Detective details call intercepted between Paul Flores, mother during wiretap

More witnesses took the stand Tuesday in the Kristin Smart murder trial.Paul and Ruben Flores are on trial in Salinas in connection with the 1996 disappearance of Smart, who was last seen walking back to her dorm from an off-campus party.Witnesses say Paul, who is charged with murdering Smart, was the last person to be seen with her. His father is charged as an accessory, accused of helping hide Smart’s body, which has never been found.Related: Images from the Kristin Smart murder trialMonday, Ruben Flores’ home was the focus of testimony as a former roommate of his, a neighbor and two SLO County Sheriff investigators testified.Tuesday morning, it was a senior deputy with the sheriff’s office who took the stand.During Jason Nadal’s testimony, San Luis Obispo County Deputy District Attorney Christopher Peuvrelle asked the witness about photos he had taken while serving a search warrant at Paul’s home in San Pedro back in February of 2020.Following Peuvrelle’s questioning, Paul’s attorney, Robert Sanger, asked Nadal about his role in the search.Nadal said he’d coordinated the search efforts and admitted that San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Detective Clint Cole had briefed him before the search warrant was served, but Nadal said he could not remember if Cole had been present at the time of the search.The next witness to testify was Gregory Smith, a senior detective for the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office.Smith told the court that in January of 2020, he received permission from a San Luis Obispo County Judge to wiretap the phones of the Flores family.An audio conversation between Paul Flores and his mother, Susan, from Jan. 26, 2020 was then played in the courtroom. In the recording, Susan could be heard telling Paul to start listening to the “Your Own Backyard” podcast so they could start “punching holes in it.”Sanger then asked Smith to confirm that nearly 10,000 phone calls were intercepted from the Flores family between Jan. 5 to Feb. 3rd, 2020. Smith said that sounded like an accurate number.Referring to the audio clip that had just been played for the courtroom, Sanger asked Detective Smith to confirm that Susan had said she wanted to make sure Paul was legally covered during the investigation, to which Smith agreed.At one point during cross examination, Sanger asked Smith if he had heard Paul talk about bringing forth false information once the trial began. Smith said he had not heard that.He did, however, admit that a sheriff’s office strategy was using Chris Lambert’s podcast as a way to leak information about the investigation to the Flores family.Ruben’s attorney, Harold Mesick, did not cross examine either witness.Testimony in the case is scheduled to resume Tuesday afternoon. If convicted, Paul faces a sentence of 25 years to life. Ruben faces a maximum sentence of three years in jail, if convicted.