days after Kristin Smart’s disappearance, her mother called the Cal Poly university president’s office, she recalled. The secretary there told her to contact Smart’s resident advisor — and had no information to share about the whereabouts of her daughter.

Denise Smart was also disappointed by law enforcement’s response in the weeks after her daughter’s murder, she said, and they felt they needed to prove to law enforcement that Kristin’s life had value.

“The complete and utter absence of urgency or communication was totally unbelievable as well as gut wrenching,” Denise Smart said.

While Kristin Smart’s family frantically searched for her, Flores relaxed — playing basketball and going to the movies, Denise Smart said.

“After taking the life of another human being, he spent the weekend with his friend and family … not a threat of regret,” she said. “Where is the humanity in this human being?”

Lindsey Smart Stewart, Kristin’s younger sister, echoed her mother’s statement. “While I sat at home looking at my sister’s empty chair for 26 years … Paul had the freedom to do whatever he wanted,” Lindsey Smart Stewart said.

“There is a hole in my life, a hole in my heart that will never be replaced.” “The prolonged post traumatic stress that I experience is real and intense,” Lindsey Smart Stewart said, pausing to cry. “I have full body reactions on the street, often prompting me to sprint home.”

By the time Flores is eligible for parole, she noted, her three young daughters will be about college-age.

“They’re all vibrant and carefree and hopeful,” Lindsey Smart Stewart said, and it terrifies her to think of Flores crossing paths with them at a university. Her husband, Patrick Stewart, said he enrolled one daughter in jiu-jitsu “with the hopes that she will have enough muscle memory by the time that she’s an adult to defend herself.”

Through tears, Stewart read a 2017 Daily Beast article that included allegations of Flores’ raping a number of women — with one incident allegedly happening while Flores was still in high school.

“There is a chance that my daughters might face their same fate” as Smart and the other women Flores is accused of sexually assaulting, Stewart said. “At the core of his being he is an unapologetic sexual predator,” Stewart said of Flores.

Stewart also talked about the lasting impact Kristin Smart’s murder had on his wife, noting that she won’t even go to the mailbox at night by herself.

Ann-Marie Christian also offered a victim impact statement on Friday. She met Smart when they were in fourth grade — the same age of her daughter now.

“I have lived 26 plus years without her, while her killer has been free and was given the opportunity to victimize other women. This is shameful,” Christian said. “There is no justice that can be obtained for a lifelong friendship that was stolen by a murderer.”

Christian called for Flores to confess to murdering her childhood friend and identify the location of her body. “I have a teenage son as well, and the most important thing I’ve taught him is to speak the truth,” Christian said. “Your parents, Paul, have failed you. … Instead of teaching you to speak the truth, they taught you to lie.”

Sanger tried to object to Christian’s comment directed at Flores on the grounds that impact statements are supposed to be directed to the judge, but O’Keefe allowed Christian to continue.

Eric Koch, shares a birthday with his cousin, Kristin Smart, and says the date has been bittersweet since her death. Koch was 33 when his cousin was murdered. He’s now married with children and said he understands “the rage and pain” Kristin Smart’s parents feel. “They have shown unimaginable strength,” he said. “Most families do not survive this type of tragedy.”

Throughout Koch’s statement, he turned toward the Flores family, who remained stoic looking forward or down in their laps.

“The defendant was free while my aunt and uncle were searching for answers,” he said. “Not only was the defendant free, but he continued to harm women.”

He asked the judge to show Flores the same compassion he showed Kristin Smart and give Flores the maximum sentence. “Instead, direct your compassion to Kristin, the innocent young life that was taken” he said. “Direct your compassion to my aunt and uncle and respect the 26 years that they have endured.”

Convicted Murderer to Serve Maximum Sentence

After hearing testimony from Smart’s family members and friends, O’Keefe called Smart’s “a tragedy on many levels,”

“A daughter, a sister, a beautiful young woman with bright dreams was senselessly murdered,” O’Keefe said. “It is a tragedy that you, Mr. Flores, continue to compound their heartbreak by not allowing them to bring Kristin home.”

“Sentencing does not generally bring closure,” O’Keefe said. “What the sentencing will provide is accountability.”

Flores faced a maximum prison sentence of 25 years to life with parole because he killed Smart before he turned 25, triggering the California Youthful Offender law. If he had been over 25 when the crime occurred, he would not be eligible for parole. After 15 years in prison, Flores could qualify for a parole board hearing with good behavior. The parole board could grant or deny paroled release.

Flores must also pay a total of $10,000 in restitution to his victims, and provide specimens of his saliva and blood to the authorities. Additionally, Flores must register as a sex offender for life, as he assaulted and killed Smart with the “purpose of sexual gratification and sexual compulsion,” O’Keefe said.

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