Kristin Smart’s dad, sheriff vow quest for justice isn’t over with Paul Flores murder conviction or not. But will the next step be a return to the city?
Kristin Smart, whose father, Paul, was convicted of murder on first-degree-murder charges in the 1999 death of his then seven-month-old daughter, Alyssa, returned to L.A. on Tuesday, a day before she was to appear as a witness in the slaying of the sheriff, her dad’s boss.
Smart arrived at the Downtown Detention Center with her young daughter, Willow, and her mother, Kristin Smart, a Los Angeles County deputy district attorney who works at the DA’s Office.
“I will not rest until I bring justice as surely as if I wrote the indictment,” said Smart. “It’s been over eight years, and I hope I will be cleared to take that case to my heart’s content.”
The death of Smart’s daughter, a girl who was not yet six months old, in the family’s Los Angeles home in September 1999 was the last major tragedy. Alyssa Smart was killed by a gunshot to the head while Kristin and Paul Smart watched on from the den.
Smart began showing signs of autism at age 3, when she would not talk or smile. She was diagnosed as a possible developmentally disabled child.
As part of her therapy, she was enrolled in a day program at USC, where she was trained as a ballet dancer with the Ballet East program.
Paul Smart, who is black, came to USC in the fall of 1999, and Smart says he began a romance with her daughter’s dance teacher, Joanne Miller.
She claims that Paul Smart physically abused her, and used physical violence to discipline his daughter. He also put a pillow over her face to punish her when she laughed.
Kristin Smart had filed for divorce from Paul Smart on May 22, 1999, while the girl’s body was still in the morgue.
The Smart’s moved back to Los Angeles after the child’s death, and Kristin Smart had