INDIANAPOLIS — The first full day of jury deliberations ended without a verdict Friday in the trial of Richard Allen, who is accused of the 2017 murders of two teenage girls who disappeared while on a hike in Delphi, Indiana.
Jurors began their deliberations Thursday afternoon, deliberating for two hours before the day ended. They then spent seven hours deliberating on Friday without reaching any decision and will return on Saturday morning.
Allen had pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder and two counts of felony murder in connection with the 2017 deaths of Liberty “Libby” German and Abigail “Abby” Williams, who were 14 and 13, respectively.
If found guilty on all charges, he could face up to 130 years in prison.
Seven women and five men continued their deliberations on Friday after hearing the final arguments. In a week-long murder trialThe deliberations ended after about two hours and will resume on Friday morning. They will deliberate from 9 am to 4 pm from Monday to Saturday until they reach a decision, CNN reports.
Carroll County Prosecutor Nicholas McClelland told jurors that Allen was the man seen in a grainy cellphone video recorded by one of the girls, named Abby and Libby, just before they disappeared on February 13, 2017. Crossing an abandoned railway bridge.
“Richard Allen is the bridge guy,” McClelland told jurors. “He kidnapped them and later murdered them.”
He said Allen had repeatedly confessed to the murders in person, over the phone and in writing. In a recording played for the jury, Allen can be heard telling his wife, “I did it. I killed Abby and Libby.”
Allen's defense cast doubt on the statements, fielding witnesses, including a psychiatrist who testified that Allen was disoriented and mentally disturbed after months in solitary confinement. The defense further argued that there was no physical evidence linking Allen to the murders and said that any confessions he had made in the past were “involuntary” and resulting from months of being held in solitary confinement.
He said none of the witnesses clearly identified Allen as the man seen on the hiking trail or bridge that afternoon when the girls went missing. No fingerprints, DNA or forensic evidence links Allen to the murder scene, Rosie said.
And more than five years after the teenagers' murders, Allen was still living in Delphi while working at a local pharmacy.
“He had every opportunity to run, but he didn't because he didn't want to,” he told jurors.
Before the trial began, Allen's lawyers tried to argue that the girls were killed. in a religious ritual by members of a white nationalist group known as the Odinists who practice the pagan Norse religion, but the judge ruled against it, saying the defense “failed to present admissible evidence” of such a connection. “There.
Timeline of events related to the Delphi murders
The Delphi murder case occurred on February 13, 2017, when “Abby” and “Libby” went for a walk on the Monon High Bridge in Delphi. Both girls were reported missing after failing to meet Libby's father that afternoon. The next day, their bodies were found, both dead from wounds to the throat, partially covered with sticks.
The case attracted public attention due to a photograph and audio recording of the suspect taken from Libby's smartphone. The image shows a man walking on a bridge with his hands in his pockets, and the audio includes the muffled voice of a man saying, “Guys, down the hill.” Although police circulated photos and audio just days after the murders and identified the “Bridge Guy” as their prime suspect, the case remained cold for more than five years until Allen's arrest in 2022.
Allen appears to have avoided police notice, living in the small town of Delphi and working at a local CVS pharmacy, until in September 2022, a clerk digitizing tips related to the investigation noticed that he himself Was kept at the crime scene. Just days after the bodies were discovered, Allen told police that he had been on the trail during the time frame when the girls were thought to have been murdered.
Carroll County Sheriff Tony Liggett said that despite the information, Allen was “lost in the cracks,” according to CNN affiliate WLFI. About a month after the tip was received again, Allen was arrested when police matched an empty cartridge found among the girls' bodies to a pistol recovered from his home during a police search.
After Allen was arrested on October 26, 2022, he was charged five days later with two counts of kidnapping or attempted murder. Prosecutors later amended the charges to include two additional counts of murder.
During the trial, which began on October 18, the prosecution highlighted Allen's dozens of confessions While in prison: Prosecutors say he confessed to the crime more than 60 times, including to his wife, his mother, the psychologist who treated him, the warden and other prison staff and inmates. He played audio recordings of some of the confessions for the jury.
Monica Vala, the former head psychologist at the Westville Correctional Facility, where Allen was held, testified that he initially told her he was innocent, but began confessing to the crimes in April 2023, around the time when He was put back on suicide watch.
Vala testified that Allen told her, “I killed Abby and Libby. I'm sorry,” According to WTHRHe said he had originally planned to sexually assault the victims, but fled when he saw a van nearby, and he had slit the girls' throats and covered their bodies with sticks, he testified. .
Contributed to this report.