separately back-to-back
The closing arguments have wrapped up in the trial of Ruben Flores - who is accused of helping his alleged murderer son bury missing teen Kristin Smart's body underneath his deck.
Flores, 81, was arrested in April 2021 and charged with accessory after the fact to murder. Jurors will soon come to a conclusion at Monterey County Superior Court in Salinas, California.
The 81-year-old allegedly helped bury the slain student, 19, behind his home in the nearby community of Arroyo Grande and later dug up the remains and moved them.
Both him and his son Paul Flores, who is accused of murdering Smart, have pleaded not guilty.
Deputy DA Christopher Peuvrelle told the court on Wednesday: 'Justice delayed does not have to be justice denied. Yes, 26 years have passed.
'In the years since, Ruben Flores continued to hide Kristin’s body under his deck, and Paul Flores continued to rape women.
'We don’t have an intact body — but we do have human blood.'
He told the jury: 'Your role here is simple. Did. This. Happen? That’s all you need to decide. What happens after this is up to Judge O’Keefe.'
Neither verdict will be read until both juries have finished deliberating.
Their verdicts are independent of one another - meaning that one can be found guilty even if the other is not.
Once both decisions are in, they will be read separately back-to-back.
In March 2021, detectives served a search warrant for the father's home.
Behind lattice work beneath the deck of his large house on a dead end street off Tally Ho Road, archaeologists working for police in March found a soil disturbance about the size of a casket and the presence of human blood, prosecutors said.
The blood was too degraded to extract a DNA sample. While a blood expert said it was human blood, the test used did not rule out the possibility it was from a ferret or primate, though court records said no remains of either such animal were found there.
A lawsuit filed against Ruben Flores alleged that 'under cover of darkness,' the father and unnamed accomplices moved the body four days after investigators searched his house.
Closing arguments for Rubens' son Paul, 45, concluded on Tuesday after the court heard that Smart was 'discarded worse than a pet.'Sometimes we tell our kids monsters do not exist, but they do. We've seen one in this trial. I ask you to render a truthful verdict that Paul Flores is guilty of first-degree murder,' he told the jury.