Delphi murder trial: Jury deliberations continue in Delphi double murder case

CNN
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Jury deliberations resumed Saturday In the highly publicized double murder case of Richard Allen, who is accused of killing two teenage girls more than seven years ago and dumping their bodies near a hiking trail in the small town of Delphi, Indiana.

Allen has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder and two counts of felony murder in connection with the 2017 deaths of 14-year-old Liberty “Libby” German and 13-year-old Abigail “Abby” Williams. If convicted, Allen faces up to 130 years in prison. Amidst all the accusations Associated Press reported.

The 12-member jury began deliberating on Thursday and returned to the Carroll County Courthouse on Saturday morning, CNN affiliate WTHR reported. reported. Jurors will deliberate from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday until they reach a verdict, according to the CNN affiliate WTHR. Last month, 16 Allen County residents were selected to serve on juries; among them were four people serving as reserves. WTHR in question.

Allen County Superior Court Judge Frances Gull gave her final instructions to jurors on Thursday morning, urging the jury to “consider the facts” before Carroll County Prosecutor Nick McLeland delivered his closing statement, guiding the jury through evidence and testimony presented during the trial, WTHR reported.

“I believe the evidence is absolutely convincing that Richard Allen was the Bridge Guy and that he killed Abby and Libby,” McLeland told the jury.

McLeland showed jurors graphic photos of the girls’ bodies, a video taken from Libby’s smartphone in which the suspect said he captured the final moments of the girls’ lives, and a recording of Allen allegedly confessing to his wife during a phone call.

“I did it,” Allen was heard telling his wife. “I killed Abby and Libby.”

Defense attorney Brad Rozzi said in his closing argument that the broken timeline, false confessions and lack of DNA or gun evidence should have resulted in an acquittal.

“The defense believes that what you’ve heard over the past few weeks is more important than what you’ve heard today,” Rozzi told the jury Thursday.

The defense also argued there was no physical evidence linking Allen to the murders and said his past confessions were “involuntary” and resulted from months of solitary confinement.

The Delphi murder case dates back to February 13, 2017, when “Abby” and “Libby” went for a walk on the Monon High Bridge in Delphi. The two girls were reported missing after they were unable to contact Libby’s father that afternoon. The next day, their bodies were found, both slit up to their throats and partially covered with sticks.

The case came to public attention due to the suspect’s photo and audio recording taken from Libby’s smartphone. The image shows a man walking across the bridge with his hands in his pockets, and the audio includes the muffled voice of a man saying, “Guys, down the hill.” Although police distributed the photo and audio just days after the murders and identified the “Bridge Man” as the prime suspect, the case remained inconclusive for more than five years until Allen was arrested in 2022.

Allen had apparently evaded police notice, remaining in the small town of Delphi and working at a local CVS pharmacy. a clerk who digitizes clues Regarding the investigation in September 2022, he realized that he had placed himself at the scene of the crime. Just a few days after the bodies were found, Allen told police he followed the trail around the time the girls were thought to have been killed.

Carroll County Sheriff Tony Liggett said despite the tip, Allen “got lost in the cracks.” According to CNN affiliate WLFI. About a month after the clue was rediscovered, Allen arrested After police matched the unspent cartridge found among the girls’ bodies to a gun seized from their home during a police search.

After Allen was arrested on October 26, 2022, he was charged five days later with two counts of murder while committing or attempting to commit a kidnapping. Prosecutors later amended the charges to include two more murder charges.

Allen’s mental state and confessions came to the fore

During the hearing, which started on October 18, the prosecution emphasized the following claims of Allen: dozens of confessions While incarcerated: Prosecutors say he confessed more than 60 times, including to his wife, his mother, the psychologist who treated him, the guard, other prison employees and inmates. They played audio recordings of some of the confessions to the jury.

Monica Wala, the former chief psychologist at Westville Correctional Facility, where Allen was housed, testified that he initially told her he was innocent, but began confessing to the crimes in April 2023, when he was placed on suicide watch again.

Wala testified that Allen told him, “I killed Abby and Libby.” I am sad,” According to CNN affiliate WTHR. He said he initially planned to sexually assault the victims, but fled when he saw a minibus nearby, slit the girls’ throats and covered their bodies with sticks.

The defense sought to paint a portrait of Allen as a mentally ill man whose fragile mental state was further deteriorated by the months he spent in solitary confinement, including the period when he confessed to the crimes. While in prison, he was placed on suicide watch twice, exhibited strange behavior such as eating his own feces and hitting his head, and was once diagnosed with a “brief psychotic disorder,” according to Wala’s testimony.

Deanna Dwenger, a clinical psychologist with the Indiana Department of Corrections Department of Behavioral Health who testified on behalf of the defense, testified that Allen was diagnosed with a serious mental illness in April 2023 and that a team of mental health experts concluded that he “possesses a serious disability.” . ” According to CNN affiliate WRTV.

The defense initially hoped to introduce a so-called “Odinism” defense: the theory that the murders were committed by followers of Odinism, a Norse pagan religion recently adopted by white supremacists. But Judge Gull repeatedly denied motions asserting this theory.

Audio recording and gunshot evidence became key focuses

Despite Allen’s confessions, there is little physical evidence connecting him to the case: A DNA expert testifying for the state found none of Allen’s DNA at the scene, and none of Libby or Abby’s DNA was found on items recovered from his home.

Prosecutors pointed to an unspent .40-caliber bullet found in the girls’ bodies, which a prosecution expert testified matched Allen’s gun. According to WRTV, the defense cast doubt on the bullet evidence, questioning why more photographs of the cartridge were not taken and suggesting that the bullet may have come from a law enforcement officer’s gun.

The prosecution also attempted to match Allen to video and audio of “Bridge Guy” captured on Libby’s cell phone. Indiana State Police Master Officer Brian Harshman, who said he listened to more than 700 of Allen’s prison phone calls, told the prosecution that, in his opinion, “the voice of the ‘Bridge Man’ is the voice of Richard Allen.” According to WRTV.

“Richard Allen is the Bridge Guy,” McLeland told jurors. “He kidnapped them and then killed them.”

In response, Rozzi said Allen was not clearly identified by witnesses as the man who was on the hiking trail or bridge when the teens went missing. He also noted that Allen lived in Delphi for more than five years after the girls’ murders.

“He had every chance to escape, but he couldn’t because he didn’t,” Rozzi told jurors.