The California Attorney General’s Office on Monday urged a state appellate court to reject a bid to overturn a jury verdict finding Paul Flores guilty of murdering Cal Poly student Kristin Smart, saying all claims he makes in his appeal are “meritless.”

In his brief filed in the California Second Appellate District, Deputy Attorney General Michael C. Keller said that Flores received a fair trial and urged the court to uphold his first-degree murder conviction following a jury trial in 2022.

“Convicted by a jury of first degree murder, appellant raises seven meritless claims,” Keller stated in his brief. “To the extent that appellant has demonstrated more than one type of error in this case, their cumulative effect did not infringe on any of his state or federal constitutional, statutory,

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