Prosecutors paint Allen as teens' killer as double-murder trial begins in Indiana

Oct. 18 (UPI) -- Opening statements and initial witness testimony were delivered Friday as a double murder trial in connection with the brutal slayings of two teenage girls seven years ago got underway in Indiana.

Richard Allen is accused in the deaths of Abigail "Abby" Williams and Liberty "Libby" German in the small farming community of Delphi, Ind. They went missing on Feb. 13, 2017, and their bodies were found the next day near the Monon High Bridge in Carroll County about 19 miles from West Lafayette, Ind.

The search for a suspect in the slayings was cold until authorities arrested Allen in 2022 and was charged with two counts of murder and two counts of kidnapping.

A 12-member jury and four alternates from Allen County, in Fort Wayne, Ind., heard opening arguments before Special Judge Frances Gull, who earlier ruled cameras would not allowed in the courtroom.

The opening remarks were delivered by Carroll County Prosecutor Nicholas McLeland and defense attorney Andrew Baldwin and were followed by at times dramatic testimony offered by several of the girls' relatives.

McLeland said Allen forced the girls at gunpoint down a hill from the hiking trail. They were found dead the next day with their throats slit. Libby, he said while choking up, was found naked and covered in blood.

"The last face the girls saw before their throats were slit was Richard Allen's face," he said, according to WMAQ-TV , adding that Allen later admitted being at the crime scene. An unspent round found there was determined to have been used in a handgun found at his home.

Baldwin, meanwhile, called Allen "an innocent man" and the victim of a fatally flawed police investigation, claiming that critical pieces of evidence were lost. He argued that while Allen did admit to being on the hiking trail that day, he left before the girls were slain.

"Richard Allen was never on the trail with those girls," Baldwin said, the Indianapolis Star reported .

Following the opening statements, Liberty German's grandmother, Becky Patty, delivered extraordinarily emotional testimony, describing her granddaughter's last day.

"The last thing she said to me was, 'Grandma, it will be OK,'" Patty testified, according to the Star.

Prior to the opening statements, McLeland filed a motion that composite sketches used during the hunt for a suspect should not be used during the trial because it would cause confusion with the jury. He said the sketches were not important in identifying Allen in the case.

Defense attorney Jennifer Auger argued that the sketches do not resemble her client and are "highly relevant" in her client's defense. McLeland countered in saying that the sketches were used for purposes of recognition and not identifying the suspect.