Richard Allen was “seriously mentally ill” when he made a series of prison confessions in which he admitted to killing Delphi teenagers Liberty German and Abigail Williams.
Richard Allen was “seriously mentally ill” when he made a series of prison confessions in which he admitted to killing Delphi teenagers Liberty German and Abigail Williams.
Jurors at Carroll County Court in the small Indiana town on Friday heard expert testimony from Dr. Deanna Dweinger, who oversees mental health services at the state Department of Corrections.
Under questioning by Bradley Rozzi, Dweinger told the court that Allen’s 13 months in solitary confinement in the most secure unit at the Westville Correctional Facility, about 76 miles from Delphi, would have been “toxic” for a man already suffering. of depression and anxiety.
Allen, 52, has been charged with four counts related to the Feb. 13, 2017, murders: two counts of murder and two counts of felony murder, which means murder committed during the act of another crime, in this case kidnapping.
If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of 130 years in prison.
Libby, 14, and Abby, 13, were murdered outside their hometown of Delphi, Indiana, in February 2017.
In his opening statements at the start of the highly anticipated trial, lead attorney Andrew Baldwin promised jurors, “You will see the state’s case crumble before your eyes.”
But he got off to a shaky start with the defense’s first full day of evidence, as he, Rozzi and Jennifer Auger bested ten witnesses and barely threw a punch.
In fact, at least two of his witnesses reinforced key aspects of the state’s case.
Answering the jury’s questions (in Indiana jurors can ask questions after direct and cross-examination), Dr. Dweinger was forced to admit that even a person in the midst of a psychotic break could “introduce truths” into his confessions. .
She also revealed that she and her colleagues had lengthy discussions about the veracity of Allen’s apparent collapse that peaked between April and July 2023 and questioned whether he was faking it for attention or for other goals such as a prison transfer or visits. of his wife. .
Hammond Police Department Officer Christopher Goote testified in front of Dweinger.
The two best friends were last seen alive on their fateful walk to Monon High Bridge in February 2017.
Prosecutors believe Allen’s deteriorating mental state in prison was a ruse, while his defense argued it was due to the long time he spent in solitary confinement.
The suspect, who became known as ‘Bridge Guy’, was first seen in images captured on the mobile phones of one of the girls before they were killed.
He was one of the officers who took local man Brad Weber’s original statement about when he returned home from work on the day the girls went missing.
Weber’s story is key because he lives at the end of a private road that passes under the side of the bridge from which the girls were kidnapped.
If he went straight home as he has claimed, it appears to verify a detail contained in one of Allen’s prison confessions that, the prosecution confides, “only the killer would have known.”
Allen told prison psychologist Monica Wala that he had tried to rape Libby, 14, and Abby, 13, but “he saw a van” and “got scared,” so he ordered the girls to cross the stream and killed them.
Weber drives a Ford Econoline van. Yesterday he testified that he arrived at work at 5:14 a.m. and left at 2:02 p.m. and that it took him approximately 20 to 25 minutes to get home, placing him close to the scene at the time the girls were taken.
Libby’s video of Bridge Guy was recorded at 2:13 p.m. and the last movement recorded in the health app on her iPhone was at 2:32 p.m.
The defense had believed Goote would offer a different narrative than Weber, they claim, gave inconsistent accounts of his movements that day and originally told officers he went to check the ATMs he owns before returning home.
But defense attorney Auger was surprised and perplexed when Goote took the stand and testified that Weber told him he just “went home,” a statement that matches the state’s timeline.
Former Fire Chief Darrell Sterrett later told the court about searches that had been conducted around Delphi and near the trail on the afternoon and evening of February 13, 2017.
The defense theory is that the girls were not found until the next day because they were not there, but rather they were taken to another location and then returned to be killed.
They claim that the area where the bodies were finally found, upstream from the bridge and in a dense forest, had been thoroughly searched the night before.
But Chief Sterrett took the stand to tell the court that the “rushed” search party was made up of widely spaced searchers, working in thick brush and darkness rather than in a grid formation.
The abandoned Monon High Bridge outside Delphi, Indiana, where Abby and Libby were murdered
The trail in Delphi, Indiana, where Abby Williams, 13, and Libby German, 14, were murdered on February 13, 2017.
He claimed that his efforts had focused primarily on the southwest of the bridge, the opposite direction from where the bodies were ultimately found, once again a statement that shored up the state’s position.
At the time, he told the court: “I thought they were hiding somewhere cold and scared, waiting for us to find them.”
After a day in which the defense struggled to make the impact they were looking for, they faced three disappointments.
Judge Frances Gull denied a request to have an FBI agent who interviewed Weber in February 2017 testify remotely via Zoom and denied two motions seeking, once again, to present evidence that the girls were victims of multiple attackers who They participated in an Odinist. ritual.
Addressing lawyers after letting the jury go for the day, Gull said: ‘The jurisprudence on third party suspects is clear. There has to be a link (with the accused). There is no link.’
The trial continues.