An Indiana courthouse will host a sentencing hearing Friday for Richard Allen, who was recently convicted in February 2017 of killing two teenage girls who were walking on a hiking trail in Delphi. Known as the Delphi murder.
A Carroll County jury in November found Allen guilty of murdering 13-year-old Abigail “Abby” Williams and 14-year-old Liberty “Libby” German, who disappeared on Feb. 13, 2017, while walking along the High Monon Trail. Investigators found both had been brutally murdered The next day he covered his body with sticks in a wooded area near the trail.
Allen was convicted of two counts of murder and two counts of aggravated murder and sentenced to up to 130 years in prison.
Allen maintains his innocence. His attorneys filed a motion this week saying they will not present evidence at sentencing and will focus on the appeal. FOX 59 Indianapolis reported.
Delhi murder case: Jury reaches verdict for suspect Richard Allen after 4 days of deliberations
During his trial earlier this year, prosecutors presented Allen with evidence at the crime scene, including an unused bullet that matched a firearm recovered from Allen’s home in 2022, as well as Dozens of confessions he made in prison, According to FOX 59 Indianapolis.
Allen’s defense rested largely on expert analysis showing Allen’s unhealthy mental state following his 2022 arrest, which shocked the Delphi community at the time. Allen was a longtime CVS employee in the small Indiana town when police took him into custody five years after the murder.
Libby was naked and covered in blood when searchers found the two girls in a wooded area near the Monon High Bridge, Carroll County Prosecutor Nick McClelland told jurors in his opening statement. Both girls’ throats were slashed multiple times. FOX 59 reported..
Confessions of Delphi murder suspect’s wife, mother felt ‘calm’, expert says: ‘Not what I expected’
Indiana State Police Superintendent Doug Carter speaks during an updated press conference on the Delphi homicide investigation at the Canal Center on Monday, April 22, 2019, in Delphi, Indiana. (Nikos Frazier | Journal & Courier / USA TODAY NETWORK)
A key piece of evidence presented during the trial was a video Libbie recorded on her phone at some point. Before he and Abby were killed..
Jurors watched the 43-second video, which showed Libby and Abby walking into court on Oct. 22 with an unidentified man wearing a hat and blue utility jacket. Libby captured the video at 2:13 p.m., less than 25 minutes after he and Abigail’s family dropped her off at the trailhead.
Delhi murder case: ‘Burj Guy’ emerges as new crime scene evidence
Officer Richard Allen is led out of the Carroll County Courthouse after a hearing on November 22, 2022 in Delphi, Indiana. (AP Photo/Daron Cummings)
“Guys, down the hill,” the man can be heard telling the girls in the video.
Prosecutors argued that Allen was a “bridge guy,” after witnesses testifying against Allen said they saw him on the trail around the same time the girls disappeared, and authorities said a similar blue utility vehicle was driven from Allen’s home in 2022. The jacket was recovered.
Delhi murder suspect confesses to killing 2 girls on hiking trail in small town, jail doctor says
Snow covers the waters of Deer Creek as the Monon High Bridge towers over it, Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2022, in Delphi, Indiana. Abby Williams and Libby German, both Delphi eighth graders, were killed on February 13, 2017, while hiking on a popular community trail near Delphi. (Nikos Frazier / Journal & Courier / USA TODAY NETWORK)
Allen also admitted in a jailhouse confession that he ordered the girls “down the hill.” He repeatedly confessed to killing the girls, apparently saying he wanted to rape the girls but was spooked by a passing van, at which point he decided to kill them.
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His lawyers said his lack of mental stability led him to make false statements while behind bars.
On the wall of Carroll County Sheriff Toby Lazenby’s office are grainy cell phone video footage and a sketch of a prime suspect in the murders of Delphi girls Abigail Williams and Liberty German. (Robert Shear/IndyStar/USA TODAY Network)
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More than five years after his death, Investigators executed a search warrant. on October 13, 2022, from Allen’s home in Delphi, and found a blue Carhartt jacket, a SIG Sauer P226 .40-caliber semi-automatic handgun and a .40-caliber S&W cartridge in a “wooden knapsack box.” Exported from A closet in Allen’s bedroom, according to authorities.
A handgun recovered from Allen’s home was found at the scene of a 2017 murder, police said.