Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - 8 Disturbing Updates in Delphi Double Murder Trial

Episode Date: October 29, 2024

Richard Allen's murder trial in Delphi, Indiana is moving into its third week with forensics experts and investigators testifying about the case. Allen has pleaded not guilty to the murders of Libby German and Abby Williams near the Monon High Trail in February 2017. Witnesses explained how Allen became the focus of the investigation more than five years after the murders. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy looks at the latest revelations from the trial in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: You can binge Criminal Attorney early and ad-free right now on Wondery Plus by clicking our link https://Wondery.fm/LCCrimeFixHost:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5Guest:Susan Hendricks https://x.com/SusanHendricksCRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. New details are coming to light in the trial of Richard Allen as the defense questions the evidence and the investigation into their client. I have the new details, including the grilling of detectives and whose hair was found in victim Abby Williams' hand at the crime scene. Welcome to Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. Things are heating up in Richard

Allen's murder trial. Since we last checked in on the trial, a number of law enforcement officers involved in the case have taken the stand, and the jury heard how the detectives turned their focus to Richard Allen more than five years after the murders. The jury has also heard about DNA analysis conducted in the case, tests performed on the bullet found at the crime scene, and things that Richard Allen said to law enforcement. Susan Hendricks, who wrote a book on the case entitled Down the Hill, will be here to tell us all about it very shortly. Richard Allen faces murder charges in the deaths of Libby German and her best friend, Abby Williams, on February 13th, 2017. The girls' throats were slashed, according to a pathologist. They had crossed the Monon High Bridge before a recording taken on Libby's phone

recorded what prosecutors say was a guy they call Bridge Guy telling the girls to go down the hill. Now that clip was enhanced video. That is not what the jurors saw. They saw the original clip, which is 43 seconds long and includes the girls talking and saying something to the effect that there's no path and something about a gun. The jury heard how detectives turned their attention to Richard Allen in October of 2022. A volunteer clerk named Kathy Shank, who was working in the prosecutor's office, found a tip sheet in a desk from 2017 with the name Richard

Allen Whiteman on it. It said that person had been on the bridge that day, and it was marked cleared. Richard Allen lived on Whiteman Drive, and that's the only reason why it would say Whiteman on there. Schenck didn't know if she was supposed to enter the tip into a database, but she thought there might be a connection. Schenck said she turned over the piece of paper to detectives. Sheriff Tony Liggett was a detective back then and he said the tip initially fell through the cracks and should never have been marked cleared. So essentially someone dropped the ball, who at this point we don't know, but for more than five years, that information that Richard Allen went to police three days after the

murders and told detectives he was on the bridge that day and saw three girls, sat in a desk with no one following up on it. Detectives talked to Richard Allen. Former Delphi police chief Stephen Mullen testified Allen told him he was off work that day and had gone to his mother's home that morning and then went home and got a jacket and went to the trail. Mullen told the jury that Allen said he wore a blue or black Carhartt jacket and jeans. Police searched Allen's home and found a Sig Sauer handgun and photos of him and his family along the Monon High Trail.

Firearms examiner Melissa Oberg said she was able to identify Allen's gun as having cycled the crime scene cartridge. The defense went after this very hard, questioning Oberg's methods, saying it was speculative. But she said, quote, an ejector mark is an ejector mark, whether it's fired or cycled. Then talk turned to what Richard Allen told detectives specifically when they searched his home. Indiana State Police Lieutenant Jerry Holman said Allen told him, it doesn't matter, it's over, when police were searching his home. Days later, when Allen and his wife went to pick up his car at the Lafayette police post,

Holman asked Allen what he meant when he said that. Allen said the damage had been done, that police had searched his house, talked to his neighbors and his coworkers, and now everyone thinks he's a murderer. Holman also showed Allen a photo of Bridge Guy and Allen responded, there's no way that it could have been him if it was taken from one of the victim's phones. One thing that's very controversial, the fact that Holman lied to Richard Allen several times during this interview. And that's allowed. A lot of people don't like it, but a US Supreme Court case allows law enforcement to lie to

suspects. Allen was adamant throughout the interview that he didn't kill the girls and that the bullet found at the crime scene could not have come from his gun. Allen was quoted as saying, I don't care what you do to me, I'm not going to ever confess to something I didn't do. Police then arrested Allen and charged him with the murders. The jury also heard that Richard Allen's DNA was not found at the crime scene. And remember that hair in Abby Williams' hand that the defense brought up

during jury selection? Well, now a DNA analyst has testified that that hair actually belonged to Libby Germans' sister, Kelsey, who dropped the girls off at the trail that day. Abby was found wearing Libby's clothes, and the sweatshirt Libby had been wearing actually belonged to Kelsey. I want to bring in Susan Hendricks. She wrote the book Down the Hill and she has been in the courtroom throughout the entire trial. Susan, some big news happened. The prosecution now wants to bring in Google searches and information from Richard Allen's tablet. So tell me a little bit about that. Yeah. And Jeanette, it's so good to see you and so good to be on. It really is all-encompassing.

I feel like that's my every day, which it is. It's 9 a.m., usually the 6 p.m. I'm here in Lafayette, a short distance from Delphi, and this is my every single day. And so many people, including myself, have been waiting for so long to get to this point, especially in a rest and now here. And so many people, including myself, have been waiting for so long to get to this point, especially in arrest and now here. And again, Richard Allen, innocent until proven guilty. But there are highs and lows. And as you know, there are wins and losses in every trial and depending kind of what evidence and the cross-examination as well. But this was the end of the day. And it started out with DNA evidence and with a woman from a lab. And it was not in the prosecution's favor. And so you go back and

forth here. And Nick McClellan, the jury was led out of the room, stood up and said, Your Honor, I'd like to discuss new evidence that I'd like to submit to the court. Obviously, the defense has to know about this. They did based on their response, obviously. But and he said, it's it's Richard Allen's Google searches. And I this day, you see you sit in different places depending on the day. And this day, I'm right behind him. I mean, the first row. And I see him kind of kind of cock his head and look with like a burrow frown for a brow.

And the defense objected and based it on case law and essentially referring to a case law that said how do we know that it's that person's computer meaning can you prove that they're the only ones with access to a computer and referencing sexual abuse uh i believe it was with the stepfather and Nick McCleland, because the judge said, Nick, do you have anything, McCleland, to respond to that? And he said, I do. It's been a while since I read that case law. So it seems like maybe, I don't know, if we had a lawyer on, we would know, like, meaning, would they know it at the break? It seemed like Nick McCleland would know the case law, you know? And so he just said, well, I have to read that over. But in the October 2022 interview with Richard Allen,

he stated that is what he used. That was his email address. So that he clearly stated that they have that on record. So they're saying that. And then the defense came back and said, your honor, we have Kathy Allen. She will testify that she used that computer as well. So no one had heard of this. So everyone's going, what? And this is at the end of the long day. We're all taking notes. It's like, what? What will she testify to? And my brain immediately went back to the Casey Anthony trial with her mother. But we'll see. And so the judge, this is what she usually does. She said, obviously, I have to review the case law. And she usually responds in writing. And I'm assuming that will come down late tonight or tomorrow to be continued. Yes. Yes. If she'll allow it. I'm guessing she will. Paul Bergeron was the lawyer who could get you out of any sticky

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on now to the blood spatter expert. It was some pretty gruesome, grisly testimony. And this gentleman pretty much walked the jury through what he he thought were the last moments of Libby and Abby's lives. Yeah. Patrick Cicero is his name. And when he was called to the stand because Major Patrick Cicero, I had heard him once before at a hearing at the end of July. And that touched me so much to the point of, I left that courtroom thinking, oh my gosh, we may know some of the last movements of the girls. Because you really never know if it's just the accused. And of course, the two people who were there to tell the tale are deceased. You never really know the final moments. And he painted a picture, and it was heart-wrenching,

of Libby. And he went through her movements and he did it again today and saying, based on the blood splatter. And he has a very storied career, 25 plus years. He is the teacher of this CSI blood splatter expert. And he talked about Libby and saying that and they zoomed in to the crime scene photos and they zoomed into her right thigh and said, see this blood splatter? That is conducive or that aligns with her sitting up. And he talked about gravity. And so what he took us through first, he put up a rendering, a drawing of the crime scene photos. And I thought, OK, they're not going to show them. This is going to be all renderings of this. They didn't. They showed them and they showed close-up video, still shots, sorry, that I haven't seen. And saying that that shows at one point Libby sat up,

at one point grabbed her throat, had blood all over her hands, at one point was standing. And based on his findings, believes, because her arm was up over her head in the crime scene photo that she was dragged not far, but about 10 feet. And you, you put yourself there. And during that hearing back in July, I was sitting next to Libby's grandmother, who she was basically raised by living with. And she was doing this and doing and touching her cheek and doing and it was heart-wrenching so I knew when Cicero came to the stand it was going to be

devastating but showing the crime scene photos is really the first time I've ever seen them that close and uh this was when really I feel like the most horrific point of the day. They zoomed in on Libby's face. I'm sorry for being so graphic and explaining it, but her mouth was open. You know, certain areas are blacked out her eyes, but her head's turned and there's a lot of blood across her face. And one. So imagine if you can. This is the only way I can explain it. If you have either paint on your face or makeup and you're crying or you like have water, you could see like it's diluting.

And Cicero said that with the absence of rain, he's very clinical, very clinical. I think excellent witness with the absence of rain that aligns with a tear. And there were gasps in that courtroom of, and I thought, I know I was one of them. It's like, oh my, was she crying? Did she know? Because the last thing you want to think is that she suffered and it was horrific. So you zoomed in on her face. It was so sad, Antoinette. That is so heartbreaking. I want to go now to the DNA. The DNA evidence, there wasn't any DNA connecting Richard Allen to the crime scene. They tested the big branches.

And these are big. These are not just branches. I mean, these are. They're huge sticks. Like seven feet long. Seven feet. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so there was Libby's DNA, from what I understand, on these limbs that were on her body that were then later collected after the initial processing of the scene. Yeah, but nobody else's and there there was male DNA found, but it's my understanding. Yeah, it wasn't enough to determine whether it was Richard Allen's or anybody else's. Yeah. And I have 87 pages of notes, because of course, we can have recording devices. So I'm referencing them. But the DNA expert forensic scientist with Indiana

State Police, her name was Stacy. And she was up there for a long time, several hours walking us through. I mean, each exhibit, each specific thing that they tested. I mean, it was hair. It was the Converse sneakers. And it went on and on and pulled up. Oh, the sexual assault kits of Abigail Williams, livered German. As the cross reference talks about vaginal swabs internal external i mean went on and on no seminal material really and when there was um kind of unknown male and i don't know the technical term but when they did determine that at one point, the prosecutor, the attorney said, oh, well, what did you find? What was the conclusion? And she said, it connected to a male in our lab. And I thought, oh my gosh, contamination.

So there was contamination. So, you know, that gives the defense something to play with. Oh my gosh. It was evidence is contaminated oh hour after hour okay exhibit 170 through 173 151 152 i mean hours um richard allen was very engaged i noticed i was very close to him looking at the witnesses taking notes looking at the jurors very involved more so than he had ever been uh exhibits 174 175 i mean it went on for hours and okay the gray bra that was on abby number 32 exhibit the black bra blood detected on the pink shirt it's uh it matches to abigail williams and liberty german So a lot of what they tested matched. Some matched just to Abigail Williams.

Some matched both of the girls. And that, too, brought me there and thought, how does it match both? Were they so close? Were they hugging? Were they touching? So it kind of brought me there, but never was it anyone else. So we knew that coming in, that there was no DNA evidence with Richard Allen. At the end, the final question was from the prosecution. So there is nothing that connects Richard Allen's DNA to Abby and Libby. No. And I thought that could have been the first question,

but I understand how there was undetected, you know, they're getting it ahead of it that yes, there was contamination in the lab. This was not good. Not a good morning for the prosecution. Yeah. The defense has been hammering the lead investigator in this case, Jerry Holman, about his questioning interrogation of Richard Allen. That happened over the weekend. That wasn't a good day either. So we're going but we're going to hear coming up these statements that Richard Allen is said to have made when he was incarcerated, where the prosecution says he confesses the defense says, you know, it's all baloney because he was, you know, held in really terrible conditions and he would have said anything.

So that is going to be coming up this week. We expect that, right? Yeah. Tomorrow's a big day, Anjanette. So Jerry Holman, now the lieutenant with the detective, was on the stand and spoke about how Richard Allen wasn't technically under arrest. And he said, did you tell him that? Yes, I did.

Okay, so you brought him to the station. Yes, he knew we could leave at any time. And tomorrow we're expecting to hear the interrogation tapes. And I believe Lieutenant Holman came off on the stand as, you know, timid saying yes or no. Or and they wanted to the defense was saying, like, how tall is the bridge? You didn't know. It's 63 feet. I know that because I'm a reporter, so I have to know that. Right.

But then I spoke to a friend of mine who CSI and she said, you know, how many cases they covered? I don't know how tall the ceiling is or how tall the building is. But but it's for the jurors. Right. Should he know that? I mean, what does he know? So. But the's for the jurors, right? Should he know that? I mean, what doesn't he know? So, but the interrogation tapes are being played tomorrow. And that's going to show,

because I do know what Holman said, and I'm paraphrasing here, is I know you up and did this, and I'm going to up and prove it. I'm paraphrasing. Could be a little different. But the defense is going to say, oh, what, did you find the evidence?

And that's how, you know, what did you really know at that particular time? And so that will be very telling. And of course, after that, they're telling a story, as you know, the prosecution, their turn first, they have about two weeks or give and take, they can go as long as they want.

But they're building a story. The first on the stand was Becky Patty, who was raising Libby and talking about the girls. So now we're up at the point where it's like, wait a minute, Richard Allen's on their radar, but he hasn't been arrested. So the confessions in prison are coming next. But all of this, I have not, I've yet to hear his voice. I've been this close to him and not that I can hear that well.

I mean, I can't even hear really some of the attorneys. It's, they talk so soft and I don't know if the acoustics are there in the courtroom, but that will be telling to hear him and Jerry Holman. I mean, it's something that everyone wants to finally hear. That will be, that will be big. And I think a lot of jurors will be listening to that and comparing it to Bridge Guy. Susan Hendricks, thank you so much for joining me. I hope you'll come back. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thanks for having me. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Ann Jeanette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.