Witness says Paul Flores admitted to killing Kristin Smart: ‘He was 1,000% serious’
More than 25 years ago, Paul Flores allegedly told a Santa Maria woman that he killed Kristin Smart.
“Even after decades, his eyes are what made me believe it wasn’t a joke,” Jennifer Hudson testified Thursday in Monterey County Superior Court. “There was nothing alive behind his eyes.”
Hudson said Flores told her he killed Smart and buried her body “at his place in Huasna” while they were hanging out at a skate house in 1996 — shortly after the Cal Poly student went missing.
Flores is now on trial for Smart’s murder. His father, Ruben Flores, is accused of helping him hide Smart’s body.
Witness: Flores ‘1000% serious’ about murder admission
Hudson testified Thursday that she, her boyfriend, her boyfriend’s friend and Paul Flores were in the backyard of a house that had a patio with two couches and a skate ramp in the summer of 1996.
It was a house where San Luis Obispo skaters were known to socialize, said Hudson, who was 17 at the time.
Hudson described the setup: Her boyfriend was on the skate ramp, she was on the couch facing the ramp with her boyfriend’s friend and Flores was on the couch across from her about five feet away.
They were listening to music on the radio, Hudson recalled, adding that advertisements asking for help in locating Smart would play often.
It was after one of these ads, Hudson said, that Flores told her “That b--ch was a d--k tease. I was done playing with her and I put her (or buried her) under my place in Huasna.”
Hudson doesn’t remember if Flores said “put her under” or “buried her under,” she testified.
Flores’ demeanor when he said this was “cold, no smirk, no smile, no tone of being ‘I’m funny’ or some sort of distorted sense of humor,” Hudson said, describing Flores’ eyes “like a dead person’s eyes.”
“He was 1000% serious,” she said.
Hudson was frightened, and she left just minutes later, she said.
The Santa Maria woman said she didn’t tell law enforcement about the conversation because she was “a scared 17-year-old kid.”
A few weeks later, some acquaintances asked Hudson for a ride to a skate ramp in Huasna, she testified.
As they drove out to Huasna Townsite Road, she said, the acquaintances told her to follow their friend, who was driving a white four-wheel-drive pickup truck.
Hudson said she remembers the truck being four-wheel-drive because she had just bought a new sedan and noticed that the truck in front of her was handling the winding dirt road they turned onto better than her car.
When they arrived at the ramp, Hudson got out of her car, she said. So did the driver of the white pickup truck.
It was Flores, she testified.
“As soon as I saw him, I fell ill,” she said. “I vomited.”
Hudson testified that she immediately got back in her car and left, and the people she dropped off ended up walking home.
Kristin Smart podcast mentions anonymous tip from witness
Hudson said she never told anyone about her encounters with Flores until around 2002 when she lived with Justin Goodwin.
She said she confided in Goodwin on a night that the two had been heavily drinking.
Hudson doesn’t remember exactly what she said, but she unknowingly prompted Goodwin to submit an anonymous tip about the conversation that year — the same anonymous tip that was mentioned in an episode of the “Your Own Backyard” podcast, which follows the investigation into Smart’s disappearance.
Goodwin called Hudson after the “Your Own Backyard” episode aired in 2019 to let her know that he had submitted the tip, Hudson said.
He also urged her to talk to podcast creator Chris Lambert to help crack the case, she said.
Hudson said she pondered over talking to Lambert for about a week because she didn’t want her name “out there” and was still afraid to come forward.
When Hudson first visited Lambert, she said, the meeting took about 20 minutes.
According to Hudson, they met in Huasna, and Lambert followed her in his own car to try to locate the ramp where she’d seen Flores more than two decades prior.
Hudson said she believes she and Lambert found the location of the ramp — noting that the dirt path off Huasna Townsite Road didn’t have a name in 1996, didn’t have a name in 2019 and likely still doesn’t have a name today.
Hudson testified Lambert told her to not mention their meeting because he didn’t want law enforcement to think her recollection had been distorted.
Lambert told The Tribune outside of court Thursday that Hudson’s statement was inaccurate, adding that he plans to address it in a future podcast episode.
Also on Thursday, Hudson testified that Goodwin told her information about a white four-wheel-drive pickup truck that was connected to the Flores family and a drone video.
When Hudson met with San Luis Obispo County sheriff’s Det. Clint Cole, she told him about her meeting with Lambert and the information Goodwin told her, she testified.
During cross examination, Paul Flores’ defense attorney, Robert Sanger, questioned Hudson about her communications with Lambert and Goodwin.
Hudson again asserted she only met with Lambert for about 20 minutes and spoke briefly on the phone at least once.
Goodwin allegedly sent Hudson a Facebook message, telling her something to the effect of making her best show in order to get the reward meant for those who help solve Smart’s case, Sanger said.
Hudson does not remember that message, she said, adding that, if it exists, there has to be more context because it’s “offensive at the end of the day.”
The messages, which were exhibits during the seven-week-long preliminary hearing for Paul and Ruben Flores, could not be introduced as evidence Thursday because the person who currently has custody at the court was in a meeting.
Court was adjourned for the day around 3:50 p.m.
Court will be dark Friday. Hudson’s testimony will resume Monday.
This story was originally published September 8, 2022 at 6:24 PM with the headline "Witness says Paul Flores admitted to killing Kristin Smart: ‘He was 1,000% serious’."
