State, defense deliver opening statements in Delphi murders trial

DELPHI, Ind. – Opening statements have wrapped up in the Delphi murders case, with the prosecution and defense revealing their respective strategies to jurors.

Richard Allen faces four counts of murder in connection with the February 2017 deaths of Abby Williams and Libby German near the Monon High Bridge.

The case went unsolved for years. In October 2022, more than five years after the girls’ deaths, Indiana State Police announced Allen’s arrest.

He’s been in custody since then, with the case being at the center of a tense legal battle involving the defense, prosecution and Special Judge Fran Gull.

Jury selection wrapped up Tuesday in Allen County, with the jurors being transported to Carroll County for the monthlong trial.

Prosecution’s opening statement

During opening statements, prosecutor Nick McLeland maintained that Allen is the “Bridge Guy” seen on Libby German’s phone. He said Allen stalked the girls and killed them.

Abby and Libby, McLeland said, were walking on the Monon High Bridge, a “rite of passage” for young people who live in the area. They posted photos on Snapchat and then noticed a man following them on Feb. 13, 2017. The weather was atypically warm for February, the prosecutor said.

The man said, “Guys, down the hill” before Libby’s video cut off. A frantic search followed for the girls, who were then found dead on Feb. 14, 2017.

McCleland said the jury will see graphic photos of the crime scene. The girls’ throats were cut. Libby German was nude and covered in blood. Abby was wearing Libby’s clothes and her throat had also been slit. Their remaining clothes were found in Deer Creek.

Libby’s phone and shoes were under Abby.

According to McLeland, Allen confessed to details only the killer would know.

He also said Allen matches the description of a man seen on the Monon High Bridge minutes before the girls were abducted and killed. He brought up an unspent bullet found at the scene and said it matched a gun owned by Allen.

Allen admitted being on the bridge during a 2017 interview. When investigators brought him in for a second interview, he had no explanation for why he was in the area, the prosecutor told the court.

McLeland said Allen planned to “have his way” with the girls but was interrupted and then killed them.

McLeland told the court that Allen admitted to the crimes to his wife and mother, with those confessions being “unprovoked” and “freely, knowingly made.”

He also said witnesses will testify that they spotted a man wearing clothes matching Allen’s and walking with muddy or bloody stains on his pants around the time of the murders.

Defense’s opening statement

After McLeland delivered his opening statement, Allen’s defense attorney Andrew Baldwin spoke before the court. He countered that witness descriptions are inconsistent and suggested Allen suffered a “mental health crisis” that led him to confess.

He also called the bullet evidence inconclusive and said there was reasonable doubt about the prosecution’s theory and Allen’s guilt.

During his nearly hourlong opening statement, Baldwin challenged the murder investigation itself, suggesting police botched the probe from the very start. The state mishandled and lost evidence, Baldwin claimed, and tussled with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Baldwin echoed a statement he made during jury selection, saying a hair found in Abby Williams’ hand didn’t provide a match for Allen. The defense claims the hair matches a relative of Libby’s but investigators didn’t test it for years. That information initially came to light this week during jury selection.

The defense attorney also suggested the girls may have gone up an access road, gotten into another vehicle and were killed elsewhere before being taken back to where their bodies were discovered near Deer Creek.

Baldwin cast doubt on the state’s theory. He argued that the state’s timeline of the killing doesn’t fit if security video evidence showed Allen’s car had left the area of the Monon High Bridge Nature Trial before the murders occurred.

Baldwin walked the jury through the defense team’s version: that Bridge Guy and perhaps others accosted the girls at the south end of the bridge, loaded them into a vehicle and drove away, only to return twelve hours later to kill the victims near Deer Creek.

The attorney said fruitless searches of the area the night before, activity on Libby’s cell phone twelve hours after investigators believe the girls were dead and the complexity of the crime showed the murders would be beyond the ability of one man of modest stature to carry out with two different knives.

He said there was no DNA, social media or forensic evidence linking Allen to the girls’ deaths.

Other court developments

Earlier in the proceedings, Gull ruled that widely circulated composite sketches could not be used in court .

The state filed a motion in limine this week saying the sketches, released in July 2017 and April 2019, could confuse or mislead the jury. McLeland contended the sketches weren’t used to identify Allen.

The defense argued that the sketches were relevant. Gull ultimately sided with the prosecution.

Several members of the media drew the ire of the court Friday. Four media members, including a wire service (AP) and network photographer (NBC), had cameras confiscated and memory cards erased.

They’ve been banned from the trial after pointing cameras at prohibited areas outside the courtroom. Gull said the individuals violated the media decorum order issued ahead of the trial.

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