Top Stories Wichita

BY RON SYLVESTER

The Wichita Eagle

Last week, the Kansas Court of Appeals sternly criticized a Sedgwick County prosecutor, saying he fabricated evidence against an accused sexual predator.

This week, the District Attorney’s Office found the evidence.

Where was it? In the case file at the Court of Appeals in Topeka.

“The bottom line is, it’s in there,” District Attorney Nola Foulston said Thursday.

The office of Kansas Attorney General Steve Six asked the Court of Appeals to reconsider its ruling in light of the proven existence of the evidence.

Last Friday, the Court of Appeals had reversed a jury’s decision to keep Robert C. Ontiberos confined to indefinite treatment as a predator as allowed by Kansas law.

Although the Court of Appeals may not change its ruling, Foulston said prosecutor Marc Bennett can rest assured that he didn’t make up evidence that Ontiberos made a shank while in prison.

A prison record showing Ontiberos fashioned a homemade weapon in prison from a pen and duct tape was found among 3,600 pages of exhibits that were sent to the court as part of the record on appeal.

In its ruling last week, the court said Bennett had falsified the record.

In asking the court to reconsider, Assistant Attorney General Kristafer Ailslieger provided a copy of the prison disciplinary report in a legal pleading filed Thursday afternoon.

“Thus, the prosecutor in this case did not manufacture non-existent evidence to use against Ontiberos, and did not commit the misconduct found to be so egregious by the Court,” Ailslieger wrote in a motion for rehearing.

Ailslieger admitted that lawyers on both sides contributed to the confusion.

After the trial in 2008, Ontiberos’ lawyer could not find the disciplinary report in the 3,000-plus pages of records.

During a subsequent hearing, Bennett was asked to produce the record. He couldn’t find it either.

“And being the gentleman he is, he said he must have been mistaken,” Foulston said.

But the record was there and was shipped to Topeka as part of the record on appeal.

The record remained in Topeka, and lost, until the file was returned to Sedgwick County. After Foulston ordered the records double-checked, prosecutors found the record this week.

Ailslieger asked the court to at least change its opinion to correct its error about Bennett’s conduct.

“Mr. Bennett’s personal and professional reputations have been seriously tarnished by this error and he and the Office of the District Attorney.. have been unjustly disparaged in the public media,” Ailslieger wrote in the motion.

Ontiberos was convicted of attempted rape in 1983 and aggravated sexual battery in 2001.

When Ontiberos came up for parole, prosecutors sought to confine him to a state mental hospital under the Kansas Sexually Violent Predator Act.

Sex offenders who suffer a mental abnormality or personality disorder making them likely to commit repeat offenses can be held indefinitely for treatment under the 1994 law.

Ontiberos’ appeals lawyer, Michael Whalen, said he supports a rehearing of the issue surrounding Bennett.

“I have a great deal of respect for Mr. Bennett as a prosecutor and as an attorney,” Whalen said.

Whalen said he expected to file a response within the next week on other issues, however.

Bennett’s conduct wasn’t the only flaw the Court of Appeals found in the case. Judges also ruled Ontiberos didn’t receive an adequate defense.

The court also said the defense lawyer should have objected to how the rest of the reports were being submitted to the jury.

Reach Ron Sylvester at 316-268-6514 or rsylvester@wichitaeagle.com.

By STEVEN K. PAULSON

Associated Press

LIBERAL — Colorado gubernatorial hopeful Dan Maes’ murky past in Kansas law enforcement has become the latest distraction in his gaffe-ridden campaign.

Maes has claimed he was fired by the Liberal Police Department in the 1980s because police and politicians were corrupt, and he told supporters that he worked undercover for state investigators gathering information on a local bookmaking ring.

But the Kansas Bureau of Investigation denies Maes ever worked for it, and Liberal’s police department won’t talk about him.

His shadowy law enforcement resume is the latest distraction in a race in which Maes was fined for campaign finance violations and drew criticism over remarks that he would fire thousands of state workers.

Maes, who defeated former U.S. Rep. Scott McInnis for the GOP nomination, had previously said he was fired from the Liberal Police Department because he got too close to higher-ups. In a letter to supporters in August he went further, saying he was placed undercover by the KBI to gather information inside a bookmaking ring that was allegedly selling drugs.

Maes later acknowledged he was involved — but not employed — by the KBI.

“I got too close to some significant people in the community who were involved in these activities and abruptly was dismissed from my position,” Maes said in the letter that was briefly posted on his website and later removed.

Maes called it a chapter in his life “where I fought the machine.” He refused to elaborate, saying that “many who were involved in this situation are still alive.”

Bob Blecha, director of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, said there is no record of Maes working for the bureau or as an undercover agent. He said there was an investigation of bookmaking in Liberal at the time but “it was unsuccessful.” Blecha refused to provide details because there was no prosecution.

Sheena Lynch, Liberal’s city personnel director, confirmed that Maes worked for the police department from Sept. 21, 1983, to July 12, 1985, but refused to discuss the circumstances of his departure. Police Chief Alan Sill, who worked for the KBI until 1996, also refused to discuss Maes’ performance.

Retired Police Chief Rick Kistner, who lives in Florida, said he doesn’t remember Maes or any bookmaking probe.

In a story Wednesday, the Denver Post asked Maes about his claims of working undercover in Kansas — to which Maes responded that “those comments might have been incorrect comments.” He didn’t elaborate, but his spokesman, Nate Strauch, said Wednesday that Maes isn’t backing off his account.

Strauch said that at the time, Maes had some information about a small-time gambling operation and worked with a pair of KBI agents on “two or three occasions.” He confirmed Maes was never directly employed by the KBI.

Maes, a businessman from the Denver suburb of Evergreen, rode tea party support to defeat McInnis in the Colorado GOP Aug. 10 primary. He faces Democrat John Hickenlooper, who is Denver’s mayor, and former Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, running on the American Constitution Party ticket, in the general election.

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By Eagle staff

A celebration of life service will be Friday for 14-year-old Alicia DeBolt, whose body was found last week in Great Bend.

The service will be at 10 a.m. Friday at the First Assembly of God in Great Bend. The Rev. Kyle Ermoian will officiate. A private family inurnment will take place after the service.

Memorials are requested to the Alicia DeBolt Expense Fund, in care of Bryant Funeral Home, 1425 Patton Road, Great Bend, KS 67530.

Alicia, who would have been a freshman at Great Bend High School, was last seen leaving her house on Aug. 21. Her burned body was found three days later at an asphalt plant outside of Great Bend.

Adam Longoria, 36, whom authorities are calling a “person of interest” in the case, was arrested Friday. He is being held in the Barton County jail, although he has not been charged with any crimes related to Alicia’s death.

By STEPHANIE REITZ

Associated Press

The parents of six deceased U.S. soldiers are suing Prudential Financial, saying it paid paltry interest on military life insurance benefits while keeping more generous interest earnings for itself.

Five plaintiffs joined the original plaintiff Monday in the lawsuit, which was filed in July in U.S. District Court in Springfield, Mass. It accuses Prudential of profiting from the dead soldiers’ policies with bookkeeping maneuvers and misrepresenting the way the beneficiaries could collect lump-sum payouts.

Their attorneys are seeking class-action status.

If granted, it could affect tens of thousands of beneficiaries who received payments under group life insurance policies for military members and veterans created by Congress and administered by Prudential.

A spokesman for the Newark, N.J.-based company said Monday that while company officials cannot address the pending litigation, they strongly defend their handling of the money as responsible and deferential to the beneficiaries’ grief and needs.

The debate centers on Prudential’s use of what it calls Alliance Accounts. The accounts are similar to checking accounts and come with a booklet of drafts. Beneficiaries can write drafts to themselves up to the payout’s full amount, an option they can pick in lieu of 36 equal monthly installments.

Interest paid to beneficiaries who parked their money in Alliance Accounts in the last several years has ranged from 0.5 to 1.5 percent, according to the lawsuit.

But the plaintiffs say the checks are equivalent to an IOU, and that the money doesn’t actually sit in those accounts as of the time of the soldier’s death.

They allege Prudential holds the money in its $200 billion general account and earns 5 to 6 percent interest, moves it into an Alliance Account only when the beneficiary requests it, pays out at the lower interest rate, then keeps the difference.

Cristobal Bonifaz, one of four attorneys representing the plaintiffs, said the lost interest would vary greatly depending on how quickly the beneficiaries withdrew the money. It could range from a few thousand dollars up to perhaps $20,000 to $30,000 for people who let their payouts sit untouched for years in Prudential’s accounts, he said.

“They didn’t tell anybody, ‘We’re going to make money with it,’ ” Bonifaz said. “What we’re saying to Prudential is, ‘You kept investing the money, but that money did not belong to you as of the day that person died, and whatever you made off it, you should give to those persons it was meant for.” ‘

But Prudential spokesman Bob DeFillippo said interest rates on the Alliance Accounts are set to be comparable to checking accounts and money-market accounts. The Alliance Accounts money needs to be more liquid and immediately accessible so it is placed in short-term investments, he said.

That money comprises about 2 percent of Prudential’s general account, on which the higher interest is earned — a function of the long-term investments it holds, he said.

“This is a very, very difficult time for (beneficiaries) and we do everything we can to make this not any more difficult … If their intent is to have a lump sum, all they need to do is write a draft to themselves and withdraw it,” DeFillippo said.

People who choose Alliance Accounts also are offered free financial counseling services and the interest rate is stated on their confirmation paperwork.

A similar claim against Prudential was thrown out of U.S. District Court last year in New Jersey, where a beneficiary of a non-military life insurance policyholder challenged the Alliance Accounts and alleged Prudential was unjustly enriching itself.

Plaintiffs in the current lawsuit are parents of soldiers who died in Iraq, Afghanistan, El Salvador and after returning to the U.S. They are from Massachusetts, California, Illinois, Maryland, and Texas.

Kevin Lucey of Belchertown, Mass., the lawsuit’s lead defendant with his wife, Joyce, said the grief of losing their 23-year-old son, Jeffrey, in June 2004 was so raw that dealing with insurance details was too overwhelming to face right away.

They transferred the policy’s proceeds to a bank nine months later, but Kevin Lucey said they remain angry and indignant over what they consider Prudential’s misrepresentations to themselves and other families.

“It’s totally unacceptable for any company to think they can treat any family that has gone through this kind of trauma, especially military families,” he said. “I think it becomes part of our responsibility to make sure no one has to go through anything similar to this.”

BY HURST LAVIANA AND TIM POTTER

The Wichita Eagle

When the body of 14-year-old Alicia DeBolt was found near Great Bend last week, it apparently marked another in a series of high-profile cases involving young women who have died violently at the hands of men.

Crime statistics show that young women in Kansas are far more likely than men to be murdered by a member of the opposite sex.

Several of the recent high-profile cases prompted new state laws that were designed to make the state safer.

But Kathy Williams, director of the Wichita Area Sexual Assault Center, said the new laws and all the precautions in the world can’t ensure complete safety.

“Perpetrators always look for opportunities,” she said.

With certain crimes, she said, women are more vulnerable than men.

“Women are much more likely to be victims of intimate-partner violence; that is just how our society is.”

No charges have been filed in Alicia’s death, but the case resulted in the arrest Friday of Adam Longoria, 36, who was charged with stealing a Ford Explorer from the Great Bend company where he worked. Friday morning authorities had asked for the public’s help in finding Longoria, calling him a “person of interest” in Alicia’s death.

What statistics show

Although most crime statistics don’t include information about age and gender, the FBI’s supplemental homicide reports have extracted detailed demographic information from more than 2,000 Kansas homicides.

From 1985 through 2006, the figures show, Kansas recorded 63 homicides where the victims were females ages 12 to 21. The killers listed in those cases included 42 men and one woman. The gender of the killer was listed as unknown in 20 of the homicides.

By comparison, there were 157 male homicide victims in that age group during the same time period. Those cases included 120 where the suspect was a male, six where the suspect was a female and 31 where the gender of the killer wasn’t known.

The 42 male suspects charged with killing young women ranged in age from 14 to 46. The average age was 25.

Many of the state’s most notorious homicides involved victims who were girls or young women. Some examples:

* July 1, 1993: Stephanie Schmidt , a 20-year-old Pittsburg State University student from Leawood, left a bar near Pittsburg with Donald Ray Gideon, who had served 10 years in prison for raping a Labette County Community College student. Gideon, 31, later admitted that he raped and strangled Schmidt.

The crime resulted in the 1994 Sexually Violent Predator Act, which allows the state to keep some sex offenders locked up indefinitely after their prison terms expire.

* March 30, 1996: Carrie Williams , a 20-year-old Pittsburg State University junior from Parsons, was found dead in her apartment. Gary Kleypas, 40, who was on parole for a Missouri murder conviction, was convicted of the murder and became the first person to be sentenced to death under the state’s current death penalty law.

* June 9, 2006: Chelsea Brooks , a 14-year-old recent graduate of Allison Middle School, was 9 months pregnant when she disappeared from Skate South at 1900 E. MacArthur. Her body was found less than a week later in a Butler County field.

Elgin “Ray Ray” Robinson, 20, was convicted of offering $500 to have Chelsea killed to prevent her from giving birth to his baby.

Everett Gentry, 17, was convicted of being a go-between in the crime, and Theodore “Ted” Burnett, 49, was convicted of strangling Chelsea.

The case resulted in the passing of Alexa’s Law, which draws its name from Chelsea’s unborn child and allows prosecutors to bring double charges against a person who attacks a pregnant woman and harms the fetus.

* Jan. 5, 2007: Jodi Sanderholm , a 19-year-old Cowley County student, was abducted, raped and strangled, and her body was found several days in a wildlife area near Arkansas City. Justin Eugene Thurber, 23, was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death.

The case prompted the Kansas Legislature to pass “Jodi’s Law,” which makes it easier for law enforcement officers to pursue stalking charges. Thurber had been accused of stalking female students in the college’s dance team, of which Jodi was a member.

* June 2, 2007: Kelsey Smith , an 18-year-old Overland Park woman, was abducted for the parking lot of a Target store, and her body was found four days later in a Missouri park. Edward Hall, 26, pleaded guilty to capital murder to avoid the death penalty.

The case prompted a law that makes it easier for police to get tracking information from cell phone companies. Kelsey’s parents said her body would have been found much sooner had it been easier for police to get Smith’s cell phone records.

Society’s expectations

Williams said society may be partly to blame for some of the violence against women.

“Unfortunately, we socialize men to be big and strong and not show emotion,” she said.

To counter the tendency toward aggression and violence, she said, men need to learn to love and care in the broad sense, and they need to learn to respect the dignity of others.

As long as society fails to “discourage all these violent images of men, we’re still swimming upstream,” she said.

Another point she wanted to make is this: “Too often we look at what we think victims did wrong and not what the perpetrator did wrong.”

To get at the underlying factors that lead to violent crimes, she said, “we need to be talking to the men who are potentially going to be committing crimes like these. That, I believe, is the only way we are going to end it.”

Williams said parents today probably are more concerned about the safety of their daughters than the safety of their sons. But, she said, “the reality is we need to watch out for all our kids.”

Reach Hurst Laviana at 316-268-6499 or hlaviana@wichitaeagle.com.

BY DEB GRUVER

The Wichita Eagle

Like children peering into the windows of a candy store, adults peeked into the windows of Century II on Saturday to get a look at the cars and trucks up for auction at the BlackTop Nationals show.

Inside were some tasty treats: a 1957 Ford Thunderbird, a 1958 VW Beetle, a 1951 Henry J and Harold Funk’s 1970 gold Oldsmobile Cutlass with a white top.

Funk put the Cutlass up for auction this weekend to make room in the garage for his new toy: a 2008 Roush Mustang.

The Cutlass, a two-door hardtop with a 350 V8 rocket engine, was in good shape when Funk, of Moundridge, got his hands on it.

“But I’ve done a lot of work to it, added to it,” he said.

It sat shiny with 46,867 original miles.

Auctioneer Spanky Assiter was a whirlwind at the start of the live auction Saturday, adding a “ding ding!” when he sold his first car of the evening. Sales were a little slow, but unlike at other shows, there was a reserve.

Friday night’s auction included the sale of a 1927 Ford Roadster Zipper Track T.

The auction was just one highlight of the four-day show in its first year, which organizers hope will become an annual event.

“How about this crowd?” asked BlackTop Nationals president Rick Nuckolls on Saturday afternoon. “You can’t even walk on Douglas.”

The idea for the show came when Nuckolls, Steve Cooper and some other friends were sitting around eating pizza one night. They wanted to combine the best parts of other shows they’d been to into one event.

Ford was a major sponsor of the show, which continues today. Ford introduced its 2012 Mustang Boss 302 inside Century II.

Nuckolls joked that after taking a spin in a Shelby GT500 Mustang, there are five words you never want to say to a professional driver: “Is that all you got?”

Nuckolls said he planned to keep his hands on his knees during the ride but found himself soon gripping the door.

The evening ended on a slower note: a parade and cruise down Douglas Avenue.

“We’re trying to bring ‘American Graffiti’ back for a couple nights,” Nuckolls said.

Sunday’s show, which is free, continues until 3 p.m.

Reach Deb Gruver at 316-268-6400 or dgruver@wichitaeagle.com.

BY SUZANNE PEREZ TOBIAS

The Wichita Eagle

Sit down.

Strap in.

Hang on.

If you’re lucky enough to get a ride this weekend in Ford’s Shelby GT500 Mustang or the off-road F-150 SVT Raptor, you’re in for a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

As a prelude to the first-ever BlackTop Nationals — a four-day event sponsored by Ford Motor Co. that kicked off Thursday — we got a front-seat view as two high-performance vehicles showed their stuff in downtown Wichita.

First was the Raptor, a high-powered pickup designed by Ford’s Special Vehicles Team to compete in the Baja 1000 off-road race.

“We’re going to run it all weekend and wash it off when we’re done,” said Steve Ling, director of car marketing for Ford. “We want to really show folks what this thing can do.”

It can do lots.

Developed and tested by off-road racers, Raptor is heavy duty from bumper to bumper, designed to soak up bumps, curves, jumps and more. Crews moved more than 75 tons of dirt to build a temporary off-road track south of Century II to demonstrate its capabilities.

Professional truck racer Greg Foutz of Arizona-based Foutz Motorsports revved up the Raptor and took off, throwing off huge clouds of dust.

“Pretty cool, huh?” Foutz said as he sped around a corner littered with cantaloupe-sized rocks. “Isn’t that crazy?”

Crazy, I nodded, and held on tighter.

Then came the jump. It felt like a roller coaster, a hang glider, but with air conditioning and Sirius Satellite Radio. It was, in a word, incredible.

And the landing? Surprisingly smooth. Credit the truck’s extra-wide chassis, extra-large tires and state-of-the-art suspension and shocks.

“I want one,” I told Foutz.

He laughed. “That’s what everybody says.”

We took the jump several more times — to get some photos, and because we wanted to — then headed across the lot to the Shelby Cobra.

This was the anti-truck, low and lean, a color we’ll call Paul Newman’s Eyes. (Its real name is “Grabber Blue.”)

In the pilot’s seat was Austin Robison, another off-road racer who likes to squeal tires every now and then. A two-time Baja 1000 class winner and Paris-to-Dakar Rally competitor, Robison has competed in several D1 and Formula D drift events and with NASCAR trucks.

South of Century II this weekend, he’ll be running occasional “hot laps” in a 2011 Shelby GT500, taking riders around hairpin curves, raising eyebrows and, judging from Thursday’s media rides, drawing a crowd.

I got in the car and realized immediately what Ling had meant when, earlier in the day, he described the Mustang engine.

“A nice, deep, throaty burble-burble V8,” he said, pointing to the Boss 302 Laguna Seca on a turntable inside Century II. “It’s the kind of sound that tells you what’s under the hood.”

Aw yeah. Burble-burble.

But when the Shelby took off with an eye-popping screeeeeech, I was more impressed with the seat belts — and the guy in the driver’s seat. Robison charmed the Cobra, steering casually around curves, dodging cones, burning rubber.

I was speechless, except for a few choice words I can’t repeat here. Let’s just say Ricky Bobby would be proud.

During the BlackTop Nationals, Ford will let people test drive several new vehicles, including Mustangs, Explorers and the new Focus Hybrid and Edge crossover.

Hot laps in the Shelby GT500, though, are strictly passenger-seat, and will be offered first-come, first-served at the Ford registration tent.

After his ride Thursday, Vice Mayor Jeff Longwell climbed out of the Shelby, shook his head and smiled.

“That right there,” he said, “is better than any thrill ride you could pay money for.

“You feel out of control, but at the same time, completely in control. It’s amazing, incredible. What a joy.”

Reach Suzanne Perez Tobias at 316-268-6567 or stobias@wichitaeagle.com.

BY HURST LAVIANA

The Wichita Eagle

Two Johnson City residents have pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Wichita to taking part in robberies at two western Kansas businesses.

Kristina Pauline Lashmet, 23, and Ryan Wesley Swisher, 28, each pleaded guilty to one count of aiding and abetting the discharge of a firearm during a robbery.

They admitted in their pleas that they and a third defendant, John Grant Shore, 23, also of Johnson City, committed the robberies on Feb. 14.

During a holdup at Eagle Travel Plaza in Tribune, prosecutors said, Shore went into the store alone, pointed a gun at a clerk and demanded money.

The three then drove to Love’s Country Store in Syracuse, prosecutors said, where Shore and Swisher went into the store and took cash, cigarettes and 40 lighters. During that holdup, prosecutors said, Shore fired one shot in the clerk’s direction and four shots at the locking mechanism on a safe.

Lashmet and Swisher are scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 10. Shore is scheduled to stand trial in September.

Reach Hurst Laviana at 316-268-6499.

BY TIM POTTER

The Wichita Eagle

GREAT BEND — Whatever happened to Alicia DeBolt after she disappeared Saturday night should not have happened, Tiffany Serna said Wednesday.

Emotion strained Serna’s voice. As the 38-year-old spoke, her 15-year-old daughter, Destiny Degenhardt, looked at her with tears. They paused to speak outside Alicia’s house after bringing a fried chicken dinner to the teen’s family — a family in shock, a family in need of privacy, Serna said.

Alicia was 14. She and Destiny were friends, so close in size they shared cheerleader uniforms.

They said Alicia was excited about going to a school-related banquet Sunday night. But she never made it.

Many people around town, including school officials, were presuming that she was dead, even though there was not yet official confirmation from authorities.

Attorney General Steve Six is scheduled to discuss the case today at a 10 a.m. news conference at the Kansas Bureau of Investigation’s regional office in Great Bend.

Whatever happened to Alicia should not have happened, especially in a small town in the middle of Kansas, said Serna, a lifelong Great Bend resident.

“This is a town where everybody knows everybody and everybody looks out for everybody,” she said.

According to initial reports, Alicia went to a party late Saturday night but never returned. On Tuesday, the day after she was supposed to begin her freshman year at Great Bend High, authorities found a body several miles southwest of town.

They said, without elaborating, that it couldn’t be identified at the scene. They were waiting on a dental examination Wednesday night from an autopsy in Wichita to confirm whether the body is Alicia’s.

“For something to happen in a town like this… it’s just absolutely shocking,” Serna said.

The Great Bend school district issued a statement Wednesday afternoon saying that grief counselors were being made available for Alicia’s classmates to “deal with her tragic death.”

“We are extremely saddened by the event of Alicia’s death,” principal Tim Friess said in a statement. “It is such a tragedy. Our prayers are with the family.”

“The students all believe that she is gone,” said district spokeswoman Jennifer Schartz. She said the family is moving forward with funeral plans.

The family has declined to comment.

The district statement said that “Alicia’s death and its impact on students” would be addressed at the freshman parent orientation Wednesday night in the high school auditorium. Counselors were planning to discuss how parents can help their children through this difficult time.

On Wednesday, investigators focused on interviews “with a number of individuals,” said Gavin Young, a spokesman for the Kansas Attorney General’s Office. Investigators also were continuing to work in the area where the body was found Tuesday, an asphalt plant outside the city limits.

Young said no arrests have been made.

Alicia was last seen leaving her home at 11 p.m. Saturday, said the KBI, which is leading the investigation. Great Bend police and Barton County sheriff’s officers also were involved.

Relatives of the girl told KWCH-TV that Alicia was last seen leaving home with a 19-year-old male friend. She had planned to attend a party and return home by midnight, relatives said.

Alicia’s house is a tidy older home off a main street. A sign near the front porch advertises child care. There is a rocking chair and swing on the front porch.

“It makes no sense at all,” said Dradeana Cartwright, who lives next door to Alicia.

Cartwright said she just found out that Alicia had made the freshman cheerleading squad. She described her as having “the perfect personality, just outgoing and full of energy — perfect for a cheerleader.”

Cartwright, 38, said she would see Alicia practicing on a balance beam on a back porch.

She described her this way: “Just spunky and full of life,” “a little spitfire,” “a special kid.”

“She loved fashion. She always looked adorable when she would go anywhere.

“She just always had her head up.”

A candlelight vigil organized by Alicia’s friends and family has been set for 8 p.m. Sunday at Jack Kilby Square. An announcement was made at the high school inviting students to attend.

Serna, the woman who brought the food to Alicia’s family, said the teen’s disappearance has made her suspicious and concerned for her daughter’s safety.

She said she will be even more strict with her daughter, Destiny.

“You just never know who you can trust anymore,” Serna said.

Asked whether she was scared, 15-year-old Destiny said, “Kinda. I’m, like, still in shock. I don’t know what to think.”

Contributing: Travis Heying of The Eagle Reach Tim Potter at 316-268-6684 or tpotter@wichitaeagle.com.

BY MOLLY MCMILLIN

The Wichita Eagle

Kansas must defend itself from other states and nations that have targeted the state’s aerospace and aviation jobs, Sen. Sam Brownback said Tuesday.

Brownback, the Republican nominee for governor, rolled out what he calls a “Road Map for Kansas Aviation,” a plan he says is aimed at protecting the state’s aviation sector.

“We must defend our industry from other states and nations who have targeted it and want to take it away,” Brownback said at a news conference that followed his speech to the Wichita Aero Club at the Hilton Wichita Airport.

During the news conference, Brownback shared the stage with Wichita aviation leaders — Hawker Beechcraft CEO Bill Boisture, Spirit AeroSystems CEO Jeff Turner, Boeing Wichita vice president for flight and controls Laurette Lahey and Bombardier Learjet vice president and general manager David Coleal.

Part of Brownback’s plan includes forming an aviation advisory committee of industry leaders to develop a strategy for the state to address future challenges, he said.

Boisture said Brownback is right to call attention to the aviation industry and its challenges.

“I think he’s focused on what aerospace needs… in the future,” said Boisture, who has said his company is considering moving work to Louisiana, Mississippi and outside the country to cut costs.

Brownback has been a strong supporter of Kansas and the aviation industry as a senator, Turner said. “I am very excited about his being our governor.”

The industry doesn’t have to educate him on its importance to the state and the nation, Turner said. “He has a vision for the future of the industry in Kansas.”

It isn’t right, Brownback said, that other states are able to use federal stimulus money to try to recruit businesses and jobs from other states, such as Kansas.

That simply moves jobs from one state to another; it doesn’t create them.

“That should not be allowed,” Brownback said. “My push will be to limit the use of those dollars.”

Wichita’s aerospace cluster has unique industry, research and development and training partnerships that the world envies, he said.

If elected governor, Brownback said his administration would work with the National Center for Aviation Training, universities and local schools to expand programs to train engineers, machinists, mechanics and technicians and build upon the research and development capabilities at the National Institute for Aviation Research.

He also wants to build Wichita State University’s aerospace engineering program into the country’s best.

“I’ll make it a priority to help our aerospace companies grow,” Brownback said.

Brownback said he supports a U.S. Air Force refueling tanker built by an American company.

The European Union has illegally subsidized Europe’s commercial aviation market, he said. Airbus has taken market share from Boeing.

It must not happen with the military market, he said.

Brownback also wants an investigation into whether Embraer, a strong competitor for sales of business jets with Wichita planemakers, is receiving subsidies from the Brazilian government.

“To have free trade work, you have to stand up for the rights we negotiated,” Brownback said.

The reality is that the aviation sector is heavily competitive.

“This is going to be a fight,” he said. “I’m going to do everything I can.”

A spokesman for Tom Holland, Brownback’s Democratic opponent, said Holland didn’t need to wait on an advisory committee. “Tom Holland has already put forward concrete commitments to invest real dollars into training the Kansas work force and expanding research at our colleges and universities,” spokesman Seth Bundy said in an e-mail.

“If Sam Brownback really wanted to help this industry, he shouldn’t have voted to spend billions of taxpayer dollars to bail out the Wall Street crooks who created this mess, and then voted against unemployment assistance for the thousands of laid off aviation workers in Kansas,” he said.

Brownback’s goal with his “Road Map for Kansas” is to grow the economy by putting in place an economic development strategic plan, pursuing new economic opportunities, reforming the tax code, establishing rural free-enterprise zones, exploring new opportunities for expanding agricultural exports and working with the private sector to expand the state’s broadband network.

Reach Molly McMillin at 316-269-6708 or mmcmillin@wichitaeagle.com.