Adam Joseph Longoria, 38, began his life sentence in prison Tuesday afternoon, and is now housed at the El Dorado Correctional Facility.
Longoria, who has also used the alias Roy Gilbert Alvarez, was convicted of capital murder for the slaying of cheerleader Alicia DeBolt, just days before the 14-year-old girl was to start Great Bend High School in August of 2010.
Barton County District Judge Hannelore Kitts pronounced the sentence — life without parole — late Tuesday morning, and by 12:30 p.m. Longoria was being turned over to the Kansas Department of Corrections.
On Monday, Longoria made it known that he did not plan to attend his sentencing, where family members of Miss DeBolt would be allowed to address the court. During a Monday hearing in which he waived his right to attend the sentencing, Longoria’s attorney, John Val Wachtel, asked the judge to ease restrictions on his phone use.
According to a transcript of that hearing, Wachtel said:
“Your Honor, Mr. Longoria has — is subject to a gag order. And he’s — by virtue of that gag order, he cannot call his mother. Mr. Longoria has asked me to ask the court if that gag order can be lifted with respect to his mother and his mother only, so that he can call her this evening and tell her that, in all likelihood, after this time tomorrow, he will not be here and that he will be in or on his way to one of the (prisons).”
“Well, we’re going to lift the gag order tomorrow, and then Mr. Longoria can call his mother,” Kitts said. “We’re not going to do that tonight.”
The lifting of the gag order on all parties involved in the case came at the end of Tuesday’s hearing, and within the hour Longoria was being processed by the KDOC. Sheriff Greg Armstrong said Longoria didn’t get to call his mother, or anyone else, before leaving the Barton County Jail.
With the gag order lifted, on Wednesday Randy Smith, the director of the Criminal Justice Program at Barton Community College, commented on his students’ involvement in the case. Smith is a former Kansas Bureau of Investigation agent and BCC Criminal Justice students assisted the KBI investigation of the murder by searching the area and marking possible evidence.
“We found 19 pieces of evidence,” including Alicia DeBolt’s cell phone, which was discarded in a ditch an eighth of a mile from the asphalt plant where her body was found, Smith said. “It was very gratifying for the students."