Prosecutors describe lead-up to Great Bend girl's death

It began with a 36-year-old man's obsession with a 14-year-old Great Bend girl.

That's what prosecutors with the Kansas Attorney General's Office allege in a case in which the man, Adam Longoria, would face the death penalty if convicted of capital murder in the death of the girl, Alicia DeBolt.

In court documents, prosecutors describe how they think the 14-year-old came to be murdered on Aug. 21, 2010.

Late that evening, Alicia disappeared after getting into an SUV. Three days later, workers found her burned body at an asphalt plant outside Great Bend.

The killer used duct tape on her face and an ankle in an attempt to rape her, prosecutors say in the documents. Prosecutors allege that she died during or after the rape attempt.

Her face had duct tape across both cheeks, from her chin to her nose. She most likely had been strangled or suffocated, documents say.

A pathologist concluded that she had been killed before her body was burned.

In the weeks before Alicia disappeared, Longoria and his girlfriend, Eva Brown, argued over the teen, according to a statement prosecutors obtained from Brown's sister, Lisa Brown.

Eva Brown told Longoria to "take care of the problem" and end his relationship with Alicia, Lisa Brown's statement said.

Lisa Brown said that according to her sister, when Longoria returned home about an hour and a half after Alicia disappeared, his clothing smelled of fuel, and his shirt and shoes had blood on them.

The court documents reveal that Longoria — who met Eva Brown through a pen-pal relationship while he was in a Texas prison and moved to Great Bend to live with her — became a confidential informant for Great Bend police and the Kansas Bureau of Investigation a few days before Alicia was killed.

He had been in and out of Texas prisons since 1991 for crimes including burglary and robbery.

Court documents describe this timeline leading up to Alicia's death and continuing with the ensuing investigation:

July 17, 2010: A birthday party for Eva Brown, Longoria's girlfriend, was held at the couple's house in Great Bend. There was a second party that day at the same house, but Longoria's girlfriend wasn't there. Alicia came to the second party with men in their late teens.

"Upon seeing Alicia, the defendant immediately became obsessed with her," prosecutors say in one of the documents.

"He began to woo Alicia by fawning over her and providing her with mixed alcohol drinks. He wanted Alicia to be 'his girl.' "

After another man took her home, "the defendant became upset, later accusing this individual of blocking his attempts to have sex with Alicia."

July 18, 2010: Early in the day after the parties, the texting began. At 4:36 a.m.: "Hey it's Alicia!!"

When Eva Brown questioned Longoria about the message, he said it "was just a young girl from the party, and as a form of protection he had asked Alicia to text him when she got home."

From 10:32 a.m. to 7:58 p.m. that day, Longoria and Alicia exchanged 55 text messages. He began this exchange with: "Wake up sleeping beauty." Longoria also called the teen "miss shy" and "hot stuff" and said he wanted to take her to a movie.

"r u going 2 b my date?"

The teen said she only wanted to be friends.

He asked for a picture, and over the cellphone, she sent one.

"Damn I like," he answered.

When she asked his age, he said 25 — 11 years younger than his real age.

July 20, 2010: The day — three days after the parties — marked Longoria's first attempt "to get Alicia in the car," according to prosecutors. He began a conversation with her that involved 26 text messages over six hours. He asked her out to eat and said he would pick her up.

July 21: By just after midnight, Longoria had obtained a new cellphone and given his old one to Eva Brown. When Brown saw that her boyfriend and Alicia had been texting, "she enters into a texting war with Alicia," a document said. The two exchanged 19 messages in 20 minutes.

While Brown was telling the 14-year-old to stop messaging her boyfriend, Longoria was telling Alicia to ignore his girlfriend.

"She's your wife!!!??" Alicia texted him.

"She's not my wife!"

July 23: On that evening, Longoria made his second attempt to get Alicia into a car, the prosecutors allege, citing the text: "U want 2 party 2nite, going out of town and might rent a limo." She didn't answer.

July 18 to July 24: It was a week of boasting by Longoria. Prosecutors say he told another man that he "got Alicia into his car and had sex with her."

"He bragged about the conquest and commented about Alicia's breast. When cautioned about Alicia's tender age, the defendant told the acquaintance that he did not care."

Prosecutors think Longoria was making it up, that he had a "creative imagination," a document said.

He also told people that he had played football for the University of Texas and had been a certified public accountant and a bank money changer. He claimed to be a close relative of actress Eva Longoria.

Late July: In the month before Alicia disappeared, Longoria and Eva Brown argued over the 14-year-old, according to a transcript of a prosecutors' recent interview of Brown's older sister, Lisa Brown. Lisa Brown allowed The Eagle to read the transcript.

Asked by a prosecutor what she recalled from a conversation with her sister about the argument, Lisa Brown said: "I know that they had gotten into an argument about her and that she was — that she was too young for him ... she (Eva Brown) was so upset because he left her and took the car and she didn't know where Adam had went ... she was so upset that he left over this girl."

Lisa Brown said her sister told her that she viewed it this way: that Longoria was living at her house, that he shouldn't be dating anyone else and that "he needed to take care of the problem."

July 31: Longoria made his third attempt to pick up Alicia: He offered to take her to a party. When she said she was already at the party, he offered her a ride from it, but she said no. Late that night and into the next morning, he tried to find her. Police stopped him for an unrelated matter three blocks from the party, a document said.

Investigators later counted 48 text messages between Alicia and Longoria that night.

July 31 to Aug. 1: Longoria and Brown moved to another house in Great Bend, and while moving furniture, Longoria told an acquaintance that he had had sex with the girl.

Aug. 4: Using a new phone, Longoria texted Alicia: "U want 2 drink and go 4 a cruise." She didn't answer. It marked his fourth try to get her in a car, prosecutors said.

Aug. 15: He sent her a text: "u don't want 2 talk 2 me." "Ya," she replied.

Aug. 17: Longoria signed an agreement to become a confidential informant for Great Bend police. That afternoon and evening, he made two "controlled buys" of marijuana, then a third the next evening.

Aug. 19: He signed an agreement to be a confidential informant for the KBI.

Aug. 21: This is the night Alicia disappeared. There is a series of text messages between Longoria's cellphone and Alicia's cellphone that night, beginning at 9:46 with a text from him.

Eva Brown, Longoria's girlfriend, owned a black 2002 Ford Escape. Brown later told authorities that Longoria left their home around 11 that night in her black SUV.

After Alicia sent a text to Longoria with her address, he texted back that he would arrive in three minutes.

A text from him at 11:01 p.m. said, "I'm here."

Around the same time that night, a witness saw Alicia get into a dark-colored SUV.

"During this time frame, the defendant lured Alicia into his vehicle by telling her there was a party with some of her friends and that alcohol was available," according to a court document.

That night "the defendant's depraved fantasy came true," prosecutors said in another document.

"He lured Alicia into his vehicle, took her to an isolated area, attempted to rape her, and killed her."

Longoria drove from an asphalt plant, where he had worked, to a Love's convenience store in Great Bend, where he bought gasoline. He returned to her body, poured gas on it and set it on fire, prosecutors allege.

In the interview with prosecutors, Lisa Brown said her sister told her that Longoria returned home at about 12:30 a.m. Aug. 22 — about an hour and a half after he left in the black SUV.

According to a transcript, the prosecutor asked Lisa Brown: "And Eva said that he smelled of fuel on his clothing?"

"Yes, he smelled of fuel ... "

"And that he cleaned his shoes and shoelaces with bleach?"

"Yes ..."

"And that Eva said that he had a large stain on his shirt?"

"Yeah ... ."

"And that Longoria had Eva dispose of his shirt and pants?"

"That is correct. He had her cut the shirt into three pieces and dispose of the shirt three different places in town."

Later, a prosecutor asked: "Did Eva describe what the stain on Adam's shirt looked like ... ?"

"It was blood. There was a blood stain." Her sister indicated the stain was bigger than a grapefruit.

Lisa Brown told the prosecutor that her sister said that Longoria used bleach to clean blood from his shoestrings and shoes.

In the weeks before Alicia disappeared, Lisa Brown said, her sister had intercepted text messages from Adam and Alicia, "and Eva told Adam that he needed to end that relationship."

The prosecutor asked: "Take care of the problem is what you said?"

"Yeah, to take care of the problem."

Aug. 22: Alicia is reported as a missing person.

Aug. 23: A Great Bend police detective got a call from Alicia's sister-in-law, who mentioned that Longoria drove a vehicle similar to the one that witnesses saw Alicia get into the night she disappeared.

While still on the phone with the sister-in-law, who was at Alicia's home, the detective heard Longoria's voice. Longoria had gone to Alicia's home, and the detective could hear him trying to organize a search party.

Longoria got on the phone and told the detective about his contact with Alicia since they met at the July 17 party. He told the detective that the night Alicia disappeared, he went bowling, ate at a restaurant, drank at a bar and went home. He said that no one used his vehicle.

Later, KBI agents interviewed Longoria. At that point, investigators didn't know whether Alicia had run away or become a crime victim.

Longoria told them he hadn't seen Alicia since the July 17 party, said he texted her about a party but only at the request of an acquaintance, that she texted back that she would tell him later. He said he had erased the text messages.

He said he left home on Aug. 21 around 10:45 p.m., went to Willy J's, a bar, and stayed there until 1:30 a.m. At the bar, he said, he exchanged texts with Alicia.

Aug. 24: That afternoon, employees at the Venture Corp. asphalt plant about 8 miles southwest of Alicia's home noticed what appeared to be a burned mannequin. When they saw flies around it, they called authorities.

Investigators found evidence on or near the body "indicating some type of struggle may have occurred," a document said.

Longoria worked for Venture.

Investigators later concluded that an accelerant was used to burn the body.

Aug. 25: An examination of Alicia's body found extensive burn injuries. Because of the injuries and decomposition, the specific cause of death couldn't be determined. But a pathologist ruled that the manner of death was homicidal violence.

That same day, during a search of the black SUV, investigators took "various evidentiary items."

Testing later found seminal fluid on the driver's-side floor mat. The area tested contained a mix of DNA — from Longoria and Alicia.

Aug. 26: A judge granted warrants to search Longoria and Brown's rental home and to search Longoria's cellphone and take samples from him, including his blood, head and pubic hair, an oral swab and nail scrapings, as well as fingerprints.

Among things investigators were searching for: duct tape, accelerants and clothing stained with accelerants.

That night, Longoria told Great Bend police about a person who "seemed to be involved in the killing of Alicia," a court document said. "He said that this person wanted $2,000 to get out of the state."

Aug. 27: A postal clerk told authorities that Longoria was trying to mail a package to Texas. Among items in the box: cowboy boots and hats.

To the clerk, Longoria seemed nervous and said, "I'm never coming back to Great Bend again."

At 11:38 a.m. that same day, a Kansas Highway Patrol trooper stopped Longoria on I-70 in Lincoln County, two counties to the northeast of Great Bend. He was arrested on suspicion of felony theft — accused of stealing a 2002 Ford Explorer from his employer — and he was brought back to Great Bend. At the KBI office there, Longoria said he understood his Miranda rights, admitted he took his employer's vehicle and said he was going to see a friend in Salina.

He said he wouldn't talk about Alicia but told a KBI agent that "one of his acquaintances may have killed Alicia" and that the person "was trying to get out of town and needed money," a document said.

Longoria again said he had been at Willy J's with several people the night Alicia disappeared.

He described Alicia as "flirty with everybody," "pretty" and the "life of the party." He also referred to her "in a derogatory manner," a document said, without elaboration.

He told the agent he knew who was involved in Alicia's killing and said that she "got involved in somethin' that she wasn't supposed to get involved in."

At 4:49 p.m., he told the agent he wouldn't talk without his lawyer. While authorities tried to reach his lawyer, a document said, Longoria kept talking, saying that investigators "had the right vehicle" from the night Alicia disappeared but that he wasn't present, that he let others use his vehicle at the time she vanished. He was taken to the Barton County Jail.

Aug. 30: While in jail facing vehicular burglary and theft charges, Longoria asked to speak to a KBI agent, signed a waiver and said "Let's play" before an interview that lasted 4 1/2 hours, including breaks. He gave a different version of what happened the night Alicia disappeared. He said he was at an acquaintance's Great Bend home, not at Willy J's, that the person took the Ford Escape that Longoria was driving and that the person returned 40 minutes later. Longoria said he didn't have his cellphone during that time — that he left it in the vehicle.

A trial date has not been set.

This story was originally published July 17, 2011 at 7:15 AM with the headline "Prosecutors describe lead-up to Great Bend girl's death."