DELPHI — Richard Allen was found guilty of the murders of Abigail Williams and Liberty German.
Williams and German disappeared on the afternoon of February 13, 2017, near the Monon High Bridge in Delphi, IN. Their bodies were found the next day not far from the bridge.
Williams was 13 years old. German was 14. The teens were off school on February 13 and decided to go for a walk on an unseasonably warm afternoon.
Observers in the courtroom said Richard Allen remained emotionless as the verdict on all four counts was read in court. Allen's wife, Kathy, could not stand when they prepared to read the verdict.
One of the teen's family members said, "Yes!" when the first guilty count was announced. Members of the Williams family and the German family were all crying but appeared to be relieved the trial was over and Allen had been found guilty.
Judge Gull said Allen will be sentenced on Friday, December 20, 2024. The gag order that has been in effect during the trial will remain in place — meaning family members and attorneys will not be allowed to talk about the case.
The jury started deliberations Thursday afternoon after closing arguments were made in the Carroll County Courthouse. They worked Friday afternoon, as well as Saturday. After a day off on Sunday, they returned to work this morning before court was called back into session.
Allen, now 52, was arrested on October 26, 2022, five years after the murders.
During the trial, the prosecution presented 42 witnesses as state's evidence.
Early in the case, prosecutors presented a video captured on German's iPhone 6s of a man known as "Bridge Guy." Much analysis was done to the audio and video captured in that clip to determine if Allen was Bridge Guy.
Brian Harshman, a Master Trooper with the Indiana State Police listened to hundreds of phone calls made by Richard Allen from prison. He testified that the voice he heard on the Bridge Guy video is that of Allen. Others testified they could not be certain whose voice it was who told Williams and German, "Girls, down the hill" as they stood on the Monon High Bridge on February 13.
Many hours of testimony for the prosecution were focused on alleged confessions made by Allen during his time as a prisoner at the Westville Correctional Facility.
Allen spent more than 13 months at Westville before he was transferred to the Wabash Valley Correctional Facility in December 2023. Much of the time Allen was at Westville, he was in solitary confinement.
Dr. Monica Wala is a clinical psychologist who talked about many conversations she had with Allen. She said he often confessed to killing the girls during her conversations at Westville. One of the things Wala said Allen told her is that he may have molested his sister when they were young. On the stand, Jaime Jones (Allen's sister) testified Allen never molested her, and that while she loved her brother, she would never lie to protect him.
Melissa Oberg works as a forensic metallurgy expert. The prosecution asked her to examine Richard Allen's .40 caliber Sig Sauer semi-automatic pistol. She also looked at the single unspent .40 caliber cartridge found on the ground between the girls' bodies near the crime scene.
Oberg told the jury about how each weapon leaves unique markings on shell casings or bullets as they move from the magazine into the chamber and then are ejected from the gun after the bullet is fired.
Oberg stated the bullet found at the crime scene had been cycled through Allen's gun. She based that statement on the unique characteristics of the ejectors and extractors on Allen's weapon and the markings she says Allen's pistol made on the cartridge.
The defense attorneys for Allen worked to contradict evidence presented by the prosecution.
They called Dr. Deanna Dwenger who worked for the Indiana Department of Corrections. Dwenger has been Director of Behavioral Health for IDOC since 2021. She said she oversees contract employees for companies like Centurion which hired Dr. Wala.
Dwenger testified she learned that Wala told her she had a personal interest in the Richard Allen case, but not until after Wala was assigned to the case. She learned Wala was a True Crime fan and that she listened to Delphi podcasts.
Dwenger was asked about Allen's solitary confinement, and she testified it was not good for Allen's mental health. It was Dr. Dwenger's opinion that someone with a Serious Mental Illness (SMI) should not be in solitary confinement for more than 30 days. Allen was in solitary confinement for 13 months.
Dr. Eric Warren appeared as an expert witness for the defense. He is a forensics examiner who was called to testify about the single .40 caliber cartridge found between the bodies of Williams and German at the crime scene. Dr. Oberg testified about that round for the prosecution.
Warren was asked to comment on the findings that the "magic bullet" had been cycled through Allen's gun. Warren says he reviewed Oberg's work and photographs of that evidence. Warren disagrees with Oberg's contention that you cannot draw conclusions based on photos of a gun or a cartridge. He said there was not sufficient evidence regarding the comparison of the bullet fired by Dr. Oberg through Allen's gun and the unspent bullet found near the girls' bodies. He also disagreed with Oberg's decision to compare a spent shell casing to the unspent cartridge found on the ground near the Monon High Bridge.
The defense rested Wednesday morning mere minutes after Judge Gull opened the session. Allen's defense team called 22 witnesses as it presented its case. Allen did not testify on his own behalf, and neither did his wife.
12 jurors and four alternates were selected from the pool of potential jurors in Allen County, Indiana, in mid-October. The jury was comprised of eight women and four men.
Right after the jury was sworn in, Judge Gull sequestered them, and they remained sequestered for the entirety of the trial in Carroll County. Judge Gull did excuse one of the alternates during the trial due to a medical emergency.
