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Testimony resumed Monday in the murder trial of Christine Smart.
Another former Cal Poly student who returned with Christine to the dorms the night she disappeared was on the witness stand.
Team Davis
During his testimony, Tim Davis told jurors he had to relive that night for the past 26 years.
Davis was a junior at Cal Poly in 1996. He was one of the students who helped organize the last party Christine Smart attended. The party was originally supposed to be a birthday celebration for two of his friends at a house on Crandall Way near the Cal Poly campus, but several uninvited guests showed up, including Christine and defendant Paul Flores.
Flores was the last person seen with Christine and is now on trial for her murder. His father, Ruben Flores, is also on trial, charged as an accomplice after the fact. Ruben is accused of helping hide Christine’s body.
On Monday, Davis testified that he remembers seeing Paul and Christine together at the party and the two fell to the floor together. Several other witnesses also testified that they saw the two fall together during the party.
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Davis said he was trying to break up the party and get everyone home when he noticed Christine lying facedown on a lawn on a neighbor’s property. He said he decided to send his friend Cheryl Anderson to the dorm and it was obvious that Christine would also need help getting back. He said Paul “appeared out of nowhere” and started walking with them.
Davis testified that since his house was in the other direction, he ended up letting Paul and the two young women walk the rest of the way back to the bedrooms.
He said the person he knew as Christine had originally told him was called Roxy.
Under cross-examination by Paul’s attorney, Robert Sanger, Davis said he had never met Christine or Paul before that night and that neither had been invited to the party. He admitted to telling investigators that Christine had “drunk on him” and tried to hug and kiss him, and said he was initially annoyed that he would have to help her home.
Sanger asked him if he ever told San Luis Obispo County Deputy District Attorney Christopher Peuvrelle, “I just want to put this *expletive* guy out,” and that was why he testified in court, to which Davis replied, “Yeah, right is.”
Reuben’s attorney, Harold Mezik, asked Davis if he had reviewed any notes or prepared in any way for Monday’s testimony, to which he said no.
The jury also sent several questions to the judge about the witness Monday morning. After a brief discussion between the judge and the attorneys, Paul’s attorney asked several questions, including whether Paul had used Christine’s name on the way back from the party or whether her speech was difficult to understand.
Davis answered no to both questions.
Jeremy Moon
On Monday afternoon, Paul Flores’ high school friend, Jeremy Moon, took the stand briefly.
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When questioned by prosecutor Christopher Peuvrelle, Moon said he met Paul on the Sunday after Christine Smart disappeared. He said he noticed that Paul had a bruised eye. When he asked Paul about it, he said he woke up with the bruise.
The two got together to play basketball the next day, Monday.
Paul said the bruised eyes were the result of that basketball game.
On cross-examination, defense attorney Robert Sanger questioned Moon about a later interview by law enforcement when he said he saw no marks on Paul and did not see him until the following weekend. Moon said he could not recall the details of any of the five interviews he conducted with investigators.
James Camp
District Attorney Investigator James (JT) Camp also took the stand again briefly to testify about a meeting with Moon before the preliminary hearing. Sanger questioned him at length about whether they had discussed the inconsistencies in the various interviews.
Kemp said he showed Moon all the interview reports but did not discuss any discrepancies.
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Lawrence “Mike” Kennedy
The remaining time in court Monday was spent questioning now-retired California police investigator Polly Lawrence “Mike” Kennedy. He was assigned to investigate the missing person case of Christine Smart when she did not return to campus on the Tuesday after Memorial Day weekend in 1996.
He interviewed Paul Flores twice in the days following the holiday weekend – once in his dorm room on Tuesday night and once at the Cal Poly Police Department on Thursday.
Kennedy had to refresh his memory of the case many times by reading his investigative reports.
He said Paul denied knowing Christine during both interviews.
Kennedy said he also noticed and asked Paul about the bruise on his eye. Paul told Kennedy both times it was from an injury during a basketball game.
He testified that Paul told him he last saw Christine near the intersection of Grand Ave. and Perimeter Rd. where they went their separate ways.
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On cross-examination, Sanger asked Kennedy about his law enforcement training and background.
Sanger also asked Kennedy about an outstanding traffic warrant against Flores and whether that might explain why Paul was particularly nervous about visiting his dorm room.
Recently unsealed court documents include a June 1996 university police report made by Kennedy in which he stated that when he spoke to Paul in his dorm room on May 28, 1996, “He was very nervous, his heart it was beating under his t-shirt. He said he thought we were going to arrest him for an outstanding warrant.”
Sanger also questioned Kennedy about the furniture and layout of Paul’s room.
His testimony is expected to continue on Tuesday.
Also Monday, another of Reuben’s jurors was discharged and an alternate was sworn in.
The trial is being held in Monterey County after a judge ruled that Paul and Ruben Flores were unlikely to get a fair trial in San Luis Obispo County because of the years of publicity the case has received. While the two men were tried at the same time, they had different juries.
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