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Updates on Delphi Murders as Richard Allen Trial Continues November 6, 2024

Sakege November 7, 2024

Richard Allen’s defense team ended his case in a surprise move moments after hearings began Wednesday at the Carroll County Courthouse in Delphi.

Hours later, around 2:15 p.m. Wednesday, prosecutors finished questioning their final rebuttal witness and the court adjourned so both sides could prepare their closing arguments. Starting at 9 a.m. Thursday, lawyers for the state and then for Allen will spend hours weaving together all the evidence they have presented before jurors begin deliberating to reach a verdict.

Allen, 52, is accused of killing two teenagers who went missing on Feb. 13, 2017, and were found dead the next day. He was arrested in 2022 and faces two counts of murder and two counts of murder during kidnapping in the deaths of Abigail “Abby” Williams and Liberty “Libby” German.

journalists of the Indianapolis Star and the Lafayette’s Diary and Courier will cover the case as it moves through the court system.

This story will be updated throughout the day.

During his cross-examination of the State of Indiana’s final rebuttal witness, defense attorney Bradley Rozzi played part of a video showing a motionless Allen strapped to a wheelchair for a medical exam.

The video, which Rozzi had previously hidden from public courtroom viewing to protect Allen’s dignity, was taken on June 20, 2023, a month after Dr. John Martin, of the Westville Correctional Center, said that Allen had apparently emerged from psychosis. Martin said that during a meeting earlier that day, Allen was forthcoming and spontaneously told Martin that he wanted to apologize to Abby and Libby’s families.

But even Martin had doubts that Allen, as shown in the previously unseen 10:52 a.m. video, had left a state of psychosis.

Rebuttal witnesses in Richard Allen’s Delphi murders trial take the stand

Richard Allen’s defense team concluded its case Wednesday.

Dressed in a white T-shirt and bright orange pants, a frail-looking Allen is strapped to a wheelchair as guards and doctors surround him in an examination room. As doctors take his blood pressure and scan him with a stethoscope, Allen looks forward and barely moves. Alarmingly, Allen had lost 50 pounds in prison, Martin testified.

In the courtroom, Allen couldn’t stand to see this past version of himself. He covered his eyes with his hands and craned his head to look over his right shoulder at his family sitting in the first row of seats. His wife, sister and mother kept their heads down to avoid watching the video as they cried silently. Allen himself began to shake and his eyes filled with tears. Allen’s lawyer, Andrew Baldwin, squeezed his client’s bicep and then draped an arm over his chair.

“Does that video make you question your diagnosis that Mr. Allen was no longer in a state of psychosis on June 20, 2023?” Rozzi asked Martin.

“Yes,” said Martin.

Martin told prosecutor Stacey Diener, however, that the video did not cause him to doubt his recollection of his conversation with Allen that day.

In a transcript of Martin’s conversation with Allen on June 20, the doctor wrote that several self-inflicted bruises were visible on Allen’s face. He wrote that Allen “claims to be suicidal” but that “he has generally improved greatly and does not appear to be psychotic.”

During the session, Allen chose to wear only a T-shirt and boxers despite having a prison uniform. Allen’s eye contact was poor and his voice soft, but “he was coherent and spoke without vague associations or flight of ideas,” Martin wrote. “It was oriented to the person, the place, the time of day and the situation.” He had been getting enough sleep and eating most of his meals.

But Allen still said little. However, he said he was worried about his wife and “wanted to apologize to the families of his victims,” according to Martin.

Martin maintained that Allen had entered prison with basic conditions of depression and anxiety. In May 2023, he believed that Allen had recovered from the onset of psychosis in April with the help of antipsychotic medication and had returned to his initial level of depression. He gave Allen three monthly doses in April, May and June to make sure he didn’t relapse.

“I continued to observe him,” Martin said, “and for seven weeks there was no evidence of psychosis.”

In response to a question from the jury, Martin said it is possible to go into and out of psychosis on the same day. Jurors also asked Martin if the video led him to believe Allen may have been faking his condition, as earlier testimony from Dr. Monica Wala, the therapist Allen met in prison, suggested.

“No,” said Martin, “I don’t think so.”

Prosecutors attempted to find holes in the defense’s position that Allen was suffering long periods of psychosis when he confessed to killing Abby and Libby.

His rebuttal focused on two witnesses whose testimonies sought to undermine the horrific incarceration conditions that defense attorneys portrayed to jurors and establish that Allen’s psychosis was inconsistent.

Brian HarshmanThe Indiana State Police master trooper who listened to hundreds of Allen’s calls from prison testified that Allen has been in a one-man cell for much of the past two years since he was arrested. In Westville Correctional FacilityHe was allowed recreation and had the opportunity to communicate with neighbors from his cell. The conditions of his imprisonment were similar in Wabash Valley Correctional Facilitywhere he was transferred after about a year in Westville.

At the Cass County Jail, where he is being held during his trial, he has a small living room and a table.

Dr. John Martin, a Westville psychiatrist, was also called to establish that, although Allen was showing signs of psychosis, the symptoms eventually subsided after he was given antipsychotic medication. Allen also confessed to the crimes during some periods of apparent sanity.

Martin testified that he first saw evidence of psychosis on April 13, 2023, when Allen was found naked in his cell with feces smeared on his body. Allen was later injected with antipsychotic drugs.

On April 25, 2023, Martin said he saw improvements in Allen’s mental state. By May 2, 2023, there were no signs of psychosis, Martin testified. Psychotic symptoms reappeared on May 8 and 9, 2023, but disappeared shortly after. When he met with Allen on May 23, 2023, and again a week later, he saw no signs of psychosis, Martin testified.

On June 20, 2023, Martin said he decided to stop giving Allen antipsychotic medications after meeting with him again and finding no evidence of psychosis.

“That day he said to me,” Martin testified, “‘I would like to apologize to Abby and Libby’s families.'”

Seven minutes into the proceedings Wednesday morning, Richard Allen’s defense concluded its case.

The surprising turn of events comes less than a week after the defense began calling its witnesses, somewhat stunned by special judge Frances Gull’s refusal to allow them to present their alternative theory that the girls were murdered by Odinists in a sacrificial ritual.

The proceedings will now move to jury instructions as the 12-person panel elected from Allen County determines a verdict.

At 9:15 a.m., the jury excused itself as the state and defense discussed instructions to the group. One point of contention included whether Allen would testify, as well as his “prior inconsistent statements.” Gull said his instructions to the jury included that Allen would not testify.

After a half-hour of deliberating outside the courtroom, prosecutors returned and said they had no problem with the instructions.

Brad Rozzi, one of Allen’s attorneys, asked until the end of the day to present a proposal on how the jury should judge Allen’s “incriminating statements.” Gaviota gave them until the end of the work day.

Closing arguments will last between two and two and a half hours.

A new set of rules was announced at the beginning of Wednesday’s hearing.

People will no longer be allowed to line up to be seated in the courtroom before 7 a.m. The case has attracted international attention from the media and true crime fans, including YouTube and podcast personalities. Many lined up or had people line up for them as early as midnight in hopes of securing a seat.

The media was moved to the back of the room after being accused of speaking during the proceedings. The courtroom was warned that those who spoke would be removed.

Richard Allen’s family is now sitting where the media was in the front row of the courtroom, prompting Becky Patty, Libby German’s grandmother, to say “that’s bullshit…”.

Libby’s family remains seated in the second row.

The number of seats available to the public also dropped from 24 to 18.