Jury selection nearly complete in Indiana trial of Richard Allen, accused of killing teen girls

Oct. 14 (UPI) -- Monday's jury selection for Richard Allen, the man accused of the 2017 murders of two teenage Indiana girls, has adjourned for the day with 14 jurors selected.

The Allen County Courthouse adjourned Monday after eight women and six men were selected. The jurors include a nurse, a seminar professor, a school counselor, a stay-at-home mother and a transportation director.

The full jury of 16 -- to include 12 jurors and four alternates -- is expected to be chosen Tuesday, which means there will be no court proceedings Wednesday.

Nearly 300 summons were sent in Allen County to juror candidates as the process began. Those chosen to hear the case will be under court sequester for up to a month to hear evidence.

Allen, now 52, of Delphi, Ind., was formally charged by police at the end of 2022 in relation to the February 2017 murders of Abigail Williams, then 13, and Liberty German, then 14.

If convicted, Allen, who worked at a local CVS Pharmacy, faces two counts of murder.

The jury selection process has faced challenges of its own in the small Indiana town of roughly 2,500 citizens where everyone virtually knows or is familiar with one another.

Allen County Special Judge Fran Gull had ordered that a jury be selected from residents in Fort Wayne, Ind., who would have to uproot their lives to be transported two hours to Delphi for the trial's duration.

The two teen girls and best friends vanished Feb. 13, 2017, along a trail near their hometown of Delphi, about 60 miles northwest of the state's capital, Indianapolis. Their bodies were found the next day in a wooded area.

Former Johnson County Prosecutor Joe Villanueva told Indiana news outlet Fox59 that being on a jury "can be a hardship on everybody."

"The length of the trial is also gonna be a big issue. Can people afford to be away from work or family or child obligations for a prolonged period of time?" Villanueva said.

Villanueva said "a lot" can happen throughout the day during a trial.

"Depending on how the judge wishes to address it, how far you get in that jury selection each day, it very well may take all of three days to do those things," he said.

The judge refused a request to televise the trial's proceedings despite the limited size of the court room and the significant interest surrounding this case.

"The time from when the investigation started until now has been very long and drawn out," Madison County prosecutor Rodney Cummings said. "I think it gets complicated because the investigation took so long and there are so many avenues that the police take, they have to follow up so many things."

Video recordings on one of the girl's cellphones linked Allen to the scene, who later admitted he was in the vicinity but he has since maintained his innocence in the killings.

In late 2022, nearly five years after the murders, Indiana State Police took Allen into custody.

He entered a not guilty plea at an initial hearing ahead of his pretrial date months later.

Investigators have not speculated on a motive and have not said what if any relationship Allen may have had with the two girls, other than living in the same town.