DELPHI — Prosecutors and defense attorneys for Richard Allen concluded their closing arguments in the murder trial at the Carroll County Courthouse.
PREVIOUSLY: Delphi Murders Trial: Day 17 | Allen's defense rests; Psychiatrist says Allen confessed to him in June 2023
Allen faces four charges, including two felony murder charges for killing Abigail Williams and Liberty German near the Monon High Bridge Trail in Delphi in February 2017.
Prosecution States its Case
The prosecution went first and took 58 minutes to summarize its case. The defense went next and worked for an hour and 18 minutes to convince the jury Allen is not guilty of the murders.
Prosecuting attorney Nicholas McLeland began at 9:22 a.m. by saying February 13 is, "a day this community will never forget." The prosecutor continued that was "a day Abigail Williams and Liberty German were killed by Richard Allen."
He discussed photos of the girls taken that day, including a Snapchat photo as they rode in the back of Kelsi German's car on the way to the trails.
McLeland also talked about how "this type of thing doesn't happen in this small community." He discussed the search efforts on the afternoon and evening of February 13, before the jury was shown photos of the crime scene.
Jurors were shown photos of the girls' dead bodies, and they also saw the photo of German's cell phone covered in water and dirt. McLeland talked about the cartridge found at the crime scene.
Much of the prosecution's closing arguments focused on the video captured at 2:13 p.m. on February 13, 2017. It was taken on German's cell phone.
McLeland showed screenshots of the video showing "the moment Abigail and Liberty were kidnapped." He also told the jurors "Something told Liberty to record this." The jury was shown an enhanced video from German's phone.
The case of the prosecution included witnesses who said they saw "a creepy guy" on the trails that day.
Betsy Blair, another witness for the prosecution, said she saw Bridge Guy standing on the first platform around 2:00 p.m. She added the man seemed to be looking for someone. She also said she passed Liberty and Abby on the trail.
Each of the witnesses who described the man they saw that day had slightly different memories of what he looked like, but McLeland stressed all of them insisted the man was Bridge Guy.
The prosecution argued Bridge Guy kidnapped the girls, and that the girls are dead.
McLeland told the jury, "If we can determine who Bridge Guy is, we will know who killed Abigail and Liberty."
They talked about the 2016 Ford Focus seen on surveillance video. Prosecutors said it was the only one registered in Carroll County in 2017. McLeland said that car "was Richard Allen's."
The timeline laid out by the prosecution jumped ahead to October 13, 2023, when Richard Allen was interviewed by police.
They say Allen confirmed to them he was wearing the same clothes seen in the video by Bridge Guy. He confirmed he was on the trail that day. He gave them a different time as to when he was there.
When Allen was first interviewed by authorities in 2017, he said he was on the trail around 1:30 p.m. on February 13, 2017. However, in 2023, Allen told police he was there at 12:30 p.m. that afternoon.
They told jurors about how Allen got angry as the interview continued and refused to let police search his phone or his house.
McLeland started talking about items found by police when they executed a search warrant for Allen's home.
He said they found a jacket that "surprise, surprise" is the same as Bridge Guy. They found a bullet inside a hope box that was the same brand and caliber as the cartridge found at the crime scene.
McLeland called the findings "the Bridge Guy starter kit."
The Carroll County prosecutor pointed to forensic evidence presented by state witnesses during the trial. It revolved around a single .40 caliber cartridge found at the crime scene near the girls' bodies.
The metallurgy expert looked at the cartridge and looked at the .40 caliber Sig Sauer pistol owned by Allen. She said that based on the markings found on the cartridge and the physical properties of Allen's gun, it was her opinion the cartridge found on the ground was cycled through Allen's pistol.
McLeland looked at the jury and said, "That could have been all we had to present to you, but it's not."
He said that they had more evidence because Richard Allen began to confess.
The prosecution pointed to numerous jailhouse confessions they say were made by Allen.
They said some of them were made by Allen as he talked to his mother and his wife, Kathy Allen, on the telephone. Others were documented by mental health professionals who testified during the trial.
They re-iterated that Allen told them he killed the girls and that he wanted to apologize to their families.
Many of those conversations happened while Allen was being held at Westville Correctional Facility. Numerous statements came from people who were on suicide watch outside Allen's cell at Westville.
One of them said Allen told them he killed them with a box cutter and threw it away at the CVS where he worked.
As McLeland began to wrap up his closing statements, he pointed to testimony from Master Trooper Brian Harshman with the Indiana State Police.
Harshman listened to hundreds of telephone calls made by Richard Allen in prison. He testified the voice of Bridge Guy from the video is the voice of Richard Allen.
"Now all the pieces are clear," said McLeland. "Now all the pieces are together. Richard Allen is Bridge Guy. He kidnapped them and later murdered them. He cut their throat."
McLeland told the jury Allen wanted to rape them, but saw a van and got scared. He said Allen made them cross the creek into a secluded area.
The prosecutor said Allen slit Libby's throat first, and she grabbed her neck as she clung to life. McLeland also said Allen left behind his bullet and Liberty German's cell phone which is what led investigators to him.
He concluded by saying to the 12 jurors and three alternates, "I am going to ask you to look at all the evidence and issue a guilty verdict on all four counts."
When the prosecution finished with closing arguments, Judge Fran Gull called for a recess.
Court resumed with Richard Allen's defense team starting its closing arguments a little before 10:45 a.m. Judge Gull set aside two to two-and-a-half hours for each side to make its closing arguments.
Defense Presents its Case
Defense attorney Brad Rozzi handed the closing arguments for Richard Allen's legal team.
He said there are four themes here related to the prosecution:
- Broken timeline
- Bumbling ballistics
- False confessions
- Digital forensics/data
Rozzi said the prosecution mishandled the case in many ways.
He told the jurors, “What is most important is what they don’t want you to know, what we had to tell you time and time again. We had to do their job.”
The defense repeatedly attacked the state’s presentation of the case. It pointed out that there was never a height analysis done on the Bridge Guy video. A height analysis could have helped prove how tall Bridge Guy is based on items seen in the video. Allen is approximately 5'5" tall.
Rozzi told the jurors how the prosecution lost many videotaped interviews from early on in the investigation. Those sessions were with people who came forward with information early in the case.
Rozzi said to the jury that the state did not tell you about the lost tapes, but the defense did.
The defense attorney also talked to the jury and credited them for their questions that led to information being disclosed about the Ford Focus seen on surveillance video. He said the state did not do that.
Rozzi questioned the testimony of many of the state's witnesses.
He started by saying that Betsy Blair’s description of Bridge Guy was "boyish and youthful." They pointed out that Richard Allen is neither.
Rozzi said Sara Carbaugh changed her story about what she saw on the trails on February 13, 2017. He said that she was operating under an idea of "suggestibility" and that she changed her story after seeing the video of Bridge Guy to better match what the video shows.
Rozzi told the jurors, "You are the judge of credibility. You may discount the testimony of a witness altogether."
He continued to knock the prosecution's presentation, saying it did not bring McCain as a witness because McCain's timeline does not fit the state's timeline. He said the same could be said for the state not calling Shelby Hicks as a witness.
Rozzi said the route Allen told investigators he took to the trail on February 13, 2017, also did not fit the timeline the state "wanted him to say," Rozzi claimed.
Rozzi then looked at the jurors and said, "There are two pieces of evidence you really need to consider. Look at the two interrogation videos (of Richard Allen being questioned by police) and see how Richard Allen conducted himself."
The defense then turned the jury's attention to other people who could have committed the murders of Williams and German.
He started with Brad Weber, a man who lives near the Monon High Bridge. Weber testified during the trial.
Rozzi said Weber, like Allen, owns a .40 caliber Sig Sauer pistol. They said Weber had sticks in his garage, and various people testified there were sticks found on the girls' bodies at the crime scene.
Rozzi said Weber gave police a different story about going straight home after work on February 13, 2017, when he was questioned about that day.
Rozzi asked the jury to consider what happened on April 3, 2023.
He said there were three phone calls made from Allen in Westville to his mother and his wife, but the state only played two of them.
He asked the jury why the state did not "offer up the third phone call as context for you? Why not tell the whole story?” Rozzi asked.
As part of closing arguments, Rozzi said to the jury, "The state didn’t tell you ISP ended the FBI Partnership. We had to tell you."
It was part of many claims by the defense that the state did not do its job properly. He told the jurors they should question "the credibility of this investigation based on what they aren’t telling you."
Several times Rozzi told the jury the state is desperate:
- To fit the van driven by Weber into the timeline,
- About why the DNA testing on a strand of hair found in Abby Williams' hand was just recently done
- About why the state just did searches of Richard Allen's cell phone to see his internet search history
Rozzi said those are all examples of how the state is "molding facts to fit this investigation."
He provided an example when he said the state realized that during a break in the trial, “they offered a fast-food Google search” having to do with the phone jack on Libby German's phone.
He said, "Google is not what they use as reliable sources."
About the state, he said, "They are desperate, desperate."
He highlighted the testimony of Dr. Kohr, the doctor who conducted the autopsies on Williams and German's bodies.
Rozzi reminded the jury Kohr testified he originally thought there were multiple weapons involved in their murders, but he could not provide a conclusion as to what kind of weapons were used.
Rozzi told the jury how the defense did a deposition of Dr. Kohr.
The defense attorney said, "After our deposition, he went home and at some point, looked at his garage and 'Tada, a box cutter.'"
Rozzi told the jury they learned Dr. Kohr met with the prosecutors three times after the deposition before he stated a box cutter may have been used to kill the girls.
The defense says the state has ignored and doesn't want to talk about the possibility of multiple actors in this case.
Rozzi even cited investigators have thought that there were multiple people involved early on.
The defense then took time to talk about the crime scene. Rozzi told the jury the "Perpetrator killed one girl while controlling and then killing the other? Redressed Abby, then covered the bodies with sticks?"
He shared that the crime scene was "very labor intensive."
Rozzi says it's not plausible that a 5'5'' man did all of it.
The defense says Allen cooperated with police even telling them he was on the bridge that day, and did an interview with investigators.
He says the interview Allen had with police in 2017, the officer said there was nothing unusual about Richard Allen.
The defense took time to address what they called the "magic bullet."
Rozzi said when Allen's gun was at the lab, Dr. Oberg cycled a round 4-6 times and marks weren't sufficient enough to determine. He said Dr. Oberg started "comparing apples to oranges," by firing a round to compare.
The defense said Oberg lacked documentation of her work. Rozzi said "Where in the h**l are the sufficient agreements and marks that match?"
Rozzi called the science a "dangerous business, and a subjective game."
The defense reminded the jury that it's not their burden of proof, which is why they didn't have their forensics firearms expert reexamine the round found at the scene.
The defense then attacked the confessions, calling them "false confessions."
Defense attorney Rozzi said Richard Allen was a fragile egg when he landed on the doorstep of the DOC.
He said, "No human, no matter how strong could endure those conditions for that long without having a breakdown."
Rozzi shared again that the DOC's rule for solitary confinement is 30 days, but that turned into 13 months for Allen. Rozzi brought up the testimony from the psychiatrist who said Allen was not psychotic when he made an admission of guilt to him. However, he reminded the jury that video played for them showed Allen appearing to be out of it the same day. Rozzi said, "Who could possibly watch that video and for one second believe that man was oriented to time and place."
The defense attorney then took time to share their timeline with Libby's cell phone. Saying that at 5:45pm headphones were plugged into Libby's phone and and unplugged at 10:32pm. Rozzi said someone was clearly using the phone during that time.
Those the state refutes that claim.
Rozzi then focused in on the lack of DNA evidence in this case.
Reminding th ejury there is not a single piece of trace evidence that ties Allen to the murders of Abby and Libby. Not one single digital connection to Allen to the girls. he said.
Rozzi then talked about how common a carhartt jacket is, and how it isn't unusual that investigators found one at Allen's home. "Boy there's a revelation for you," he said.
The defense then pointed to what they called an overwhelming lack of evidence in this case, and provided examples:
- No one identified Richard Allen as the man on the bridge
- No digital data connects Allen
- No fingerprint data connects Allen
- No DNA connects Allen
- No trace evidence materials connect Allen
- Noe forensic evidence connects Allen
Rozzi said, "The state's timeline crumbles. The Magic bullet is nothing more than a tragic bullet. And the phone raw data doesn't lie."
"All of those things make it virtually impossible for Richard Allen to have committed this crime."
Rozzi left the jury with images of a rack used to interrogate and torture people in the medieval times. He said the current day version is solitary confinement.
He then showed the jury photos of Allen in prison, and finally a photo of a snake suffocating a rodent and said, "This is the power of the state."
Rozzi told the jury "now is not the time to return to medieval times, and acknowledge this is not the way to function."
Rozzi said. "We are asking you to set Richard Allen free and enter a verdict of not guilty."
The defense took one hour and 17 seconds to deliver their closing argument.
Prosecution offers a rebuttal
The prosecutor took just under 10 minutes to deliver his rebuttal.
McLeland said, "now is the time we turn the case over to you. You're in the driver's seat."
He told the jury the defense didn't back up the claims they promised during opening statements. McLeland said the prosecution has.
McLeland addressed the defense's claims that no one heard anything on the bridge the day's of the murders. McLeland said the girls were scared. He said Allen had a gun.
The prosecutor said Allen left behind his, "calling card," which was a bullet.
McLeland again addressed the confessions. He said that repeatedly the defense has said "words matter" But the prosecutor said, "They don't matter for Richard Allen?" when talking about the confessions he made.
McLeland said, "the evidence in this case shows you bridge guy killed Abby and Libby and bridge guy is Richard Allen."
The prosecutor closed by reminding the jury the girls are more than victims, "they are heroes."
McLelad described why he believes the two are heroes.
- Libby took video on. her phone
- Abby concealed the phone under her body
- Abby and Libby covered the bulled for investigators to find.
McLeland finalized his argument by reminding the jury of Becky Patty's statement on the witness stand. "Libby told Becky, some day I am going to grow up and help police solve crimes. She did and brought Abby along with her."
The case is now in the hands of the jury.
FOLLOWING: Delphi Murders Trial: Day 18 | Deliberations underway; jury leaves after two hours with no verdict
