A self-proclaimed Satanic inmate from California who choked the “I-5 Strangler” to death in his prison cell has reportedly attacked Kristin Smart’s killer in prison, leaving him in critical condition.
Jason Budrow is suspected of beating Paul Flores in an early-morning attack on Aug. 23, a week after Flores was transferred to Pleasant Valley State Prison in Coalinga, California, about 60 miles southwest of Fresno.
“Yard personnel saw Flores fall to the ground between the recreation yard and the medical clinic,” the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) said in an email to Fox News Digital.
“Suspect Jason Budrow was discovered nearby with a manufactured weapon. He was turned over to staff without incident.”
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Jason Budrow, who killed the “I-5” strangler in prison, allegedly attacked Kristin Smart’s killer, Paul Flores, in prison. (California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation)
Flores was rushed to an outside hospital in serious condition, where he stayed for two days before being returned to the jail, according to CDCR.
CDCR declined to answer questions about the attack, how Budrow gained access to Flores or where Budrow and Flores are currently staying, and authorities have not said what motivated the ambush.
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“CDCR is limited in the amount of information it can provide about inmate housing for safety and security reasons,” the department said in a statement.
Flores is serving 25 to life in prison for killing 19-year-old Smart in 1996 when both were students at California State University, San Luis Obispo.
Kristin Smart is the California State University, San Luis Obispo, student who disappeared in 1996. (FBI via AP)
Paul Flores is shown during his murder trial in Monterey County Superior Court in Salinas, California, on July 18, 2022. Flores was convicted of murdering Kristin Smart. (Daniel Dreifuss/Monterey County Weekly via AP/Pool)
He was convicted in the decades-old cold case earlier this year, even though Smart’s body was never found. She was declared legally dead in 2002.
Budrow was serving life without parole for fatally strangling his girlfriend in 2010 when he killed his Mule Creek state prison cellmate — Roger Reece Kibbe, 81 — in 2021.
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Kibbe was known as the “I-5 Strangler” in the 1970s and 1980s for chasing women along the Interstate 5 corridor between Sacramento and Stockton.
He raped and strangled at least seven women and was known to cut his victims’ clothes into irregular patterns.
Roger Reece Kibbe – dubbed the ‘I-5 Strangler’ in the 1970s and 1980s – raped and strangled at least seven women. (California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation)
Kristin Smart disappeared on May 25, 1996, while attending California State University, San Luis Obispo. (Axel Koester/Sygma via Getty Images)
Budrow said he deliberately arranged to get a cell with Kibbe after seeing the TV coverage and killed him because he was on a “mission to avenge” Kibbe’s victims in a letter to the San Jose Mercury News.
After the prison killing, Budrow was reportedly placed in a restrictive housing unit at Pleasant Valley State Prison, which is reserved for inmates who “may be a danger to others or to themselves or whose behavior disrupts the safe and orderly operation of of the installation. according to the corrections department.
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Budrow described himself as a Satanist in prison interviews and had a “666” tattooed over his right eye.
The Fresno County District Attorney’s office will have the final say on whether to indict Budrow, who is currently serving two life sentences.
