All files from Great Bend murder case put online

GREAT BEND — The case against a man charged with killing a 14-year-old Great Bend girl appears to be the first capital murder in Kansas with a website making court documents available to the public online.

Ron Keefover, chief information officer with the Office of Judicial Administration, said he has been a media liaison in previous capital murder cases, but the case against 36-year-old Adam Joseph Longoria is "the first one we've actually had all the documents online."

"It is unusual," he said.

Longoria is charged with capital murder and criminal sodomy in the death last month of Alicia DeBolt. Her body was found burned beyond recognition near a Great Bend asphalt company where Longoria had worked.

Barton County District Judge Hannelore Kitts requested the website in the Longoria case because making copies of court documents available online helped alleviate the demands on the county's small staff of district court clerks.

With the website in place, clerks don't have to worry about several requests from the media for copies of motions or other filings in the case.

Keefover previously served as a media liaison in the case against John Robinson, who was convicted in 2003 for murdering multiple women, including some in Kansas, whose bodies were found in barrels in a storage unit. In the Robinson case, Keefover e-mailed court documents at the request of media members.

Keefover has also helped coordinate a website with court documents for a bankruptcy proceeding in the 17th Judicial District, which covers Decatur, Graham, Norton, Osborne, Phillips and Smith counties.

"In more rural counties, they are frequently down to two or fewer staff members," Keefover said. "If there are several media requests, sometimes they go through one person."

This story was originally published October 4, 2010 at 12:00 AM with the headline "All files from Great Bend murder case put online."