The trial over the 2017 killings of two teenage girls in Indiana is reaching its halfway point as the prosecution rests

DELPHI, Ind. (AP) — The trial of a man accused of killing two teenage girls in a small Indiana community has passed its halfway point, following more than two weeks of testimony about the 2017 killings have.

Prosecutors rested their case against Richard Allen on Thursday after jurors heard recorded phone calls in which he told his wife that he killed Abigail Williams, 13, and Liberty German, 14.

Allen's trial began Oct. 18 at the Carroll County Courthouse in Delphi, the girls' hometown. The jury has been sequestered since the start of the trial, which is scheduled to run until November 15.

The defense began calling its first witnesses on Thursday. An Indiana Department of Correction psychologist told jurors Friday that Allen was seriously mentally ill when he began confessing to the killings while housed at the Westville Correctional Facility.

Allen, 52, faces up to 130 years in prison if convicted of two counts of murder and two additional counts of murder during the commission or attempt of kidnapping.

Here are some key moments from the process so far:

Opening speech

Carroll County Prosecutor Nicholas McLeland opened the trial by telling jurors they would see and hear evidence, including incriminating statements from Allen, that would convince them that he ran the girls off a hiking trail armed with a gun had forced his way into a remote area and cut their throats.

Allen was the person seen on a German cellphone video taken the day the girls disappeared, and an unspent bullet found between their bodies came from Allen's gun, McLeland said.

Defense attorney Andrew Baldwin told jurors Allen was innocent. Baldwin said the jury would hear testimony and forensic evidence that would raise “reasonable doubt” that Allen was not the killer, and said the state's timeline did not match the evidence in the case.

Someone else may have kidnapped the teens and returned them early the next day to the location where they were found dead, Baldwin said.

The jury will see photos and videos from the crime scene

In the first full week of the trial, jurors were shown photos of the area where the teens' bodies were found in a wooded area off the trail. The girls, known as Abby and Libby, had crossed an abandoned railroad trestle called the Monon High Bridge during their hike.

Some jurors and others in the courtroom gasped or turned away as gruesome images of their bloodied bodies were shown, and the girls' mothers cried.

Jurors also viewed a cell phone video German shot shortly before the teens disappeared that shows a man in a blue jacket and jeans following Williams as she crosses the Monon High Bridge.

In an extended version of the video shown to jurors, one of the girls says, “There's no way, so we have to get down here.” Just before the video ends, prosecutors said, the man in the video said could be seen, to the teenagers: “Down the hill.”

How Allen became a suspect

In an affidavit released about a month after Allen's arrest in October 2022, investigators said he became a suspect after they went back, reviewed “previous leads” and determined he had been killed by an officer in 2017 had been questioned.

Testimony in court revealed more details about how they targeted the former pharmacy employee.

A retired state government employee who volunteered to help police with the investigation in March 2017 told jurors that she found paperwork that caught her eye in September 2022.

Kathy Shank testified that she found a “tip sheet” showing that two days after German and Williams' bodies were found, a man contacted authorities and said he was there the afternoon the girls went missing. been on the trail. His name was incorrectly listed as Richard Allen Whiteman and marked “cleared,” Shank said.

She discovered that the man's name was actually Richard Allen and remembered that a young girl had been on the trail at the same place and time and had seen a man.

“I thought there might be a connection,” Shank testified, adding that she informed officials of her discovery.

What Allen told investigators in 2017

The girls' bodies were found on February 14, 2017, a day after their disappearance.

Two days later, Allen contacted authorities and told them that he was on the trail on the afternoon of Feb. 13 when the girls disappeared, according to witness statements.

Dan Dulin, a captain with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, told the court he spoke with Allen, who said he was on the trail between 1 and 3:30 p.m. and remembered seeing three girls.

What Allen told investigators in 2022

After Shank brought Allen to the attention of investigators, they interviewed him in October 2022. Allen told investigators he arrived at the trail around noon and left no later than 2:00 p.m., not 3:30 p.m. like he did to Dulin had told in 2017.

Steve Mullin, who was Delphi police chief when the girls were killed and later became an investigator for the district attorney's office, said Allen told him and another officer that he was wearing a blue or black Carhartt jacket, jeans and a Teenagers wearing hats disappeared.

Mullin said he asked Allen if he was the similarly dressed person seen in German's cellphone video.

“His response was that if the picture had been taken on the girls' camera, there was no way it could have been him,” Mullin testified.

Prosecutors also showed jurors videotaped police interviews with Allen before his arrest in which he repeatedly asserted his innocence.

Allen's alleged confessions

On Thursday, the jury heard several recorded phone calls in which Allen spoke to his wife from prison and told her that he killed German and Williams. In one of the calls he said: “I did it. I killed Abby and Libby.”

The jury previously heard testimony from the former warden of the Westville Correctional Facility, where Allen was previously held, who said Allen claimed to have killed the girls with a box cutter that he later discarded.

Dr. Monica Wala, Allen's prison psychologist during his time in Westville, testified that Allen began confessing to killing the girls during his sessions with her in early 2023. She said he gave details of the crime in several confessions, telling her, among other things, that he slit the girls' throats and placed tree branches over their bodies.

A report written by Wala and presented as evidence to the jury said Allen also told her that he had planned to rape the teens but did not do so after he saw a van driving nearby.

A state trooper testified Thursday that Allen's remark corroborated the statement of a man whose driveway runs under the Monon High Bridge who said he was driving home in his van at the time.

Allen's lawyers said their client made the incriminating statements while under the pressure and psychological strain of being locked up and watched 24 hours a day and taunted by people incarcerated with him.

Under cross-examination, Wala admitted that she followed Allen's case with interest in her free time, including while she was treating him, and that she was a fan of the true crime genre.

An unspent bullet and Allen's gun

Court documents released weeks after Allen's arrest said tests showed an unspent bullet found between the girls' bodies “flew through” a handgun Allen owned.

Melissa Oberg, an Indiana State Police firearms expert, told the jury that her analysis linked the cartridge to Allen's Sig Sauer, a .40-caliber handgun.

During cross-examination, Allen's attorney tried to cast doubt on the accuracy of the firearm tests. Oberg said she was unaware that she had made identification errors in her more than 17 years of analyzing firearms.

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