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Delphi murder trial jury sees hours of prison footage of Richard Allen

Jurors today wrapped up their third week in the Delphi murder trial by viewing hours of footage of Richard Allen's mental decline in prison throughout 2023. Although the videos remained largely hidden from the public, some media reports revealed details about Allen's serious condition.

Allen, 52, is accused of killing two teenagers who went missing on Feb. 13, 2017 and were found dead the next day. He was arrested in 2022 and faces two counts of murder and two counts of murder during kidnapping in connection with the deaths of Abigail “Abby” Williams and Liberty “Libby” German.

On Friday morning, the defense team called the Indiana Department of Correction's executive director of mental health services to the stand. She said Allen entered the Westville prison with depression and anxiety, then isolation in prison worsened his mental state.

Also on Friday, special judge Frances Gull rejected another defense request to present evidence related to their theory that Odinists committed the murders as part of a sacrificial ritual.

Reporters from the Indianapolis Star and the Lafayette Journal & Courier continue to cover the case as it moves through the justice system.

▶ November 1, 2024: Richard Allen was severely mentally ill in Westville prison, IDOC psychologist says

This story will be updated throughout the day.

Jurors watched hours of silent camcorder footage of Richard Allen's mental and physical decline at the Westville Correctional Facility from April to June 2023. The state prison's director of psychiatric services said Friday that Allen's condition deteriorated to “severely disabled” while he was in solitary confinement for over a year.

Allen's defense attorneys viewed the 15 videos, four of which allegedly contained nudity, as so disturbing that the screen showing the footage was turned away from the media and public. More videos of Allen in his cell will follow next week, his lawyers said.

But several members of the media were able to view the videos played on defense attorney Bradley Rozzi's laptop and reported that Allen did not respond to most of the videos. In two of the videos, guards physically bathed Allen and cut his hair. In another case, they took him for a medical examination. Allen was often naked or nearly naked. He sometimes wore a spit hood, a device prison guards use to prevent an inmate from spitting on them.

Rozzi said he wanted to hide the videos out of respect for his client's dignity, and the judge agreed. Even Allen, who was behind the screen, couldn't see the videos in court Saturday. His wife, Kathy Allen, intentionally skipped Saturday's hearing.

“Of course the jury has to see that,” Gull said.

The jury seemed visibly unsettled by the videos. Their shoulders rose and fell as they exhaled deeply and shifted in their seats. A young woman on the jury raised her eyebrows in surprise as Allen was seen in a 34-minute video being tied to a chair and carried away for a medical exam. An alternate juror, sitting closer to the screen in front of the seven women and five men on the jury, repeatedly appeared taken aback and blinked rapidly as she watched.

During the first video, which allegedly contained nudity, a juror bit her bottom lip and stretched her neck. Watching the same video, even Allen's defense attorney, Jennifer Auger, stood with her arms crossed and shook her head before quickly looking away.

Some of Libby's family members seemed visibly upset that the videos were hidden because weeks earlier, jurors and the public were shown highly graphic photos of both girls' neck wounds and their blood-spattered bodies at the crime scene.

The state objected to all 15 videos, but Gull overruled them and admitted the recordings into evidence.

Indiana State Police Supt. Doug Carter, who delivered an emotional message during a 2019 news conference in which police released new audio and video recordings of a still-unidentified suspect, took the stand for less than 10 minutes Saturday morning. He then resigned and was relieved of his subpoena, meaning he likely won't testify again.

Allen's defense attorneys called Carter to testify primarily to establish that the FBI, along with state and local law enforcement, investigated the Delphi murders from the day of the murders through August 2021. That month, Carter said, he decided the FBI would drop the case. Federal investigators turned over all of the materials they had collected.

In the defense's opening statement three weeks ago, attorney Andrew Baldwin said the investigation was stalled and had problems from the start. A “turf war” between investigators led to further conflict, with state officials kicking out the FBI in the middle of the years-long investigation, Baldwin said.

On Friday, local investigators acknowledged losing dozens of audio recordings from witnesses and possible suspects in the months after the murders.

The fourth week of testimony continues Monday, November 4, at 9 a.m. The trial is scheduled to last until November 15th.

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