DELPHI — The first full day of defense witnesses taking the stand in the trial of Richard Allen was overshadowed by Judge Fran Gull's ruling at the end of the court session. The Special Judge ruled against a second defense motion to allow testimony related to Odinism, ritualistic killing, and Norse paganism evidence.
PREVIOUSLY: Delphi Murders Trial: Day 12 | Prosecution rests, and attorneys begin Richard Allen's defense
The first witness of the day was Christopher Gootee, a Hammond Police Department officer who also had been assigned to the FBI GRIT (Gang Response Investigative Taskforce) Taskforce. Gootee testified he helped conduct canvass interviews during the Delphi murders investigation.
Gootee said he helped interview Brad Weber, a man who lives near the Monon High Bridge trail. His private driveway passes under the bridge. According to Gootee, Weber said he went home after work on the afternoon of February 13, 2017, the day Abby Williams and Libby German were last seen. Defense attorney Nicholas McLeland asked Gootee if he wrote the report from that interview. He said he did not. He testified that FBI Special Agent Adam Pohl had written the report.
The defense attorney asked what Weber told him during the interview, and Gootee said he could not remember despite seeing the report written by FBI Special Agent Pohl.
The prosecuting attorney did not ask any questions during cross-examination, and there were no questions from the jury.
The second witness called was Dr. Deanna Dwenger, a clinical psychologist who worked for the Indiana Department of Corrections Behavioral Health. Since 2021, she has been Director of Behavioral Health at IDOC. Part of her responsibility with the state was to oversee contract employees such as Centurion. Centurion employed Dr. Monica Wala, who testified for the prosecution on her treatment of Richard Allen when he was in the Westville Correctional Facility. Dwenger said she worked closely with Wala’s supervisor at Centurion.
Dwenger testified she did not determine which DOC facility would house Allen, and she did not know who made that determination. She added Allen was not held in a mental health unit at Wabash or any other IDOC facility.
The dense attorney was asked about her interactions with Dr. Wala. She said Wala told her of her interest in the Richard Allen case after she was assigned to the case. Wala told her she was a True Crime fan and listened to Delphi podcasts. She said she sought counsel from a supervisor regarding that information. Dwenger also testified she knew Dr. Wala had visited the Monon High Bridge before Allen arrived at the DOC facility in Westville.
Dwenger was asked what she knew about Richard Allen’s capabilities. She said she didn’t know why he was placed in Westville. She heard other inmates regularly threatened Allen. She also said she was aware Allen was always on camera while he was in his cell. That concerned her, she said. She recommended the cameras be removed from his cell to improve his mental health. Dr. Dwenger said those cameras were never removed.
Dr. Dwenger was asked about solitary confinement, and she told the defense attorney it was not good for mental health. She also said the Department of Corrections has a mental health policy that someone with a Serious Mental Illness (SMI) should not be in solitary confinement for more than 30 days. Her testimony said Allen was diagnosed with SMI but spent 13 months in solitary confinement. She also stated it is possible that someone left in solitary for a long-term period could suffer additional mental health problems.
On cross-examination, Stacy Diener asked Dwenger when Richard Allen was diagnosed with SMI. Dwenger said he was not diagnosed when he first arrived at Westville Correctional Facility, but that he was diagnosed when he started to decline in April 2023.
A team of three mental health professionals discussed whether Allen was feigning mental illness or psychotic behavior in April 2023. A psychiatrist met with Allen that month. The first report stating Allen was suffering from a “grave disability” was April 13, 2023 when they determined Allen was not able to care for himself. That team of mental health professionals concluded Allen had deteriorated enough that intervention was required—whether he was faking or genuine.
Dr. Dwenger said Richard Allen was involuntarily given Haldol, a drug that was supposed to help with his symptoms of psychosis.
During re-direct, the prosecution objected to every question asked by defense attorney Brad Rozzi. Judge Fran Gull sustained all objections.
The jury asked Dr. Dwenger four questions. One of them centered around how medical professionals know if a patient is faking or if it is a real diagnosis. Dwenger said they listen closely to the patient’s story. If it is organized, she said the patient is likely faking psychosis. If the story is disorganized, is not easily followed, and is not chronological, it is more likely the patient is suffering from psychosis or is delusional.
Max Baker was the next witness to take the stand for the defense Friday morning. He works for the defense team. He curated the video taken of Richard Allen while the defendant was in prison. Among the videos the defense wanted to present were transport videos that showed Richard Allen moving around within the Westville Correctional Facility. The other videos were of Allen in his jail cell. There was a discussion about the admissibility of the videos. Judge Gull ultimately decided the video would be allowed, but she would not allow the audio from those videos to be heard by the jury. She ruled that the audio would be hearsay because it was the voice of Richard Allen, and he would not be taking the stand in this case.
The defense hit roadblocks Friday morning while it tried to submit the video as evidence. They eventually decided to recess Baker as a witness and hope to call him later as they continue to present their case. That means the video of Richard Allen in prison will not be shown today, but will be admissible when Baker returns to the stand.
The defense called Brad Heath as a witness after the lunch break. Brad Rozzi questioned him under oath. Heath lives outside Delphi, Indiana. He is now retired, but worked for an exterminator in February 2017 when Williams and German disappeared near the Monon High Bridge trail.
Heath testified that he had a customer who lived near the Monon High Bridge and visited their home on February 13, 2017. Electronic records of his visit show he was there at 1:43 p.m. that afternoon. He testified that he saw a vehicle parked near the trail around 8:45 that morning. He said it was in the same spot when he came back later in the day. Heath told the court it was parked near the CPS building and was halfway off the road. He described it as a dark blue vehicle that was older and "looked out of place." On the stand, he described the car he saw near the trails "looked like the Tommy Lee Jones police car" from the movies. He had no other recollection of other cars parked in the CPS lot that day.
A week later, Heath said he told police what he saw that day because he thought the tip might be helpful. There was no cross-examination of Heath, and the jury did not have any questions for him.
Defense attorney Andrew Baldwin called David McCain to the stand. He lives north of the Delphi city limits. He was the Project Manager for development of the trails. He said he had visited the trails as a child, was very familiar with the Monon High Bridge, and had walked across it many times.
McCain said he was on the trail and the bridge sometime between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. on February 13, 2017. He estimated he was there about an hour, and he parked near the Mears entrance. He did not recall seeing any other cars in the lot. He walked to the bridge and took some photos and walked across part of the bridge. He stated it was "an exceptionally nice day," and added "I just enjoyed the day."
As he was leaving the bridge, he said he saw a couple. He thought they were heading toward the bridge, but he could not say if he had ever seen them before. He told the court he may have seen some other people in the distance that afternoon, but is certain the only people he passed were the couple.
Court observers noted McCain had a hard time fully remembering some of the details of that day. He said it was seven years ago and that he "wasn't paying much attention at the time." He saw a lot of cars and people at the Mears entrance, but he "didn't see any pedestrians on 300N."
McCain said before he left, he heard a man shouting as he was leaving, but he did not hear any unusual sounds while on the trails or on the bridge that afternoon.
According to McCain, the sheriff's office and the FBI talked to him about his visit to the bridge on February 13. He told the sheriff's office he was out there that afternoon. A couple of days later, he was interviewed by the FBI, and he gave the SD memory card from his camera to the investigators. Police told him his photo showed a car in the background, but McCain said he didn't notice or pay attention to that.
On cross-examination, prosecutor Jim Luttrell presented the notes taken by the FBI during their interview with McCain. After looking through the notes, McCain said he remembered the man shouting at him — something like, "Have you seen two girls?" McCain said he had the impression the man was looking for them and that he sounded very concerned.
The prosecution pressed him on what time he arrived at the trail.
Luttrell asked, "Did you arrive at 3:15?"
McCain said "That sounds right, but it could have been 2:30 p.m. I wasn't paying attention to the time."
Baldwin called the next defense witness a little after 2:00 p.m. Friday afternoon. It was Darrell Sterrett, a man who was born and raised in Delphi and worked 36 years as a firefighter. He was Chief of the Delphi Fire Department from 2009 to 2021. He testified about his recollections of Febraury 13, 2017.
Sterrett said he was at the Joint Command Center to help with the search for the girls. He took the information from the dispatcher about "two missing juveniles." He said firefighters were already at the station that day for a training session when the call came in at 7:01 p.m. He said he arrived at the Monon High Bridge around 9:30 or 10:00 p.m. He took a crew of six people with him to search the trails for the girls.
Sterrett called it a "hasty search. Boots to the ground" was their priority that night. "My thought was they were hunkered down, cold and scared, waiting for us to find them." He said the search concentrated on the south and west portion of the trails, but they searched "some" of the east as well. He said their search efforts that day lasted until 2:30 a.m. on the morning of February 14, 2017.
He said he did order a general search area on all sides of Deer Creek and both east and west of the creek. He said they may have had some "high intensity" lights in the area to assist their efforts. He said he does remember some civilians helping with the search that evening.
Sterrett said it was very dark that night as they searched and they used hand lanterns to light up the area. Searchers did have a couple of box lights with two levels of intensity to help light up the woods.
When Sterrett was asked if anyone had looked in the water, he said, "Somebody may have looked in the creek." He added that crews looked in the water as they were searching. He said he could hear others working and exploring in the vicinity.
Before Sterrett was dismissed as a witness, he was asked to clarify what he meant by a "hasty search." He said it means they try to cover more ground quickly.
The last witness of the day was Steve Mullin, the investigator for the Carroll County prosecutor's office. Defense attorney Andrew Baldwin questioned him about the importance of preserving evidence, to which Mullin responded, " It is very important."
Baldwin also pointed out what he called "missing evidence." He asked Mullin about dozens of tapes containing interviews. Mullin admitted the interviews were taped over by other interviews — and could not be recovered. He said they discovered the problem in August 2023. When asked if those subjects were interviewed a second time, Mullin responded some of them were, but he didn't know which ones. He added he did not make the decision as to which ones were interviewed a second time.
A second group of missing interviews was discovered from April 28 to June 2nd. Mullin said there were issues with a DVR unit. A hard drive was accidentally reformatted. Efforts to recover the data were partially effective. They managed to save the video from the recordings, but they do not have any audio from the interviews.
FOLLOWING: Delphi Murders Trial: Day 14 | Jurors react to videos of Allen in prison
