The inmate accused of a jailhouse attack on Kristin Smart's killer pleaded not guilty Monday to attempted murder.
Jason Budrow, 43, entered his plea in Fresno County Superior Court to four felony charges, including using a prison-made deadly weapon and assault by an inmate serving a life sentence.
Prosecutors say Budrow slashed Paul Flores in the neck last Aug. 23 in the yard at Pleasant Valley State Prison in Coalinga.
Flores was hospitalized but returned to the prison two days later. Authorities haven't mentioned a possible motive for the attack.
Flores is serving a sentence of 25 years to life for Smart's murder. The two were Cal Poly students at the time of Smart's disappearance in 1996.
Prosecutors maintained that Flores killed Smart during an attempted rape in his dorm room at the university. He was the last person seen with Smart as he walked her home from an off-campus party.
Her body was never found.
Flores was arrested in 2021, convicted in 2022, and sentenced last March.
Budrow is serving two life terms without the possibility of parole for strangling a girlfriend in 2010 in Riverside County and the 2021 strangling of his new cellmate at Mule Creek State Prison, serial killer Roger Reece Kibbe, who was known as the I-5 Strangler in the 1970s and 1980s.
If convicted on the new charges, Budrow could receive an additional sentence of 27 years to life in prison.
