Jason Budrow, pictured left, attacked Paul Flores at the Pleasant Valley State Prison on Aug. 23, 2023, prison officials said. (Mug shot of Budrow: California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation; image of Flores: San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office)
The self-described “Satanist” who allegedly beat the killer of Kristin Smart so badly he had to be hospitalized had himself previously taken two lives: first, his girlfriend and years later, he slew a convicted serial killer.
Paul Flores is serving a 25-to-life term for murdering Kristin Denise Smart, 19, back in 1996, when they were both students at California Polytechnic State University. The victim was never found, though authorities argued Smart had been buried under the Flores family deck at some point and then removed.
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation identified Jason Budrow as Flores’ attacker. Both men are inmates at the Pleasant Valley State Prison in the city of Coalinga, California, which is about 60 miles southwest of Fresno.
It’s there that he somehow encountered Jason Budrow.
“At approximately 10 a.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2023, yard staff saw Flores fall to the ground between the recreational yard and the medical clinic,” the corrections department told Law&Crime in an email. “Staff ordered everyone to get down and summoned medical staff who immediately responded. Flores was transported to an outside hospital in serious condition. Flores returned to PVSP two days later.”
Authorities found Budrow nearby with something they only described as a “manufactured weapon.” He surrendered without incident, and no one else was hurt, they said.
Prison officials said they recommended Budrow face charges, and they referred questions to the Fresno County District Attorney’s Office, who did not immediately respond to a Law&Crime request for comment.
Authorities have not suggested why Budrow attacked Flores, but he carried another attack in 2021 on cellmate Roger Reece Kibbe, the serial killer known as the “I-5 Strangler.” According to authorities at the time, a guard at Mule Creek State Prison was doing population counts when coming across Budrow standing in his cell and Kibbe, 81, lying unresponsive on the floor.
Staff tried to save the serial killer, but he was pronounced dead less than an hour later.
Kibbe had been serving six consecutive sentences of life without parole and a seventh term of life with parole; a total of seven counts of first-degree murder for killing and raping seven women.
In a letter to The San Jose Mercury News, Budrow asserted he sought out becoming Kibbe’s cellmate after seeing a TV special about the serial killer. He wanted to take his life, asserting he was on “a mission for avenging” Kibbe’s victims, and he asserted cutting a pentagram into the body.
Kibbe’s death landed Budrow, reportedly a self-described “Satanist” with a 666 tattoo above his right eye, another life term. He was already set to spend the rest of his days behind bars after after strangling his girlfriend, Margret Dalton, to death and sexually assaulting a teenager in separate incidents.
Roger Reece Kibbe, known as the “I-5 Strangler,” raped and murdered at least seven women, authorities said. (Mug shot: California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation)
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