Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Delphi Murder Suspect Holds Bible as Shocking Verdict is Reached

Starting point is 00:00:00 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. Guilty verdicts in the trial of Richard Allen for the murders of Libby German and Abby Williams in Delphi, Indiana. The verdicts are the beginning of bringing a painful chapter in a small town to a close so healing can begin. Welcome to Crime Fix. I'm

Starting point is 00:00:26 Anjanette Levy. The jury in Delphi, Indiana has spoken. After 19 hours of deliberations, the jurors found Richard Allen guilty on all counts in the murders of Libby German and her best friend, Abby Williams. Libby was 14 and Abby just 13 when they were brutally murdered on February 13th, 2017. It was an unseasonably warm day and the best friends were off school and they wanted to cross the Monon High Trail. Prosecutor Nick McCleland called it a rite of passage for teens in the area. The girls were off school and they were doing what kids do, but something went terribly

Starting point is 00:01:01 wrong that day and the girls never came home. The crime was shocking and terrifying. Who would want to hurt these young girls? Investigators would say in October of 2022, after a volunteer clerk found a long misplaced tip sheet with Richard Allen's name on it in a desk, that Allen was the murderer walking among them, hiding in plain sight. But why? Months after Richard Allen's arrest, McClellan said Richard Allen began confessing. Prison warden John Gallopo testified in March of 2023 that Allen wrote that he wanted to confess to the murders. I am ready to officially confess for killing Abby and Libby. I hope I get the opportunity to tell the families I'm sorry. Gallopo testified Allen admitted

Starting point is 00:01:46 to throwing a box cutter out in a dumpster at the CVS store where he worked in Delphi. Officer Michael Clemens documented Allen saying, I'm so glad no one gave up on me after I killed Abby and Libby. And I, Richard Matthew Allen, killed Abby and Libby by myself. No one helped me. Clemens also said Allen would yell to other inmates, I'm not crazy. I'm only acting like I'm crazy. On cross-examination, Allen's attorney, Brad Rosie, asked Clemens whether prison can get to a man, and Clemens admitted that yes, it can. Prison psychologist Dr. Monica Walla testified that Allen told her he planned to rape Abby and Libby,

Starting point is 00:02:32 but got spooked by a white van and cut their throats with a box cutter and walked away after covering their bodies with branches. The girls' bodies were found the next day. Libby was naked and Abby was wearing Libby's clothes in an area near the trail, and their throats had been cut. But Clellan told the jury this wasn't just one confession. He said Richard Allen confessed 61 times to a number of people, including his wife and mother. Allen told his wife in a phone call, I didn't do everything I said I did, but I killed Abby and Libby. At one point, Allen's wife hung up on him

Starting point is 00:03:00 according to the testimony. Allen's defense said their client was basically driven mad by the conditions he was kept in at a prison. He was in solitary confinement and had bouts of psychosis and had been injected with the drug Haldol. Allen had even eaten his own feces. Dr. Wallace said she believed Allen was faking symptoms of psychosis. Then there was the electronic evidence. Libby posted a photo on Snapchat that afternoon of Abby on the Mon there was the electronic evidence. Libby posted a photo on Snapchat that afternoon of Abby on the Monon High Trail around 2.05 p.m. on February 13th.

Starting point is 00:03:31 The photo showed Abby wearing a gray sweatshirt and red top. When Abby's body was found, as I mentioned, she was wearing different clothes, Libby's clothes. Eight minutes later, at 2.13 p.m., Libby recorded a video of Bridge Guy. Here's the enhanced video released by the FBI. Investigators released that enhanced video of Bridge Guy hoping someone would recognize him. But the Bridge Guy video didn't result in any leads. At trial, prosecutors played a 43-second clip from Libby's phone that recorded Bridge Guy. Carroll County Sheriff Tony Liggett testified about what he heard on the video, saying he believed Abby said,

Starting point is 00:04:21 Don't leave me up here. And that Libby responded, that be a gun. And then Bridge Guy said, guys, down the hill. Abby was then heard saying, there's no path down here. We've got to go down here before the video stopped. Then there was the ballistics evidence and a battle of the experts. The prosecution called tool marks examiner Melissa Oberg, who told jurors the unspent round found at the crime scene had been cycled through Richard Allen's gun. The defense contested that finding, calling Dr. Eric Warren, who questioned Oberg's methods and findings. And really, Allen's defense attorneys, Brad Rosie and Andrew Baldwin, contested all of the evidence in the case.

Starting point is 00:05:02 They conceded nothing. They said the investigation was botched, the science linking the unspent round to Allen's gun was junk, and that his confessions, all 61 of them, were false, the product of a man who'd unraveled psychologically after he was kept in terrible conditions at a maximum security prison. In the end, the jury believed the prosecution.

Starting point is 00:05:22 Richard Allen's wife told WTHR-TV as she left the courthouse, this isn't over at all. While Libby's older sister, Kelsey, posted on Instagram, nearly eight years, today was the day. I want to tell you about Upside. It's a free app that gets you cash back on things like gas, groceries, and restaurants. This is real cash back. It's money that appears in your Upside app that you

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Starting point is 00:06:16 on your first tank of gas. That's promo code CRIMEFIX for extra cash back. I wanna bring in Lauren Mathias. She was in the courtroom for the verdict. She's also the host of Hidden True Crime, the YouTube channel. Lauren, take me inside that courtroom. What happened as the verdicts were read? It was very quiet. You could hear a pin drop. Of course, we've all been told if you're in there, you do not whisper to anyone. You do not say anything. And that, of course, that rule remained in the courthouse or the courtroom this day.

Starting point is 00:06:50 And as it was read, there was just you could hear at that moment tears and gasps. And from both sides, I was actually sitting directly behind Kathy Allen. And that's Richard Allen's wife. And so that's where I was directly behind her. And to the right was Richard Allen's mother. And to the left of me was Richard, sorry, to the left of Kathy was Richard Allen's sister. And they both consoled her and held her. And then across the aisle where Abby and Libby's family was seated, you saw Libby's mother just sort of break down and start crying. You saw people put their arms around each other. And then after, as we all began to leave, which we can get to later, but then they began to hug each other and cry.

Starting point is 00:07:41 From what I saw on X, Richard Allen didn't have much of a reaction. Is that what you saw? That is what I saw as well from, from the angle where I was, you know, I could see the back of his, um, head, but also, you know, to the side, there was a bit of an angle there. And from what I could tell, I saw no reaction, just sort of listening. And then of course, after the verdict was read and the jury, we stood for the jury to leave. We went to the scheduling of the sentencing. And at that moment, Richard Allen looked at the judge and just sort of nodded as she sort of said, how about, you know, December 20th? And he was nodding at her sort of responding in just a very simple manner. This jury deliberated for 19 hours.

Starting point is 00:08:30 It was a jury brought in from Allen County. They were not from Carroll County. So they took some time to discuss this. It's not as if they came back with a verdict in a couple of hours. They had wanted to see some evidence when they were deliberating on Saturday. Do you know anything about what they requested to see? Yes, I do know what they requested to see. They actually, I know from multiple sources now that what they wanted to see was the interrogation video with Richard Allen the day that he was denying that he had anything to do with this. And they brought in his wife, Kathy Allen, in that interrogation. They wanted to see that. And then

Starting point is 00:09:11 the other piece of evidence that they requested to see was Libby's own video, the very last video ever taken on Libby German's phone of the abduction of her and her best friend, Abby Williams. They asked to see it again, where it's also, of course, known as the Bridge Guy video filmed by the victim, Libby German herself. That makes me wonder, were they maybe trying to listen to the voices to see if it's what I'm hearing on the interrogation tape. Does that voice sound like bridge guy? Uh, I don't know that, but that's kind of where that leads me to believe that maybe that's where this jury was going. I think that might've been where this jury was going, wanting to hear that voice. It was the clearest voice that we ever heard of Richard Allen throughout the trial. And I do want to say now, and I feel a little bit freer to be able to say this,

Starting point is 00:10:07 because during the trial, I felt it was really important just to state the facts rather than all of my opinions. But the moment that I heard the interrogation video myself in court, my first thought was, this sounds like Bridge Guy. This could be Bridge Guy. I believe they're, you know, so, so I would not be surprised if they wanted to go listen to that video. So many of us that have been covering this case for so long have wanted to hear more of Richard Allen's voice. We

Starting point is 00:10:36 have wanted to know ever since his arrest, does he sound like bridge guy? Does he sound like the man who says guys down the Hill? And that was really the first time in court during this trial that we were all able to finally hear that voice for a long time. So it certainly crossed my mind in the trial, in the courtroom. Oh, does this sound like him? I felt it did. So I wouldn't be surprised if the jurors wanted to go back and revisit that and ask that question as well.

Starting point is 00:11:03 During closing arguments, you know, each side made their cases. It sounded like Nick McClellan stuck to what he said in opening, that this case was about, you know, a few things. It was about Richard Allen. It was about the Bridge Guy video. It was about the confessions and then also the gun, the firearm and the unspent casing found at the crime scene that had been cycled through a gun. And the defense says it wasn't Richard Allen's gun.

Starting point is 00:11:32 The prosecution says, yes, it was. It sounds like the jury believed that, that it was cycled through Richard Allen's gun. The 61 confessions, you know, the defense tried to refute that, saying that this is a guy who was basically driven crazy. He was stuck in solitary confinement and he was injected with Haldol. I mean, he was going crazy and saying all kinds of things and eating his own feces. How did you feel they did during the trial and during closing arguments of trying to push back on the state's assertion that, yes, these were indeed voluntary and true confessions. I felt the state did an excellent job, actually.

Starting point is 00:12:12 And I felt that what they drove home was these confessions were made to multiple people over a course of multiple months to multiple different mental health experts and corrections officers. And, you know, and multiple doctors and mental health experts have stated that during these confessions, he was either at baseline or coherent or doing well. And again, that they are linear confessions and they actually share information in the confessions that maybe perhaps no one else would know, but the killer. And I think that the state really drove that home. And again, they said not one, not two, you know, 60 confessions. And I think that that really is in my opinion, likely what sealed the deal. Those testimonies during trial to Anjanette,

Starting point is 00:13:05 to hear back to back to back multiple different people talking about how Richard Allen confessed to them, I don't think they certainly didn't forget that. But the defense, did you feel that they had countered that during the trial? Not now, but during their presentation and the closing arguments, did you feel like the defense had countered that at all? I feel like the defense tried to. I think they did their best ability. I think that they probably made the jurors really question these confessions, but I also felt like sitting in trial for me as someone sitting in there, very open to all of the evidence that was presented to me. It was very clear that what this defense was stating about, uh, his psychosis or whatever was going on, it didn't meet up with a timeline of all of his confessions.

Starting point is 00:14:05 It didn't meet up with the symptoms of a false confession. I think that really, when you look at all the evidence, and I'm sure they did, as you pointed out, 19 hours, I don't know if the defense is, you know, the defense definitely put some doubt in, but if they were to revisit it from the evidence I saw, the confessions made sense and they seemed real to me as someone sitting in there. This has been a really contentious case. I mean, it's been very vitriolic on social media. You know, you had even mentioned it in your live video that tensions were running high

Starting point is 00:14:47 outside that courthouse. Do you think that this town, even though Richard Allen will appeal, most certainly, do you think they can move forward and heal? Or do you think that there were, was there a lot of outside influence, you know, people coming into town who were, who were maybe feeding that feeling that things could boil over? I believe that this verdict, it's certainly about justice for Abby and Libby and for closure for the families and for the friends and for the loved ones of these two little girls whose lives were taken from them. But I also see this as closure for the entire town of Delphi for them to be able to move on seven years later. Right now, all the windows downtown have Abby and Libby painted on them in purple and blue, their favorite colors. This is a town that has never been the same since February 14th, 2017, since their bodies were found. This is a town completely rocked

Starting point is 00:15:46 and completely changed forever by these crimes, by this murder of two little girls. And to have a guilty verdict and someone that has been charged and now convicted of these crimes, I believe that this entire town is going to be able to find some peace and move on in a way they've never been able to in the last seven years. So you believe that the town, people in town, maybe agree with this verdict? And do you think that there were people maybe coming into town that were maybe creating some division? That is a great question. I can tell you, Anjanette, that I have talked to many, many people in Delphi. And most of the people do believe that Richard Allen is guilty. And I do believe that it is many outside voices that are sharing their idea that he wasn't. But I can tell you that not everyone, and not everyone, I don't want to get in trouble here, but many, many people in this tiny, close-knit community

Starting point is 00:16:51 believe that Richard Allen was Bridge Guy and believe that he is guilty of the murder of Abby and Libby. Lauren, there was a lot of controversy about how these confessions came about. Richard Allen put in a maximum security prison in solitary confinement while he was awaiting trial, not after he had been convicted. So there was a lot of talk about that and people feeling like that was wrong. You and I had talked about that before and why he was placed there. Do you have any thoughts on that now that the trial has ended? Yeah, I do. First off, I want to say I personally am against solitary confinement or any type of, you know, torture for human beings. What they presented in trial, as far as testimony goes, was multiple people stating that he wasn't alone. He was in a one-man cell.

Starting point is 00:17:50 He had visits daily from a mental health expert, a psychologist. He had access to suicide companions where they took notes and checked on him. He had rec time. He had a tablet. He made calls to his family. He could talk to other inmates through a wall. It was through a wall and had even some visits from his family. So I certainly hope that there is reform and it does seem concerning to me that someone awaiting trial would be put in a prison. That's not okay. But from what was presented at trial, I don't know if it constitutes solitary confinement. And of course we don't know how the jurors felt about that,

Starting point is 00:18:37 but I can tell you that there was a lot of testimony sharing about the access of things he had while in prison and i do hope though that carroll county um you know correct some things and i and i hope that no one is held in a prison while awaiting trial again well lauren thank you so much for joining me i really appreciate it thank you angie and that's it for this episode of crime fix i'm angie net levy thanks so much for being with me i'll see you back here next time

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Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Delphi Murder Suspect Holds Bible as Shocking Verdict is Reached

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Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Delphi Murder Suspect Holds Bible as Shocking Verdict is Reached

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