Paul Flores, the man convicted of murdering Kristin Smart in 1996, was stabbed in a California prison, marking the second time he has been attacked behind bars in the last year.
A fellow inmate stabbed Flores, 47, in the recreation yard of Pleasant Valley State Prison just before 3.30 p.m. on Wednesday, according to the Associated Press.
According to the site, after obtaining treatment at an outside medical facility, he returned to the prison in “fair condition.”.
Officials told the newspaper that the unknown offender who attacked Flores had been placed in restricted housing.
Authorities seized two “inmate-manufactured weapons” from the scene and are investigating the assault as an attempted homicide.
The incident on Wednesday happened months after a fellow inmate at the same prison stabbed Flores in the neck in August. The hospital received him in “serious condition” and he returned two days later.
We don’t know if the same convict injured him in both incidents.
The Independent has reached out to Flores’ lawyer and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation for additional information.
Flores is currently serving a 25-year-to-life sentence in state prison for the murder of Kristen Smart. The then-19-year-old went missing from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo in 1996.
Although her body has never been found, she was formally proclaimed deceased in 2002.
In 2021, authorities caught Flores and found him guilty of first-degree murder a year later. Flores was the last person seen with Smart, and prosecutors claim he killed her during an attempted rape in his dorm room while they were both students.
In January 2024, Smart’s family filed a lawsuit against the California institution, alleging that if university administrators had addressed school police allegations about Flores, which four other female students had filed, they could have prevented her death.
According to the reports, the four women accused Flores of stalking and harassing them—and in one case, attempting to break into an apartment—months before Smart disappeared.
“If the university had responded correctly, undertaken a full investigation into Flores’ previous worrisome behavior, and executed appropriate disciplinary penalties, Kristin would most likely still be alive today. Instead, her absence has left our family grieving for 27 agonizing years, according to a family statement.
