Delphi Murder Trial Verdict: Richard Allen Found Guilty on All Charges in Indiana Trail Deaths of Libby German, Abby Williams

DELPHI, Ind. — Richard Allen was found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of first-degree murder in the highly publicized Delphi murder trial, according to CNN affiliate WTHR.

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

Jury deliberations will resume Monday in the highly publicized trial of Delphi murder suspect Richard Allen.

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

The jury spent about 19 hours deliberating before reaching a verdict.

Allen could face up to 130 years in prison, the Associated Press reported.

The 12-person jury, which had been sequestered during the trial, began deliberating Thursday afternoon after 17 days of testimony. The judge ordered them to deliberate from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Monday through Saturday until they reach a verdict.

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

“I think the evidence is very convincing that Richard Allen is the ‘Bridge Guy’ and killed Abby and Libby,” McLeland told the jury, referring to a video taken from Libby’s phone that shows a man walking on the Monon High Bridge route. Delphi law enforcement officials have long maintained that they believe the “Bridge Guy” featured in the video is the prime suspect in the case.

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

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

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

“The defense trusts that what you’ve heard over the last several weeks is more important than what you’re hearing today,” Rozzi told the jury Thursday, according to WTHR.

The defense also argued that no physical evidence linked Allen to the crimes and said his past confessions were “false” and stemmed from months of solitary confinement as he his mental health deteriorated.

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 not meeting Libby’s father that afternoon. The next day, their bodies were found, both dead from cuts to the throat and partially covered by sticks.

The case gained public attention in part because of video and audio footage of a suspect taken from Libby’s smartphone. The video shows a man walking on the bridge with his hands in his pockets, and the audio includes a man’s muffled voice saying, “Guys, on the hill.” Although police released audio and a photo from the video just days after the murders and identified “Bridge Guy” as their prime suspect, the case remained cold for more than five years until Allen was arrested in 2022.

Allen appeared to escape police notice, living in the small town of Delphi and working at a local CVS pharmacy, until a clerk digitizing tips related to the investigation in September 2022 noticed he had placed himself at the crime scene. Just days after the bodies were discovered, Allen told police he was on the trail around the time the girls were believed to have been killed.

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 between the girls’ bodies to a gun recovered from the home during a police search.

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 charges to include two additional counts of murder.

Allen’s confessions—and his sanity when he made them—revealed
During the trial, the prosecution highlighted Allen’s dozens of confessions while incarcerated: He confessed to the crime more than 60 times, prosecutors say, including to his wife, his mother, his treating psychologist, the warden and other prison employees . and inmates. They played audio recordings of some of the confessions for the jury.

Monica Wala, the former lead 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 under supervision the suicide bomber.

Wala testified that Allen told her, “I killed Abby and Libby. Sorry,” according to CNN affiliate WTHR. He said he initially planned to sexually assault the victims but fled when he saw a van nearby and cut the girls’ throats and covered their bodies with sticks, she testified.

The defense tried to paint a portrait of Allen as a mentally ill man whose fragile mental state was exacerbated by months spent in solitary confinement, including the time he confessed to the murders. He was placed on suicide watch twice while in prison, exhibited bizarre behavior such as eating his own feces and banging his head, and was at one point 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 Correctional Behavioral Health, testified that Allen was diagnosed with a serious mental illness in April 2023 and a team of mental health professionals concluded that he had a “serious disability”. according to CNN affiliate WRTV.

The defense originally hoped to introduce an “Odinism” defense: a theory that followers of Odinism, a Nordic pagan religion recently adopted by white supremacists, committed the murders. But Judge Gull has repeatedly denied motions to introduce that theory.

Prosecutors are focusing on audio recordings and the bullet found at the scene
Despite Allen’s confessions, very little physical evidence links him to the case: a DNA expert testifying for the state found no DNA from Allen at the crime scene, and no DNA from Libby or Abby was found on the items recovered from his house.

Prosecutors pointed to the unexpended .40-caliber casing found on the girls’ bodies, which a prosecution expert testified matched Allen’s gun. The defense questioned the bullet evidence, questioning why more images of the round weren’t taken and suggesting the bullet could have come from a law enforcement officer’s gun, according to WRTV.

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

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

In response, Rozzi said Allen was not clearly identified by witnesses as the man on the hiking trail or on the bridge when the teenagers disappeared. He also pointed out that Allen was still living in Delphi more than five years after the girls were killed.

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

ABC7 Chicago contributed to this report.