The murder trial for Adam Longoria opened Thursday morning with the Kansas Attorney General’s Office attorney’s resting the prosecution’s case.
Fourteen-year-old Alicia DeBolt disappeared the night of Aug. 21, 2010, and her charred remains were found three days later at the Venture Corporation asphalt plant near Dundee. Longoria is on trial for allegedly murdering her after an attempted sexual assault.
Longoria’s defense team, from the Kansas Death Penalty Defense Unit, started calling their witnesses. Before breaking for lunch, they had called witnesses testifying to seeing other vehicles leaving the area of the asphalt plant the night DeBolt vanished, calling into doubt Longoria’s vehicle was the only one in the vicinity.
There was also testimony about smoke rising from the plant.
Under cross examination, the state noted that there was a home down the county road that runs next to the plant, and that the road continues to the Arkansas River. The cars mentioned by the defense’s witnesses, the prosecution said, could have been at that house or at a party by the river.
Testimony will resume this afternoon.