Richard Allen found guilty on all counts in Delphi double murder case - WSVN 7News

(CNN) — Richard Allen has been found guilty of two counts of murder and two counts of murder in the highly publicized Delphi murder case. CNN affiliate WTHR.

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

The jury deliberated for about 19 hours before reaching a verdict. “No matter what the verdict is, people are not going to be happy,” Special Judge Frances Gull said before the verdict, WTHR reported.

Richard Allen sat emotionless as the guilty verdict was read, WTHR reported. His lawyers consoled him before he was handcuffed and led from the courtroom. The judge left the gag order, which prohibits the involved parties from speaking about the case, in place until Allen is sentenced on December 20.

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

Crying as she left the courthouse, Libby’s grandmother, Becky Patty, hugged family members, WTHR reported. The crowd outside erupted in applause and cheers outside the courtroom after the guilty verdict was announced, according to WTHR. Some spectators held signs showing their support for Allen, while others expressed their desire for a guilty verdict, according to CNN affiliate WISH.

Allen’s wife, Kathy Allen, told WTHR “this is not over at all” as she left the courtroom.

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.

Gull gave jurors their final instructions Thursday morning, urging them to “consider the facts” before Carroll County Prosecutor Nick McLeland delivered closing arguments, walking the jury through the evidence and testimony presented during the trial . This was reported by CNN affiliate WTHR.

“I believe the evidence is compellingly 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 talking about the Monon High Bridge Trail runs. Delphi law enforcement officials have long been adamant that they believe 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 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 confessions he made in the past were “false” and stemmed from months in solitary confinement as 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 languished 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 Allen “got lost in the cracks” despite the tip. according to CNN affiliate WLFI. About a month after the tip was rediscovered, Allen discovered 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 of Allen’s phone calls in prison, testified for the prosecution in his opinion: “the voice of the ‘Bridge Guy’ is the voice of Richard Allen ,” according to WTV.

“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.