Defense rests on Day 17 of Delphi, Indiana, double-murder trial
After 17 days, the defense rested its case in the Delphi, Indiana, double murder trial of Richard Allen.
He is accused of the 2017 deaths of Abby Williams and Libby German.
Closing arguments will begin on Thursday mornings. Both the prosecution and defense will get two-and-a-half hours.
What happened to Abigail Williams and Liberty German?
Abigail, 13, and Liberty, 14, better known as Abby and Libby, were close friends who had been dropped off by a relative at a hiking trail on Feb. 13, 2017. When they failed to meet the relative later in the day, they were reported missing.
Their bodies were found the next day in a wooded area near the Delphi Historic Trail, about a mile where they were last seen. Authorities determined their deaths were homicides. Prosecutors said Friday that their throats had been slit.
Police spent years searching for a suspect, investigating thousands of leads and releasing multiple composite sketches of the suspect based on eyewitness accounts. Audio evidence from Libby's cell phone revealed an unknown man had told the girls to go "down the hill." Libby also recorded a short video of a man who police believed to be the killer.
Who is Richard Allen?
Richard Allen, a drugstore pharmacy technician in Delphi who lived just minutes from the crime scene, was arrested on Oct. 26, 2022, more than five years after the slayings. He was first interviewed by police in 2017 and said that he had been walking in the area and seen three "females" near a bridge, but hadn't spoken to them.
He was interviewed again on Oct. 13, 2022, after police searched through former suspects. He said that he had seen three "juvenile girls" during his walk. Investigators searched his home and seized a .40-caliber pistol. Prosecutors said testing found an unspent bullet discovered between the teen's bodies "had been cycled through" the weapon. Allen told prosecutors that he had never been where the bullet was found and didn't know how a round cycled through his gun could have gotten there.
Allen has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Prosecutors have said previously that Allen admitted to the killings in a prison phone call to his wife in April 2022. During the call, Allen admitted to the murders seven times before his wife quickly ended the phone call, court documents state. Special Judge Fran Gull ruled in August 2024 that those statements, along with dozens of other confessions Allen made while in jail, could be used as evidence in the trial.
The defense has said that Allen did not make the confessions voluntarily and that he was suffering from mental illness at the time.
Officials previously said they have "good reason to believe" that more than one person was involved in the killings, but no further arrests have been made.
Allen's lawyers previously suggested that the girls were killed as part of a pagan ritual sacrifice, and accused police of ignoring evidence from the crime scene. In a search warrant request in March 2017, an FBI agent claimed the girls' bodies appeared to have been "moved and staged" at the crime scene. The judge ruled Friday that this theory will not be heard by the jury.
