DELPHI, Ind. (WXIN) – After receiving the case Thursday, jurors in the Delphi murder trial found Richard Allen guilty of murder on Monday.

The decision meant jurors found the state’s evidence — including a bullet expertly matched to Allen’s gun and his prison confession — persuasive enough to convict him.

They were less swayed by the defense’s contention that the investigation was sloppy and Allen’s confessions were false.

Allen was charged with two counts of murder and two additional counts of murder while committing or attempting to commit a kidnapping in the February 2017 deaths of Abby Williams and Libby German near the Monon High Bridge. The jury found Allen guilty on all counts.

As jurors read the verdict, Allen’s wife and mother began to cry. So did the family of victims Abby Williams and Libby German.

Allen will be sentenced on December 20 at 9am

A day-by-day summary of the Delphi murder trial

During the trial, the state made its case for Allen’s guilt: a crime lab technician matched a bullet found at the crime scene to Allen’s gun; a camera filmed Allen’s car near the crime scene; admitted being on the bridge on the day of the murders; and confessed to the crime dozens of times, including in jailhouse phone calls to his wife and mother.

The defense objected, arguing the state had no DNA, social media or digital forensic evidence linking Allen to the crime. They also said that his time in solitary confinement warped his mind and led to false confessions.

The state botched the investigation from the start, the defense further argued.

The trial began with jury selection on Oct. 14 in Allen County. Because of the high profile of the case and its prominence in central Indiana, Special Judge Fran Gull decided to pull jurors from Allen County. Because the murders took place in Carroll County and a number of key witnesses and investigators lived near or around Delphi, the trial itself was held in the Carroll County Courthouse.

The proceedings began with opening statements on 18 October. That same day, the state called its first witnesses: Abby and Libby’s family members. Prosecutor Nick McLeland and his team spent 12 days presenting evidence, including gruesome crime scene photos, and making their case against Allen. The defense closed its argument on November 6.

How Allen became the prime suspect

Allen contacted police in February 2017 to say he was on the Monon High Bridge on the day of the murders. He spoke with a DNR officer and said he was in the area between 1:30 and 3:30 p.m.

But the tip sheet was misfiled and incorrectly labeled. It wasn’t until September 2022 that a volunteer organizing crime tips in Delphi came across the report and brought it to the attention of investigators. They decided to take a closer look at Allen.

To this point, the case has remained without an arrest for nearly six years. Investigators asked Allen about his whereabouts; said he was on the bridge around noon and left around 1:30 p.m. on February 13, 2017. He was driving a black 2016 Ford Focus SE that investigators believe they saw on a security camera at the Hoosier store Harvest. Allen said he was wearing a Carhartt jacket and blue jeans that day — the same clothes “Bridge Guy” was wearing.

His interview prompted investigators to request a search warrant. They went to Allen’s home, searched his car and seized several items: several electronics, knives, box cutters and a Sig Sauer P226 pistol. The gun used a bullet of the same caliber as the one found at the crime scene, investigators said.

A full day of testimony was devoted to Melissa Oberg, a former state police lab technician who examined the “unspent bullet” and ultimately matched it to Allen’s Sig Sauer. She said the bullet went through Allen’s gun. Allen could not explain how a bullet from his gun ended up at the crime scene.

Digital forensics played an important role in the case, with investigators recovering a video from Libby German’s phone of the man who would become known as “Bridge Guy.” An analysis of the phone found that movement stopped at 2:32 p.m. The state believes the girls were killed at that time.

After his arrest, Allen was taken to the Westville Correctional Facility. He was held in solitary confinement, but eventually made a series of confessions. He told his mother and wife that he killed Abby Williams and Libby German. He said he threw a box of clippings into a CVS dumpster. He wrote a letter to the director confessing to the Delphi murders.

He gave the most detailed testimony to Dr. Monica Wala, a prison psychologist at Westville Correctional Center. He told her that his motive was sexual and that he threatened the girls with a gun and forced them down the hill. Before he could sexually assault someone, he said he saw a van, which startled him. He ordered the girls across Deer Creek and killed them, he said.

The State relied heavily on the bullet evidence and Allen’s confession as it presented its case.

As a result, the defense responded by working to dismantle the state’s evidence and questioning the veracity of Allen’s confessions.

Allen’s defense fought back

Allen’s treatment at Westville became a central theme, with the defense showing jurors more than a dozen videos of Allen in custody. In some of the videos, he was naked and wearing a hood. He was seen eating his own faeces and spreading it on the walls. Sometimes he hit his head against the cell wall.

A defense expert, Dr. Stuart Grassian, testified that prolonged solitary confinement could have a negative effect on a person’s mental state and it even leads to false confessions. Allen’s lawyers made it clear in court that they believed Allen’s confession, although not coerced, to be false confessions made by a man physically and mentally exhausted by the difficult conditions in which he lived.

The defense also hammered the investigation of the Delphi murders, questioning why state investigators ultimately dismissed the FBI from the case and noting a series of procedural blunders that marred the investigation from day one.

Several interviews with witnesses from the early days of the investigation were deleted due to a DVR error. Those interviews could have held key evidence, the defense argued, and their loss weakened the early investigation.

Even the state’s digital forensics examination has come under fire. The state’s experts could not explain why notifications and messages suddenly came through Libby German’s phone at 4:34 a.m. on February 14, 2017. The state maintained that the phone never moved after 2:32 p.m., when activity tracking data they showed that the phone turned off. for good

Stacey Eldridge, a former FBI forensic examiner, said her analysis found that the auxiliary port on Libby’s phone was active between 5:45 p.m. — when she appeared someone connected a plug to it — and 10:32 p.m. — when someone unplugged the device.

Her claim left the state scrambling, with one of its experts saying perhaps water or dirt had entered the port. He later admitted to doing a Google search during a break in court to quickly find a possible explanation.

The defense also criticized the bullet evidence, its expert, Dr. Eric Warren, testifying that he disagreed with Oberg’s findings. He said Oberg compared an unspent round to a bullet that was test fired from Allen’s gun. This was an “apples to oranges” comparison, he said.

The defense said there was no DNA or digital evidence linking Allen to the murder. Investigators found no evidence on any items seized from Allen’s home or his car.

The defense also questioned the reliability of some of the state’s witnesses, including key witness “Bridge Guy” who engaged in contentious exchanges during cross-examination about her use of the words “muddy” and “bloody,” and Steve Mullin , former Delphi police. chief and current Carroll County Prosecutor’s Office investigator, who was accused of a lack of thoroughness in his investigation and of trying to influence Allen’s route on the trails on February 13, 2017.

Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports and video streaming, go to The Hill.