DELPHI, Ind. (WISH) — Delphi murder suspect Richard Allen was found guilty Monday after 21 days in one of the most high-profile trials in Indiana history.

Sentencing was set for December 20. A gag order on the people who handled the case and the families of the suspect and victims will remain in place until further notice.

The result followed an investigation involving local, state and federal law enforcement that lasted more than five years before the arrest. The trial lasted two years, with rulings on the case coming from the Indiana Supreme Court.

The 52-year-old former pharmacy technician from Delphi has been charged with two counts and two counts of murder while committing or attempting to commit kidnapping in the deaths of 13-year-old Abigail “Abby” Williams and his Liberty “Libby” German. , 14. The girls’ bodies were found near the Monon High Bridge and trail near Delphi on Feb. 14, 2017, a day after they went missing while on a hike.

The girls had their throats cut. The medical examiner who performed the autopsies said the cuts could have been made with a knife.

Police said Allen was first investigated shortly after the girls’ bodies were found in 2017. However, he was not charged until October 28, 2022.

Jurors learned during the trial that a tip given to authorities in 2017 was misfiled, only to be discovered when the tips were digitized. Once found, that tip led to police speaking with Allen again and his subsequent arrest about a month later.

Delphi is a town of nearly 3,000 in Carroll County. The county has 20,500 inhabitants. Local officials faced unprecedented costs for the high-profile felony case, a rarity in the small Indiana county.

Once charged, Allen’s case went through the courts for two years before trial. Because of conflicts in Carroll County, the case was assigned to an out-of-county arbitrator, Allen County Judge Frances Gull. She found the pretrial publicity strong enough to bring a jury of Allen County residents to the Carroll County Courthouse for Allen’s trial.

Gull at one point removed Allen’s defense attorneys over their conduct, only to have the Indiana Supreme Court reinstate them in January. In a formal opinion a month later, the Indiana Supreme Court said it did not consider removing Allen’s defense attorneys to be a “necessary last resort.” The ruling created a new standard for removing defense attorneys from a case.

Defense attorneys also asked Gull to resign as the special judge in the case. In July, the Indiana Supreme Court denied that request.

The process also challenged journalists.

Gull met with the media in October at the Carroll County Courthouse before the trial began. She allowed photos to be taken of the empty courtroom, which News 8 aired. She also provided guidelines for media coverage.

A lot of interest in the Delphi murders came from media personalities with crime podcasts and video platforms. The judge’s distrust of the media grew as the case moved through the court, leading her to not allow cameras or any electronic devices in the courtroom during the trial. This decision meant that written notes from a panel reporter were shared with other reporters after a court hearing was over. The judge also denied the request to release audio recordings of the sessions.

Indiana became one of the last states to allow cameras in courtrooms beginning May 1, 2023, with the permission of the presiding judge. Gull was part of a pilot program for courtroom cameras before the Indiana Supreme Court agreed to the change.

The judge at the start of the trial confiscated the cameras of three traditional media journalists, claiming they took photos of jurors as they moved from a van outside the courthouse and into the courtroom. The judge ordered the deletion of the jurors’ photos.

The small size of the courtroom also limited in-person public viewing of the trial for all parties involved.

During closing arguments Thursday, Carroll County Prosecutor Nick McLeland told jurors they should convict Allen because an unfired shell casing found at the crime scene had tool marks that matched the bullets that went through Allen’s Sig Sauer pistol found at his home in 2022. Tool marks are caused by the harshest. metals inside a firearm that come into contact with the softer metals that make up a cartridge.

McLeland also told jurors that clothing found at Allen’s home in 2022 was similar to the person seen in a video Libby shot on the trail on Feb. 13, 2024. Her cell phone video showed a blurry image of a man walking on the path. ; he came to be known as the “bridge guy” during the trial. The full video was played publicly for the first time during the trial with enhanced audio included audio first released by investigators in the second half of February 2017 of a person saying “down the hill”.

Eventually, the county attorney recorded Allen’s confession while he was in a state prison. Allen was moved to the Indiana Department of Corrections’ Westville Correctional Facility because Sheriff Carroll Count said the jail could not keep Allen safe. It is extremely unusual in Indiana for a person facing criminal charges in a county court to be sent to a state prison while awaiting the outcome of a case.

In closing arguments, defense attorneys said Allen’s confessions were false, given under duress while suffering from mental health problems while in a state prison awaiting trial. Mental health professionals testified about the decline in Allen’s mental health while in state prison, and the jury also saw graphic videos and photos of the conditions Allen endured. Defense attorneys said a conviction for Allen would be “endorsing this behavior.”

Defense attorneys also pointed to the state’s broken timeline in its investigation, which included faulty ballistics and the lack of DNA or digital forensics from the crime scene to connect Allen to the murders. Investigators also failed to conduct a markings test on the gun of another person seen in the area around the time of the girls’ disappearance.

What jurors didn’t hear were theories that the girls’ murders involved Odinism, an ancient Norse religion said to inspire white supremacists. But the judge denied allowing any testimony during the trial about those theories.

Allen’s trial and public defense cost county government more than $4.3 million.