Kristin Smart Killer And Rape Suspect Paul Flores Stabbed In Prison

COALINGA, CA — The man convicted of killing Kristin Smart and suspected in multiple Los Angeles area rapes was stabbed in prison this week. It's the second time in less than a year that a fellow inmate has tried to kill convicted murderer Paul Flores, according to authorities.

Flores, 47, was stabbed Wednesday at the recreation yard inside Pleasant Valley State Prison in what investigators are calling an attempted homicide. Flores was rushed to an area hospital for treatment and has since been returned to the prison in fair condition, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Authorities have not publicly identified the suspect in the ongoing investigation.

Flores was convicted in 2022 of killing Smart 26 years after the 19-year-old disappeared from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo where she was a student. Her remains have never been found, but she was declared legally dead in 2002.

Prosecutors maintained that Flores, now 46, killed Smart during an attempted rape on May 25, 1996, in his dorm room at the university, where both were first-year students. He was the last person seen with Smart as he walked her home from an off-campus party.

Flores was arrested in 2021 in San Pedro, where multiple women accused him of drugging and raping them, according to police. According to prosecutors, police found video evidence of the sexual assaults at Flores' home, and two of the alleged victims testified against him at trial.

The Los Angeles Police Department investigated the alleged rapes and referred Flores for prosecution, but the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office has, so far, declined to prosecute Flores, an LAPD spokesman told Patch.

Flores' father, who was accused of helping to hide Smart’s body was also arrested. Flores was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for killing Smart while his father was acquitted of being an accessory after the fact.

Flores has had a rough time at Pleasant Valley State Prison. In August of 2023 within days of being transferred to the prison, a fellow inmate repeatedly stabbed him in the neck, according to authorities.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation recently identified inmate Jason Budrow as the suspect in the Aug. 23 attack on Flores.

Budrow is serving two life sentences for fatally strangling his girlfriend in 2010 in Riverside County and then in 2021 strangling his cellmate, the serial killer Roger Reece Kibbe known as I-5 Strangler.

In a jailhouse interview that year with The Press-Examiner, he described himself as a “Satanist” and sported a “666” tattoo above his right eye. He also was convicted in 2006 of sexually assaulting a teenager.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.