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    • Richard Allen Delphi murder trial moves to jury deliberations
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    Richard Allen Delphi murder trial moves to jury deliberations

    Sakege Posted on

    DELPHI, Ind. ― The fate of Richard Allen It is now in the hands of five men and seven women, who began deliberations early Thursday afternoon after hearing closing arguments from both sides.

    Jurors, who were selected 100 miles away in Fort Wayne, must decide whether they believe beyond a reasonable doubt that the 52-year-old Delphi man single-handedly kidnapped and killed him. Abigail “Abby” Williams and Liberty “Libby” German on February 13, 2017. Prosecutors alleged that Allen followed the girls at Monon High Bridge, threatened them with a gun, and forced them into the nearby woods, where he killed them.

    Carroll County Prosecutor Nicholas McLelandIn his closing argument Thursday morning, he said that to find out who killed Abby and Libby, investigators had to discover the identity of “Bridge Guy,” the man seen in the infamous video following the teenagers on the high bridge that afternoon.

    The burden of justice: Delphi Murder Case Jurors Will Face Unimaginable Pressure and a Life-Changing Decision

    “The State has proven that Richard Allen is the guy on the bridge,” McLeland told the jury, later adding: “Five years he lived in the city. Five years he lived among us.”

    Allen was arrested on October 26, 2022, more than five years after the girls’ deaths. Prosecutors alleged that an unspent round found among the girls’ bodies had been activated by Allen’s gun. But your The defense attorneys responded that he is an innocent and mentally fragile man who was driven to psychosis, and to give false confessions ― after months of isolation in a prison cell.

    “No one identified Richard Allen as the man on that bridge.” defense attorney bradley rozzi he told the jury during his closing argument. “No digital data connects Richard Allen to the crime scene or to the girls.”

    The case was handed over to the jury around 1:30 p.m. Jurors deliberated for two hours before calling it a day and will resume deliberations Friday morning.

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    Line forms outside court to hear verdict in Richard Allen murder trial

    Jurors continue deliberating on Friday, November 7.

    McLeland said in his closing argument that the evidence the state has presented points to one man: Richard Allen.

    Allen used his gun to force 13-year-old Abby and 14-year-old Libby off the Monon High Bridge Trail, down a hill and into the woods, where he killed them by slitting their throats. “He left his calling card: a bullet from his gun,” McLeland told the jury.

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    Richard Allen trial continues with jury deliberation in Delphi

    Closing arguments took place Thursday, after which the jury began deliberating on the four counts against Richard Allen.

    he counted the many confessions Allen gave to prison officers, your therapist and on phone calls his wife, Kathy Allen, and his mother, Janis Allen, while awaiting trial in Westville Correctional Facility. He played recordings of some of those phone calls, reminding jurors several times that Allen confessed to the crimes of “his own free will.”

    McLeland pointed to the only physical evidence linking Allen to the crime scene: the unspent round found six inches from Abby’s foot. he said Indiana State Police Firearms Examiner whose analysis concluded that the bullet had been passed through Allen’s Sig Sauer pistol, model P226, .40 caliber, has never been wrong in his 17-year career.

    McLeland spoke about the two police interrogations that led to Allen’s arrest. On October 13, 2022He said Allen admitted to wearing clothing similar to Bridge Guy’s. On October 26, 2022McLeland told jurors that Allen had no explanation for how a bullet from his gun ended up at the crime scene. And Allen got angrier and angrier as he went on. Indiana State Police Lt. Jerry Holeman She continued to confront him about it.

    If jurors are still not convinced, McLeland urged them to return to one of Allen’s own confessions. While in Westville, Allen told his therapist, Dr. Monica Wala, that he forced the girls to go into the woods and planned to rape them, but was startled by a van driving on a nearby private road. according to Wala’s notes from that session.

    That vehicle, according to previous testimonyIt belonged to Brad Weber, who drives a white van and lives near the trail. Weber told the jury that he would return home from work around 2:30 p.m. on February 13, 2017, a few minutes after the girls had been forced off the road and into the woods.

    That truck, McLeland told the jury, was a detail that “only the killer would know.”

    The state rests: Prosecutors concluded their case at the Delphi murder trial, but is it enough to convict Richard Allen?

    What’s more, said McLeland, an Indiana State Police officer who had become familiar with Allen’s voice after spending countless hours listening to his 700 calls to his family in prison, identified his voice as belonging to Bridge Guy.

    In the infamous video Libby took minutes before she and Abby disappeared, Bridge Guy told the girls, “Go down the hill.”

    That man’s voice, ISP Master Soldier Brian Harshman He told the jurors, It belonged to Allen.McLeland said.

    “Now all the pieces are clear,” McLeland said. “All the pieces are together.”

    In his final words to the jury, McLeland returned to Allen’s own words.

    “Richard Allen said a lot of words to a lot of different people,” she said, adding that she gave detailed confessions to Wala, her therapist, because he trusted her. “Words matter.”

    McLeland left jurors with a tribute of sorts to Libby German, who recorded the 43-second video that later became a key piece of evidence in the investigation into her own death. He reminded the jurors Patty BeckyLibby’s grandmother, who said the 14-year-old’s ambition was to help police solve crimes.

    “She did that,” McLeland said.

    Complete testimony about the Delphi murders: Who testified at Richard Allen’s trial for the Delphi murders? What did they say?

    Rozzi, one of Allen’s defense attorneys, urged jurors to acknowledge the dubiousness of the years-long investigation into Abby and Libby’s murders and to acknowledge the horrific prison conditions that Allen, who remains innocent until proven guilty, , he was forced to endure.

    “You should question the credibility of this investigation because of the things you weren’t told,” Rozzi told jurors.

    Again and again during his closing argument, Rozzi returned to what the defense saw as a loophole in the state’s version of what happened to the teens after they disappeared. A digital forensics expert testified earlier this week that someone inserted a headphone jack into Libby’s phone at 5:45 pm and someone removed it at 10:32 pm, almost five hours later. The testimony of Stacy Eldridge It casts doubt on the prosecution’s theory that the girls were killed that same afternoon and their bodies were left in the woods, untouched for hours until rescuers found them the next day.

    “That phone has no personality, it has no feelings or opinions. It only has data,” Rozzi said. “Someone connected something to that.”

    The state, Rozzi told the jury, has had more than seven years to investigate what happened in those five hours. But at the end of the day, investigators and prosecutors preferred that jurors ignore critical information that challenged their narrative, he argued.

    For jurors to accept the state’s chronology of events (that the girls were kidnapped shortly after 2 p.m., murdered less than a half hour later, stripped naked, and, in Abby’s case, patched up), they would have to believe that a five-foot-five-inch man The 1.5-centimeter man did it all by himself, Rozzi told jurors, reminding them that investigators previously believed multiple people were involved.

    Rozzi pointed out what he considers serious errors in an inept investigation. Police hours and hours of lost videos of interviews with witnesses. Investigators waited more than seven years to conduct DNA testing. in a lock of hair found in Abby’s hand and make a BMV search for Ford Focus models in Carroll County. Prosecutors have alleged that Allen drove his black Ford Focus onto the trail, pointing surveillance footage from nearby Hoosier Harvestore.

    The defense rests: Richard Allen and his defense attorneys have ended their case. Have they done enough?

    Rozzi questioned eyewitness testimonies who had different descriptions of Bridge Guy, none of which fit Allen. Betsy Blairpointed out, described the man she saw him as youthful and youthful. Allen was about 40 years old when the girls were killed. He cited testimonies from two witnesses who were on the road at approximately the same time that the girls were allegedly forced into the nearby forest. David McCain and Shelby Hicks both testified They didn’t hear any screams.

    “They didn’t see or hear anything,” Rozzi said, urging jurors to “exercise their common sense.”

    Rozzi also disputed the Indiana State Police firearms examiner’s finding of the unspent bullet. He called it a “magic bullet” that is “nothing more than a tragic bullet.”

    Allen’s actions shortly after the girls were killed and in the days before his arrest do not suggest guilt, Rozzi argued. allen self-reported to the police on February 16, 2017 that he was on the trail. On Oct. 13, 2022, and Oct. 26, 2022, he voluntarily went to police headquarters for questioning, Rozzi said, and on both occasions he claimed his innocence.

    Rozzi acknowledged that Allen became angry during the second interrogation, but said, “If someone was pressuring you about the murder of two girls, your response would be the same.”

    Rozzi then addressed the conditions of Allen’s incarceration that drove the already troubled man into a state of psychosis. Allen, who has a History of depression and anxiety.He was brought to Westville in November 2022, shortly after his arrest.

    “Mr. Allen was a fragile egg when he arrived at that door,” Rozzi said, adding that he was housed and treated like some of the most heinous criminals in the state.

    Allen lived in an 8-foot by 12-foot cell with cinder block walls and little human contact, Rozzi said. His outdoor recreation time was spent in another walled area with a net roof.

    “When everything calmed down, he was there for 13 months,” Rozzi said. “How much can one person endure?”

    Rozzi also tried to cast doubt Wala’s testimonyAllen’s therapist in Westville, who I was faking psychosis. He reminded jurors that prison staff injected Allen with antipsychotic medications.

    “Antipsychotic means it’s psychotic,” Rozzi said.

    Rozzi finished his closing argument by showing the jury photographs of medieval torture devices used during interrogations. In modern times, he argued, torture is carried out in the form of solitary confinement.

    “When is anyone going to say something is wrong here? Where is the moral compass?” he asked the jurors. “You are the moral compass.”

    He then showed them several photos of Allen in his cell. One showed him lying naked next to his bunk, with his arm around the toilet bowl.

    “That’s the power of your government,” he told the jury. “No man or woman should be treated this way.”

    IndyStars reporter Jordan Smith, John Tufts and content team director Jennifer Porter Tilley contributed to this story.

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