Richard Allen’s stepfather struggled to keep his eyes open and was heard snoring in court as defense attorneys tried to discredit the state’s evidence.
Allen’s lawyers on Friday dismissed the only evidence placing Allen at the scene of the brutal murders of Liberty German and Abigail William as junk science.
Jurors in Delphi sat through seven and a half hours of dense testimony from forensic firearms examiner Melissa Oberg as the state tried to convince them that an unspent cartridge found among the two girls’ bodies was “recycled” by a gun confiscated from Allen’s home five years ago. later.
As the often complex technical testimony unfolded to members of the public struggling to stay alert, including Allen’s stepfather, who snored as he fell asleep. They woke him up with a nudge, but he soon closed his eyes again.
Markings found on a bullet casing taken from the scene are unique identifiers linking it to a gun found in Allen’s home when it was searched in October 2022.
Libby, 14, and Abby, 13, were murdered outside their hometown of Delphi, Indiana, in February 2017.
Allen, 52, faces a maximum of 130 years in prison if convicted of all four charges against him.
He has been charged with two counts of murder and two counts of felony murder, murder committed during the act of another crime – in this case kidnapping – in connection with the murders of Libby, 14, and Abby, 13, who were murdered on February 13. 2017.
A single cartridge, found among the dirt and leaves of the forest where the girls were murdered and abandoned, is the only piece of state evidence linking Allen to the crime scene, and his guilt or innocence could depend on what the jury takes. of today’s decision. testimony.
According to Oberg, individual features in the form of grooves and impression marks found on the unspent Smith & Weston .40 Winchester caliber cartridge taken from the scene are proof positive that it passed for the Sig Sauer found in Allen’s home when it was searched. in October 2022. .
The trail in Delphi, Indiana, where Abby Williams, 13, and Libby German, 14, were murdered on February 13, 2017.
The experts admitted that after testing they were unable to recreate the same cartridge markings at the scene, while the defense argued that their search for a match meant they simply ran tests until they found one.
The jury heard yesterday that a similar cartridge was found in a “memory box” or “hope box” in Allen’s closet in the master bedroom of his Delphi home.
It was found alongside wristbands, letters and mementos that, to investigators, appeared to have emotional significance. It had not been circulated by his weapon.
According to the state, markings that can be found on the cartridge taken from the scene are unique identifiers that link it to Allen’s gun.
Oberg was on the stand for nearly four hours during direct examination and the same during cross-examination.
Allen’s father-in-law could be heard snoring. They woke him up with a nudge, but his eyes soon closed again.
The prosecutor struggled to get witnesses to positively identify Allen as the suspected man on the road.
This afternoon, under intense questioning from Bradley Rozzi, Oberg was forced to admit that she had not been able to exclude other weapons that had been tested over the years, although she insisted that if she had had Allen’s gun, the Positive identification would have allowed him to perform. more conclusive results earlier.
He also accepted that he had failed to replicate the markings found on the crime scene cartridge on six test cartridges that were simply passed through Allen’s gun and that the identification comparison had instead been made with four cartridges that were actually shot.
Oberg insisted that the only difference between the two processes was pressure, with firing producing more visible tool marks: the lines, shears, and particles left by the inner workings of the gun’s ejector, extractor, and barrel.
The abandoned Monon High Bridge outside Delphi, Indiana, where Abby and Libby were murdered
Witness Sarah Carbaugh told the court she had seen a “bloody and muddy” man fitting Bridge Guy’s description walking away from the Monon High Bridge trail around 4 p.m. on the day the girls disappeared.
But Rozzi argued that she, as a “state-appointed forensic expert,” was comparing “apples and oranges,” and suggested that the state had been so determined to find a match that they simply ran tests until they found one.
Oberg resisted, but was forced to admit that the findings of her analysis were “subjective in nature.”
“Exactly,” Rozzi said. “And that’s where the battle lines are drawn between people who believe in their industry and those who don’t.”
