When text messages were exchanged between Adam Longoria’s and Alicia DeBolt’s cell phones, Nex-Tech Wireless towers were collecting the data. That was the source of much of the testimony on Wednesday, as Longoria’s second preliminary hearing in connection with the Great Bend teenager’s murder got under way.
Longoria is charged with capital murder, as prosecutors allege that he committed the premeditated murder of 14-year-old DeBolt on or about Aug. 21, 2010, after attempting to rape her. He is also charged with indecent solicitation of a child, and with the burglary and theft of a vehicle. The Kansas Attorney General’s Office, which is handling the prosecution, has changed its theory of the alleged murder, prompting a new preliminary hearing on that charge. But the case continues to move forward, and attorneys agreed to some previously established facts. Barton County District Judge Hannelore Kitts set aside Wednesday and today for the preliminary hearing and for pre-trial procedures.
Assistant Attorney General Andrew Bauch called 11 witnesses on Wednesday, and said he has several more to call when the hearing resumes at 9 a.m. today.
Stephanie Smith, a Kansas Bureau of Investigation intelligence specialist, provided the content of text messages exchanged between the cell phones of Longoria and DeBolt from July 18 to Aug. 22, 2010. The prosecution alleges Longoria picked up DeBolt outside her home around 11 p.m. on Aug. 21 — the last time family members saw her alive — and a text from him at 11:01 states, "I’m here."
Earlier texts to DeBolt’s phone had asked, "Do you want to party?" Another read, "I have five bottles and five cases of beer at my house and there will be lots of people."
The last message from his phone to her’s was at 12:57 a.m. on Aug. 22, 2010: "There isn’t going to be a party. Never mind."
Aaron Gillespie from Nex-Tech Wireless explained how the towers showed, roughly, the location of the phones when they sent or received a call or text. But they can’t determine the exact house or even block the message came from. "We don’t have GPS," he said.
So, while some messages could have been sent from Venture Corporation’s Dundee asphalt plant, where DeBolt’s badly burned body was discovered on Aug. 24, 2010, the phone could also have been at the Great Bend Airport or moving toward Heizer, Gillespie agreed under cross examination from defense attorney Jeff Wicks.
The state’s first witness was Eva Brown, Longoria’s former girlfriend. He moved into her Great Bend home on May of 2010, and shared the use of her cell phone and her black Ford Escape. DeBolt came to their home on July 17 for Brown’s birthday party, and at 3:34 a.m. the next morning she was texting Longoria on their phone: "Hey, this is Alicia!!"
"I thought it was strange and I asked Adam, ‘who is this?’" Brown testified. "He needed to quit because he was underage. I was told she was 16 at that time, and he was 36."
Smith testified that Longoria eventually got his own cell phone, and there were numerous texts between Longoria and DeBolt.
On Aug. 21, 2010, Brown and Longoria took her two children to spend the night with her brother. Then they went bowling and had dinner at The Rack. Longoria was wearing a gray Nike shirt, blue pull-away pants and white Air Jordan tennis shoes. They got home at 10:30 p.m., but Longoria left a short time later, saying he needed to meet someone named "Ghetto" to look at some photos. He returned a short time later with stains on his clothes. He put them in the laundry and changed into a white tank top, shorts and flip-flops, and quickly left again, Brown testified.
On Sunday, Aug. 22, Brown went to pick up her kids. She said there was a strange smell in her Ford Escape. "There was an automotive, gas smell." The stains hadn’t come out of Longoria’s clothes and he said he was going to throw the pants away. That evening, he washed his Nike Air Jordans in the bathtub with water and bleach.
The next day, he took her vehicle and cleaned it. On the way home, they were pulled over by the police and Longoria told Brown to lie and say they were at Willie J’s, a bar north of town, on Saturday night.
Tiffany Nily, a neighbor to the DeBolt’s, testified she was at a barbecue party within sight of their house the night Alicia disappeared. A "smaller black SUV" caught her eye as it moved slowly up the street, made a U-turn and came back. The driver made a total of three U-turns before it stopped. Nily said she saw DeBolt walk to the passenger side of the vehicle, and when it left she was gone.
She could not identify the driver.
Two employees at Love’s convenience store testified about the man who bought $1.32 worth of gas at 12:10 a.m. on Aug. 22.
Hugo Hernandez testified that Longoria approached him on Aug. 23, 2010, and mentioned how he had helped some of Hernandez’s friends who needed alibis. "He wanted me to make up an alibi for him," Hernandez said. "That I had seen him at Willy J’s on Saturday."
Arnulfo Olivas was also at Brown’s birthday party and testified that Longoria was talking about how "fine" DeBolt looked and indicated he wanted to have sex with her. Olivas said he smoked a "bud" and drank some beer at the party. He was unable to point out Longoria in the courtroom on Wednesday.
Great Bend Police Detective Denton Doze testified that he collected the Aug. 22 gas sales receipt from Loves and saw a video of Longoria putting gas into a container. Doze also said he contacted Longoria for a DNA swab, which was collected by a nurse at Central Kansas Medical Center.
KBI agent Cory Latham described the crime scene when DeBolt’s body was found on Aug. 24 at the asphalt plant about five miles west of Great Bend. "Her body was badly burned. The entire body was burned to some extent," Latham said, adding the burns were worse on the top half of her body and on the front. She was on her back in the "pugilistic" stance — arms pulled up to her chest like a boxer — associated with fire scenes. The stance is caused by muscle contraction, he said. "It appeared she was in that position at the time the fire was going."
Lab tests of items found at the scene showed gasoline on the clothing and the soil around it. There was duct tape on her face and right ankle. Latham said Longoria’s Air Jordans, seized when authorities searched the house, also had traces of gasoline.
David Klamm, senior special agent with the KBI in Wichita, observed the autopsy of DeBolt’s body on Aug. 25, including a second examination when her body was positively identified through dental records.
"She was badly burned and charred," he said. Burnt debris from the duct tape was across her mouth and on the right leg. DeBolt’s death was officially ruled a homicide. The cause of death: "Undetermined homicidal violence."
