Adam Longoria to stand trial on charges in death of 14-year-old girl

GREAT BEND -- A judge this afternoon ordered Adam Longoria to stand trial on charges of capital murder and criminal sodomy in the death of a 14-year-old girl.

Barton County District Judge Hannelore Kitts, also entered a peal of not guilty for Longoria, 36, who remained silent following his preliminary hearing.

Assistant Kansas Attorney General Barry Disney also presented Longoria with notice that prosecutors will seek the death penalty if he is convicted of capital murder at trial.

A jury will determine both if Longoria is guilty and his sentence.

If convicted of capital murder, Longoria could also receive life in prison without the possibility of parole.

DeBolt disappeared about 11 p.m. Aug. 21, after her mother testified that the girl said she was going to a party. Tamara Conrad said her daughter had a curfew of midnight.

When DeBolt didn't come home, Conrad testified, she reported her missing.

DeBolt's charred body was found days later at an asphalt plant south of Great Bend.

A coroner's report said the girl's body was so badly burned, it could not be determined if she sustained other injuries.

The cause of death was listed as "undetermined homicidal violence."

A forensic lab examiner with the Kansas Bureau of Investigation said he found semen stains on the floor mats of a Ford Escape belonging to Longoria's girlfriend.

But Cory Latham said DNA tests on the semen showed a mixture of genetic codes matching Longoria and DeBolt.

Longoria and DeBolt apparently met around 11 p.m., when she told her mother she was going to a party, according to text messages retrieved from their phones.

Stephanie Smith, a KBI analyst, said she was able to track text messages between the two cell phones, which began just before 10 p.m. on Aug. 21, when DeBolt disappeared.

The texts show a message from Longoria's phone to DeBolt's offering to pick her up for a party, Smith said.

"I'm here," said another text from Longoria's phone to DeBolt's.

That was at 11:01 pm.

About that time, a neighbor, Tiffany Nily, said she was at a barbecue across the street and saw DeBolt run out and get into a car. She was talking on her cell phone. Nily said DeBolt left in a black SUV.

About 40 minutes later, signals stopped being transmitted from DeBolt's phone, Smith said.

Eva Brown, Longoria's live-in girlfriend, took the stand. She said she and Longoria began texting each other about 11:30 that night, near the time records show that DeBolt's phone lost service.

Although the KBI's Smith said she couldn't tell who actually had the phone from the records, Brown said she received a call about 12:30 Sunday morning.

"It was Adam," Brown testified.

Brown added that Longoria smelled of gas when he later returned home.

According to Smith, a text from Longoria's phone arrived on DeBolt's phone around 1 a.m.: "There isn't going 2 be a party never mind."

More than two days later, a worker found her burned body several miles west of Great Bend at an asphalt plant where Longoria had worked.

Longoria had been named a "person of interest" in Alicia's death a few days after her body was found. He already was being held on charges of vehicle burglary and theft related to an SUV that was stolen Aug. 27 from the paving business that employed him.

The Kansas Highway Patrol arrested him on I-70 outside of Salina.

Longoria moved to Great Bend in May after being released from a Texas prison. His criminal record included convictions for burglary and robbery.

This story was originally published November 18, 2010 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Adam Longoria to stand trial on charges in death of 14-year-old girl."