DELPHI, Ind. — Richard Allen was found guilty of two counts of murder and two counts of capital murder in the highly publicized Delphi murder case, according to CNN affiliate WTHR.

Prosecutors say Allen killed 13-year-old Abigail “Abby” Williams and 14-year-old Liberty “Libby” German in 2017, slit their throats and left their bodies near a trail in Delphi, Indiana. The case went cold for more than five years until Allen was arrested in 2022.

Richard Allen sat emotionless as the guilty verdict was read, WTHR reported. His sentencing date is scheduled for December 20.

The jury deliberated for approximately 19 hours before reaching a verdict.

According to the Associated Press, Allen could be sentenced to up to 130 years in prison.

Since the speech ban is still in effect, no official will be able to speak after the decision.

The jury of 12 people detained during the trial began deliberations on Thursday afternoon after 17 days of testimony. The judge instructed them to deliberate from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Saturday, until they reached a decision.

Allen County Superior Court Judge Frances Gull gave her final instructions to jurors Thursday morning, urging jurors to “consider the facts” before Carroll County Prosecutor Nick McLeland delivered her closing statement, guiding the jury through evidence and testimony presented during the trial, CNN affiliate WTHR reported.

“I believe the evidence is absolutely convincing that Richard Allen was the ‘Bridge Guy’ and that he killed Abby and Libby,” McLeland told the jury, referring to video taken from Libby’s phone that showed a man walking on the Monon High Bridge Trail. . Delphi law enforcement has long maintained that they believe the “Bridge Man” shown in the video is the prime suspect in the case.

According to WTHR, McLeland showed jurors stunning photos of the girls’ bodies, a “Bridge Guy” video that he said captured the final moments of the girls’ lives, and a recording of Allen allegedly confessing to his wife during a phone call from prison. .

“I did it,” Allen was heard telling his wife. “I killed Abby and Libby.”

Defense attorney Brad Rozzi said in his closing argument that the broken timeline, false confessions and lack of DNA or gun evidence should have resulted in an acquittal.

“The defense believes that what you’ve heard over the last few weeks is more important than what you’ve heard today,” Rozzi told the jury on Thursday, according to WTHR. he said.

The defense also argued that there was no physical evidence linking Allen to the murders and said his past confessions were “false” and stemmed from months of solitary confinement due to his deteriorating mental health.

The Delphi murder case dates back to February 13, 2017, when Abby and Libby went for a walk across the Monon High Bridge in Delphi. The two girls were reported missing after they were unable to contact Libby’s father that afternoon. The next day, the bodies of both were found cut to their throats and partially covered with sticks.

The case came to public attention in part because of the suspect’s video and audio recording taken from Libby’s smartphone. The video shows a man walking on the bridge with his hands in his pockets, and the audio includes the muffled voice of a man saying, “Guys, down the hill.” Although police released the audio recording and video still just days after the murders and identified the “Bridge Man” as the prime suspect, the case remained inconclusive for more than five years until Allen’s arrest in 2022.

Allen had seemingly evaded police notice, staying in the small town of Delphi and working at a local CVS pharmacy until September 2022, when a clerk digitizing clues relevant to the investigation realized he had placed him at the scene of the crime. Just a few days after the bodies were found, Allen told police he was on the trail around the time the girls were thought to have been killed.

Carroll County Sheriff Tony Liggett said despite the tip, Allen “got lost in the cracks,” according to CNN affiliate WLFI. About a month after the tip was rediscovered, Allen was arrested after police matched the unspent cartridge found among the girls’ bodies to a gun seized 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 murder while committing or attempting to commit a kidnapping. Prosecutors later amended the charges to include two more murder charges.

Allen’s confessions and his mental health while making them attracted attention
Throughout the trial, the prosecution highlighted dozens of confessions Allen made while in prison: Prosecutors say Allen confessed to the crime more than 60 times, including to his wife, his mother, the psychologist who treated him, the guard and other prison employees. and prisoners. They played audio recordings of some of the confessions to the jury.

Monica Wala, the former chief psychologist at Westville Correctional Facility, where Allen was housed, testified that he initially told her he was innocent, but began confessing to the crimes in April 2023, when he was placed on suicide watch again.

According to CNN affiliate WTHR, Wala testified that Allen told him, “I killed Abby and Libby. I’m sorry.” He said he initially planned to sexually assault the victims, but fled when he saw a minibus nearby, slit the girls’ throats and covered their bodies with sticks.

The defense sought to paint a portrait of Allen as a mentally ill man whose fragile mental state was further deteriorated by the months he spent in solitary confinement, including the period when he confessed to the crimes. While in prison, he was placed on suicide watch twice, exhibited strange behavior such as eating his own feces and hitting his head, and was once diagnosed with a “brief psychotic disorder,” according to Wala’s testimony.

Deanna Dwenger, a clinical psychologist with the Indiana Department of Corrections Department of Behavioral Health who testified on behalf of the defense, testified that Allen was diagnosed with a serious mental illness in April 2023 and that a team of mental health experts concluded he had a “serious disability.” . According to CNN affiliate WRTV.

The defense initially hoped to present an “Odinism” defense: a theory that the murders were committed by followers of Odinism, a Norse pagan religion recently adopted by white supremacists. But Judge Gull repeatedly denied motions asserting this theory.

Prosecutors focus on audio recordings and bullet found at the scene
Despite Allen’s confessions, there is little physical evidence connecting him to the case: A DNA expert testifying for the state found none of Allen’s DNA at the scene, and none of Libby or Abby’s DNA was found on items taken from his home.

Prosecutors pointed to an unspent .40-caliber bullet found in the girls’ bodies, which a prosecution expert testified matched Allen’s gun. According to WRTV, the defense cast doubt on the bullet evidence, questioning why more photographs of the cartridge were not taken and suggesting that the bullet may have come from a law enforcement officer’s gun.

The prosecution also attempted to match Allen to the video and audio recording of “Bridge Guy” captured on Libby’s cell phone. Indiana State Police Specialist Brian Harshman, who said he listened to more than 700 of Allen’s phone calls in prison, testified to the prosecution in his opinion, saying, “The voice of the ‘Bridge Man’ is the voice of Richard Allen,” according to WRTV. .

“Richard Allen is the ‘Bridge Guy,'” McLeland told jurors. “He kidnapped them and later killed them.”

In response, Rozzi said Allen was not clearly identified by witnesses as the man who was on the hiking trail or bridge when the teens went missing. He also noted that Allen lived in Delphi for more than five years after the girls’ murders.

“He had every chance to escape, but he couldn’t because he didn’t,” Rozzi told jurors.

ABC7 Chicago contributed to this report.

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