Print edition: 
GREAT BEND — Eva Brown said that on the night of her birthday she learned, through a text message, that her live-in boyfriend was having a relationship with a 14-year-old girl.
"It's Alicia. I'm here," Brown remembered the text message saying.
It was meant for her boyfriend, Adam Longoria, now charged with capital murder in the death of Alicia DeBolt. That cell phone text would begin a string of messaging that prosecutors used Wednesday at a preliminary hearing to show the relationship between the 36-year-old man and the 14-year-old girl in the month before her body, burned beyond recognition, turned up Aug. 24, 2010, at an asphalt plant about 5 miles southwest of Great Bend on U.S. 56.
That July 17, during her birthday party, Brown said she'd seen DeBolt. Then Brown received the text on the phone she then shared with Longoria.
"Who is this?" Brown testified she asked Longoria.
"It's a girl from the party," Brown testified that Longoria answered.
Brown said she questioned him receiving a text from a girl she knew to be a teenager. Also, Longoria was living with her and her two children, 11 and 13. Longoria would resume texting DeBolt the next day, calling her "hot stuff," coaxing her to send him pictures and asking her to parties and offering her food and alcohol, according to phone records presented in court.
Longoria faced much of the same evidence at a preliminary hearing in November. Because prosecutors changed their theory of how DeBolt died, Barton County District Judge Hannelore Kitts ordered a new preliminary hearing. While much of the evidence was the same, new lab tests and the extent of text messages became public for the first time Wednesday.
In the United States, not every murder qualifies as a capital offense, which allows prosecutors to seek the death penalty upon conviction. Kansas law allows seven circumstances which qualify for capital murder, including a killing during or after a sexual assault.
In this case, prosecutors have charged Longoria with killing DeBolt under three alternative theories: in the course of sodomy, aggravated criminal sodomy or attempted rape. Aggravated sodomy, by law, is committed without consent. Prosecutors will have to convince a jury of at least one of those theories, should the case go to trial.
Assistant Attorney General Andy Bauch and special assistant attorney general Kevin O'Connor are trying to show Longoria had a sexual interest in the 14-year-old.
During Brown's birthday party the night of July 17, 2010, one guest said Longoria was making suggestive comments about DeBolt.
"He said she was hot, that she had a nice body," Hugo Hernandez testified. He added that Longoria said he'd like to have sex with her.
The next morning, at 4:36 a.m., the phone Longoria shared with Brown received a text message.
"Hi, it's Alicia! :)"
Stephanie Smith, an intelligence specialist with the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, analyzed messages taken off DeBolt's phone after her death, comparing it to data from Nex-Tech — the phone carrier she and Longoria used. Smith presented a series of text messages between DeBolt and Longoria, beginning on July 18, 2010, and ending the night she disappeared from her home four weeks later.
Messages received from Longoria's phone told DeBolt that she was "out of my league" and expressed surprise that she would be interested in him.
The messages also included texts from Eva Brown, Smith testified:
"She's your wife!!!??" a text from DeBolt's phone said, sent to Longoria on July 21.
"She is not my wife!" a text from Longoria's phone read. "Long story, and nothing to worry about."
Around 11 p.m. on Aug. 21, 2010, DeBolt left her house, telling her mother she was going to a party.
"I'm here," a text read, sent from Longoria's phone to DeBolt at 11:01 p.m. She had been receiving texts throughout that evening, inviting her to a party at his house, saying other people would be there.
Texts between Longoria and DeBolt ceased, but the teen continued to send and receive texts, records show. Records also showed that both phones were communicating with towers in the general vicinity of the asphalt plant.
At 11:40 p.m., DeBolt's phone went inactive, until it received a text from her mother at 12:11 the next morning, saying the girl was past curfew.
Just after midnight, clerks at the Love's convenience store in Great Bend said Longoria walked into the store and asked for a container for gas. Finding nothing in the store, a security video recorded Longoria rummaging through a trash can, then pouring gas into a portable container. A receipt from the store showed Longoria had purchased $1.32 worth of gas.
At 12:57 a.m. on Aug. 22, 2010, DeBolt's phone received a message from Longoria's phone.
"There isn't going to be a party. Never mind," the KBI's Smith said the message read.
When authorities discovered DeBolt's body, she had what was left of several layers of duct tape across her mouth and on an ankle.
"She was badly burnt, charred," said David Klamm, special agent for the KBI.
KBI lab tests revealed traces of gasoline on DeBolt's clothing and soil from where her body lay.
Cory Latham, crime scene investigator for the KBI, said lab tests also revealed gas on a pair of shoes recovered from Longoria's closet.
They were the same shoes Brown said he'd worn when he left their house the night of Aug. 21.
Testimony continues today.
Following the preliminary hearing, Judge Kitts will hear several motions, including one by defense lawyers Jeff Wicks and Tim Frieden to have the capital murder charges dismissed. They contend Longoria can't get a fair trial because of adverse publicity and outrage by the community, preventing a jury from being seated.
