Delphi murders verdict: Richard Allen found guilty of all charges in the deaths of Libby German, Abby Williams on Indiana trail

DELPHI, Ind. — Richard Allen has been found guilty of two counts of murder and two counts of murder in the highly publicized Delphi murder case, according to CNN affiliate WTHR.

Prosecutors say Allen killed 13-year-old Abigail “Abby” Williams and 14-year-old Liberty “Libby” German in 2017, slitting their throats and leaving their bodies near a trail in Delphi, Indiana. The case lay dormant for more than five years until Allen was arrested in 2022.

Richard Allen sat emotionless as the guilty verdict was read, WTHR reported. His sentencing date is scheduled for December 20.

The jury deliberated for about 19 hours before reaching a verdict.

Allen faces up to 130 years in prison, The Associated Press reports.

A silence order remains in effect so that no official can say anything after the ruling.

The 12-member jury, which was sequestered during the trial, began deliberating Thursday afternoon after 17 days of testimony. The judge ordered them to deliberate Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. until they reached a verdict.

Allen County Superior Court Judge Frances Gull gave jurors their final instructions Thursday morning, urging them to “consider the facts” before Carroll County Prosecutor Nick McLeland delivered closing arguments and walked the jury through the evidence and testimony that were presented during the trial, CNN affiliate WTHR reported.

“I believe the evidence is compelling that Richard Allen is ‘Bridge Guy’ and that he killed Abby and Libby,” McLeland told the jury, referring to a video taken from Libby’s phone that shows a man walking across the Monon High Bridge Trail runs. Delphi police have long believed the “Bridge Guy” shown in the video is the prime suspect in the case.

McLeland showed jurors graphic photos of the girls’ bodies, the “Bridge Guy” video that he said captured the last moments of the girls’ lives, and a recording of Allen allegedly confessing to his wife during a phone call from the prison, according to WTHR.

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

Defense attorney Brad Rozzi said in his closing arguments that a broken timeline, false confessions and a lack of DNA or weapons evidence should lead to an acquittal.

“The defense is confident that what you have heard in recent weeks is more important than what you hear today,” Rozzi told the jury on Thursday, according to WTHR.

The defense further argued that there is no physical evidence linking Allen to the murders and said the confessions he made in the past were “false” and stemmed from having been held in solitary confinement for months when his mental health deteriorated.

The Delphi murder case dates back to February 13, 2017, when Abby and Libby took a walk on the Monon High Bridge in Delphi. The two girls were reported missing after failing to meet Libby’s father that afternoon. The next day their bodies were found, both dead from cuts in the throat, and partly covered with sticks.

The case attracted public attention in part because of the video and audio recording of a suspect from Libby’s smartphone. The video 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 released the audio and a photo from the video just days after the murders and identified the “Bridge Guy” as their prime suspect, the case was stalled for more than five years until Allen was arrested in 2022.

Allen had apparently been avoiding police attention by staying in the small town of Delphi and working at a local CVS pharmacy, until in September 2022, a clerk who was digitizing tips related to the investigation found himself at the scene of the crime had posted. Just days after the bodies were discovered, Allen told police he had been searching during the time the girls were believed to have been murdered.

Carroll County Sheriff Tony Liggett said that despite the tip, Allen “got lost in the cracks,” according to CNN affiliate WLFI. About a month after the tip was rediscovered, Allen was arrested after police matched an unused cartridge found among the girls’ bodies to a gun recovered from his home during a police investigation.

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

Allen’s confessions – and his sanity when he made them – were highlighted
Over the course of the trial, the prosecution highlighted Allen’s dozens of confessions while in prison: He confessed to the crime more than 60 times, prosecutors say, including to his wife, his mother, the psychologist who treated him, the principal and other prison staff. and prisoners. They played audio recordings of some confessions to the jury.

Monica Wala, the former chief psychologist at the 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, around the time he was placed back on suicide watch.

Wala testified that Allen told her, “I killed Abby and Libby. I’m sorry,” according to CNN affiliate WTHR. He said he originally planned to sexually assault the victims, but ran away when he saw a van nearby, and he had slit the girls’ throats and covered their bodies with sticks, she testified.

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

Testifying for the defense, Deanna Dwenger, a clinical psychologist who worked for the Indiana Department of Corrections Behavioral Health, testified that in April 2023, Allen was diagnosed with a serious mental illness and a team of mental health professionals concluded that he had a “severe disability’. according to CNN affiliate WRTV.

The defense originally hoped to introduce an “Odinism” defense: a theory that followers of Odinism, a Norse pagan religion recently adopted by white supremacists, had committed the killings. But Judge Gull repeatedly rejected requests to introduce this theory.

Prosecutors are focusing on audio recordings and bullets found at the scene
Despite Allen’s confessions, there is very little physical evidence linking him to the case: a DNA expert who testified for the state found none of Allen’s DNA at the crime scene, and none of Libby or Abby’s DNA was found on objects that were found in his house.

Prosecutors drew attention to the unspent .40-caliber bullet found in the girls’ bodies, which a prosecution expert testified matched Allen’s gun. The defense questioned the bullet evidence, wondering why more photos of the cartridge weren’t taken and suggesting the bullet could have come from a law enforcement officer’s weapon, according to WRTV.

The prosecution also attempted to match Allen to the video and audio recording of the “Bridge Guy” captured on Libby’s cell phone. Indiana State Police Chief Trooper Brian Harshman, who said he listened to more than 700 phone calls in Allen’s jail, testified for the prosecution that he said “the voice of the ‘Bridge Guy’ is the voice of Richard Allen.” , according to WRTV .

“Richard Allen is ‘Bridge Guy,’” McLeland told the judges. “He kidnapped them and later killed them.”

In response, Rozzi said Allen was not clearly identified by witnesses as the man on the walkway or bridge when the teens went missing. He also pointed out that Allen lived in Delphi for more than five years after the girls were murdered.

“He had every opportunity to run, but he didn’t because he didn’t do it,” Rozzi told jurors.

ABC7 Chicago contributed to this report.