SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. (NewsNation Now) — The man accused of helping his son hide the body of missing California college student Kristin Smart more than two decades ago has been released from jail, according to county jail records Thursday.
Reuben Flores, 80, was arrested last week in connection to the murder of Kristin Smart, who went missing nearly 25 years ago. Reuben Flores pleaded not guilty to accessory after murder in Smart’s death. His son, Paul Flores was the last person seen with Smart before she vanished in 1996 and has been charged with her murder. Paul Flores, 44, has pleaded not guilty and is being held without bail.
Jail records Thursday morning show Reuben Flores is no longer in custody. San Luis Obispo County Superior Court Judge Craig Van Rooyen had set bail at $50,000 for Reuben Flores earlier this week.
Attorney Harold Mesick, representing Ruben Flores, said Wednesday his client poses no threat to the public and argued he should be released on his own recognizance because it would otherwise take money he needs to hire a soils expert and biologist for the case.
Deputy District Attorney Christopher Peuvrelle said bail should remain at $250,000, which he said was affordable, based on documents submitted in court.
The judge concluded the bail should be set at $50,000, explaining that “setting bail in something more than he can afford is a detention under the law.”
His conditions of release include surrendering his passport, remaining in San Luis Obispo County and agreeing to wear an electronic monitor.
Reuben Flores, dressed in an orange inmate’s smock and appearing from jail by video, did not speak during the hearing.
Paul Flores was seen with Smart on May 25, 1996, at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, where they were both freshmen. Prosecutors said he killed Smart while trying to rape her in his dorm room after he had agreed to walk her home from a party, where she had became intoxicated.
San Luis Obispo Sheriff had previously named Paul Flores the “prime suspect” in the case.
Her body has never been found.
Defense lawyers have criticized the evidence used to arrest both men last week. Attorney Harold Mesick said Monday that the evidence against the father was “so minimal as to shock the conscience.”
The document said investigators at the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Department had biological evidence indicating Smart was once buried under Ruben Flores’ deck behind his home in nearby Arroyo Grande.
“The excavation below his deck … showed damning evidence that a body had been buried in that location and then recently moved,” Peuvrelle said.
Mesick said during a hearing Monday there were innocent explanations as to why soil had previously been dug up in Flores’ yard. He said a backhoe had excavated a trench to dump soil that was removed to lay a nearby foundation.
Peuvrelle said in the court document that Ruben Flores had lied and helped his son cover up the crime for nearly a quarter century and would continue to do so if freed.
This photo provided by the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office shows suspect Paul Flores who was arrested Tuesday, April 13, 2021, for the murder of Kristin Smart. Flores, the longtime suspect in the 25-year-old disappearance of the California college student was arrested Tuesday, April 13, 2021, on suspicion of murder, and his father was booked in jail as an accessory to the crime. Flores, 44, who was the last person seen with Smart on the California Polytechnic State University campus in San Luis Obispo before she vanished in 1996, was taken into custody in the Los Angeles area. (San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office via AP) 
This photo provided by the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office shows Ruben Flores, 80, who was arrested in connection to the murder of college student Kristin Smart at his Arroyo Grande home on Tuesday, April 12, 2021. San Luis Obispo County Sheriff Ian Parkinson said the arrest warrants for Ruben Flores and his son Paul Flores were issued after a search of the elder Flores’ home last month using ground-penetrating radar and cadaver dogs. He said evidence was found linked to the killing of Smart but they had not yet located her body. (San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office via AP) 
San Luis Obispo County Sheriff Ian Parkinson answers questions at a press conference in San Luis Obispo, Calif., Tuesday, April 13, 2021, on arrests connected to the disappearance of Kristin Smart. (David Middlecamp/The Tribune (of San Luis Obispo) via AP) 
Cal Poly President Jeffrey Armstrong, center, speaks during a press conference Tuesday, April 13, 2021, San Luis Obispo, Calif. At left is a photo of Kristin Smart. Smart, 19, of Stockton, California, vanished in May 1996 while returning to a dorm at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, after a party. San Luis Obispo County Sheriff Ian Parkinson stands in the background and interpreter Robin Babb is at right. (David Middlecamp/The Tribune (of San Luis Obispo) via AP) 
Investigators with the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff Department returned to the house of Reuben Flores Tuesday, April 13, 2021, in Arroyo Grande, Calif. The backyard was marked with crime scene tape as they search for missing Cal Poly student Kristin Smart at the Arroyo Grande house. San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office is searching the Arroyo Grande home of Ruben Flores under a warrant. Ruben is the father of Paul Flores, the sole person of interest in missing Cal Poly student Kristin Smart’s disappearance. (David Middlecamp/The Tribune (of San Luis Obispo) via AP) 
FILE – In this March 16, 2021, file photo, San Luis Obispo Sheriff’s Office personnel dig in an area in the backyard of the home of Ruben Flores, in Arroyo Grande, Calif. Flores is the father of Paul Flores, who remains the prime suspect in the disappearance of Kristin Smart in 1996. The San Luis Obispo County sheriff plans a major announcement Tuesday, April 13, 2021, in the nearly 25-year mystery of the disappearance of Smart. (AP Photo/Daniel Dreifuss, File) 
FILE – In this March 16, 2021, file photo, an investigator uses ground penetrating radar to search the backyard of the home of Ruben Flores, in Arroyo Grande, Calif. Flores is the father of Paul Flores, who remains the prime suspect in the disappearance of Kristin Smart in 1996. The San Luis Obispo County sheriff plans a major announcement Tuesday, April 13, 2021, in the nearly 25-year mystery of the disappearance of Smart. (AP Photo/Daniel Dreifuss, File) 
The Associated Press contributed to this report.