The jury in Richard Allen's double murder trial retires after the second full day of deliberations

An image from cellphone video taken by 14-year-old Libby German on the day in 2017 that she and 13-year-old Abby Williams were murdered near Delphi, Indiana, shows a man police believe is holds her murderer. Prosecutors in Richard Allen's ongoing double murder trial argued that he was the “bridge guy” in the picture. Photo courtesy of Indiana State Police

The jury received the case Thursday at 1:25 p.m. They are trying to reach a decision on two counts of murder and two counts of murder during the kidnapping against Allen, 52, who is accused of kidnapping and brutally killing Abigail “Abby” Williams, 13, and Liberty “Libby” German to have , 14, on February 13, 2017.

The panel of five men and seven women began deliberations after a 17-day trial in which prosecutors named Allen as the killer of the two girls, whose bodies were found downhill from a hiking trail near the Monon High Bridge a day after they disappeared Delphi, a city of 3,000 residents located 67 miles northwest of Indianapolis.

Allen was officially taken into custody by Indiana State Police in late 2022, nearly five years after the murders. He has pleaded not guilty.

During the trial, defense attorneys portrayed Allen as an innocent man who was wrongly accused of heinous crimes, even though he had repeatedly confessed to the murders, including in one instance where he told his wife on the phone, “I did it.” I killed Abby and Libby.”

According to a neuropsychologist who testified as a defense witness, Allen's lawyers questioned the confessions, arguing that they were insincere and merely the result of mental illness and psychological trauma he suffered while in solitary confinement.

In his closing argument, defense attorney Bradley Rozzi pointed out that there was no forensic evidence or explicit witness testimony linking Allen to a trail or the bridge on the day the girls disappeared, arguing that this happened in the five years between the murders of the girls and his arrest, Allen had plenty of opportunity to escape, but didn't.

But prosecutors countered by arguing that an Indiana state trooper who monitored more than 700 of Allen's prison phone calls identified his voice on a video found on Libby German's phone in which a man says: “Guys…down the hill.”

They alleged Allen pushed the teens off the trail with the intention of raping them, but changed his intentions when a van drove by. Instead, they said, he slit their throats.

Prosecution witness Railly Voorhies, who was 16 in 2017, testified that she was on the trail with three other people that day and that they passed a man who she identified from a grainy still image of the so-called “bridge type.” identified as Allen – In Libby's 43-second video, a man was seen walking on the path behind them.

The photo of “Bridge Guy” was released by police shortly after the murders and has long symbolized the hunt for the killer in the high-profile case.