DELPHI, Ind. ― Carroll County Prosecutor Nick McLeland believed less than a month after Delphi murder suspect Richard Allen's arrest that other people were involved, according to his statements during a 2022 hearing.
Yet now, McLeland wants the court to exclude evidence in Allen's upcoming trial that others might have been involved in the Feb. 13, 2017, killing of Libby German and Abby Williams, according to a court document filed Tuesday by Allen's defense team.
Allen's attorneys argue that granting the prosecutor's motion to exclude evidence of others involved impedes their defense. They contend the prosecutor's motion also contradicts assertions by the prosecutor and Indiana State Police investigators on Nov. 22, 2022, that other people ― in addition to or instead of ― Allen killed the teenagers on the north bank of Deer Creek east of the Monon High Bridge.
"We have good reason to believe that Richard Allen is not the only person involved in this case, that there may be other actors involved," McLeland said during the hearing less than a month after Allen's arrest. "It is in the best interest of the public that the investigation find anyone else involved."
Allen's defense team asked Special Judge Frances Gull to take notice of the transcripts of the 2022 hearing when she makes her ruling on what jurors will not hear in Allen's October trial.
The filing Tuesday notes that both the prosecutor and Allen's attorney argued their positions about what evidence should be excluded from jurors during an Aug. 1 hearing. The arguments debated whether jurors should hear about Odinism, cult or ritual killings, as well as the theory that other people might be linked to the killings. Tuesday's filing supplements the verbal arguments from the hearing earlier this month.
More: What the new Delphi murder documents say about the crime scene, other suspects
If Gull grants the prosecutor's motion, it restricts Allen's Sixth Amendment rights to present evidence, including that other people killed the Delphi teens, the defense's rebuttal argues.
Allen's defense presented a 136-page memorandum in a Sept. 18, 2023, motion that details the defense theory that Libby and Abby were killed as a ritual sacrifice by those who practice Odinism, an ancient Norse religion common in Europe before Christianity.
Accompanying that memorandum filing 11 months ago is a report by former Rushville Police Chief Todd Click that links a suspected Odinist in his city to the killings. The state's motion also asks Gull to exclude that evidence from the jurors.
Gull has not yet published a ruling on the state's motion to exclude evidence or the defense rebuttals, so it remains uncertain whether jurors will ever hear the theories that Libby and Abby were part of a ritual killing by a group of pagans or the act of a sole killer.
Judge denies defense challenge to search warrant ... again
During two years of legal wrangling, Allen's attorneys have filed four motions asking for a hearing ― legally described as a Franks hearing ― to challenge how police got the search warrant issued in October 2022 that allowed investigators to seize evidence, including Allen's pistols.
Allen's attorneys claim that investigators misled the court to get the search warrant by excluding information that might dissuade the judge from signing the warrant.
On Monday, Gull denied Allen's third motion for a Franks hearing. And on Tuesday, she denied the fourth request.
"The trial court is obligated to conduct a Franks hearing only if the Defendant makes a preliminary showing that the affiant knowingly or intentionally, or with reckless disregard for the truth, included a false statement in the search warrant affidavit," Gull wrote in Tuesday's order, "and that the allegedly false statement was necessary to a finding of probable cause.
"The defense has not made such a preliminary showing and, therefore, is not entitled to a Franks hearing," the judge concluded.
On Monday, Gull also scheduled a status hearing for 1 p.m. Aug. 23, noting that the first part of the hearing will be closed to the public, but the second portion of the proceedings will be open.
The Journal & Courier, a part of the USA Today network, will staff the hearing and file a report shortly after the hearing is finished.
Reach Ron Wilkins at rwilkins@jconline.com. Follow on Twitter: @RonWilkins2.
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Delphi murder suspect asks judge allow evidence of Odinists' involvement in killings
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