Delphi murder suspect confesses to crimes in prison

CNN
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“I did it. I killed Abby and Libby.”

This is what jury members heard from Richard Allen in an audio recording of a phone conversation he had with his wife from prison.

The call from Allen, an Indiana man on trial for the 2017 murders of two teenagers, is just one of five calls to his wife in which he appears to have confessed to the killings from prison, according to the CNN affiliate WTHR.

According to prosecutors, Allen actually confessed to the murders in prison more than 60 times, to his wife, his mother, family members, the prison warden, the psychologist who treated him in prison, other prison employees and other inmates. The jury spent over two full weeks in the trial. The prosecution closed its case on Thursday after presenting 40 witnesses.

Abigail “Abby” Williams, 13, and Liberty “Libby” German, 14, disappeared on February 13, 2017, after hiking the Monon High Bridge Trail in Delphi, Indiana. Their bodies were discovered the next day near the trail with their throats slit.

Despite the confessions, many questions remain about the case, including Allen's mental state and the lack of DNA evidence linking him to the crimes. Allen was arrested in October 2022 after a long-ignored tip was uncovered that brought him to the crime scene.

According to WTHR, the jury on Thursday heard recordings of seven prison phone calls Allen made to his wife and mother.

In a call to his wife on April 3, 2023, he said: “Honey, I did it. I killed Abby and Libby.” His wife told him not to say that, but he continued to repeat the claim, WTHR reported. Then, according to the partner, in a call on May 10, 2023, he said to his wife, “You need to know that I did this.” He also said to his wife, “I think I've lost my mind.”

Here's what we learned about the murders in the second full week of the trial.

The confessions are part of the evidence presented by the state in its trial against Allen, who worked at a CVS Pharmacy in the small town of Delphi. Prosecutors built their case without DNA evidence or a weapon linking Allen to the crimes.

The jury heard testimony that an unspent bullet was found at the crime scene. A weapons examiner testified that she test-fired the same type of bullet with Allen's gun, and the results showed that the bullet found at the scene came from Allen's gun. Defense attorneys questioned the science of matching an unfired cartridge to a fired cartridge.

According to WTHR, Monica Wala, the prison psychologist who treated Allen at the Westville Correctional Facility, testified to the prosecution that he confessed to the crimes multiple times, and once in great detail.

“I killed Abby and Libby. I’m sorry,” he told her during a meeting on April 5, 2023, WTHR reported.

“I just want to sign my confession,” he said during another session on May 9, 2023, according to Wala. He also spoke about wanting to go back and change his actions and apologize to the families, Wala testified.

On May 2, 2023, he confessed again to the murders, telling Wala: “I killed Abby and Libby. I will kill anyone,” she testified, according to WTHR.

Allen told Wala he cut the girls' necks and covered their bodies with branches, she said. According to WTHR, after the May 3 meeting, she diagnosed him with a brief psychotic disorder with disorganized speech and behavior but no delusions or catatonic behavior.

Additionally, Wala testified that at times she thought Allen was faking some of the psychological behaviors he exhibited in prison, sometimes describing his behavior as “defiant” rather than “psychotic,” according to CNN affiliate WRTV. Some of his symptoms appeared to intensify – and he began to confess – after receiving information about the evidence prosecutors would present at his trial, Wala testified.

According to WTHR, prosecutors also called former Westville Correctional Facility warden John Galipeau, who testified that Allen asked him to speak to him and confess to the murders. Galipeau testified that Allen said he killed the girls with a box cutter and threw it in a dumpster at CVS.

Several prison guards also testified for the state about murder confessions Allen made while incarcerated. A corrections officer, Michael Clemons, who served as Allen's suicide watch companion, showed transcripts in which he noted that Allen said, “I, Richard Matthew Allen, killed Abby and Libby alone. No one helped me.”

While the prosecution has highlighted Allen's repeated confessions, the defense under cross-examination drew attention to his fragile mental health when he confessed to the murders.

Allen was held in solitary confinement for a total of 13 months, and the defense has sought to place the confessions in the context of Allen's mental health crisis during his incarceration. He was on suicide watch several times, exhibited bizarre behavior and was once diagnosed with a “brief psychotic disorder,” according to testimony from Wala, the psychologist who treated Allen.

According to CNN affiliate WRTV, the defense on Friday called Deanna Dwenger, a clinical psychologist who worked for the Indiana Department of Corrections Behavioral Health. She testified that he was diagnosed with a serious mental illness in April 2023 and that a team of psychologists concluded that he had a “severe disability.”

According to WTHR, defense attorney Brad Rozzi repeatedly asked Wala about the difficult conditions Allen endured while in solitary confinement and his mental health diagnoses. Wala testified under cross-examination that he had a serious mental illness and had suffered from both severe depression and an anxiety disorder.

Allen was placed on suicide watch in November 2022 and April 2023. He exhibited some strange behavior in prison, including refusing to wear clothes, hitting his head and eating his own feces, Wala said.

On the same day that Allen made one of his confessions, he also made nonsensical statements, including telling Wala that he “killed myself, my family and my best friend,” WTHR reported.

In a major blow to the defense, Judge Frances Gull ruled Friday that Allen's defense team cannot present their Odinism theory. According to WTHR, followers of Odinism, a pagan Nordic religion with ties to white supremacist groups, committed the murders. Gull concluded that the defense team had not adequately shown a connection between other potential suspects and the murders.

The defense had hoped to use both a bloody stain on a tree near where the bodies were found and the sticks placed over the girls' bodies as evidence that followers of Odinism were behind the murders.

The defense also called witnesses whose testimony contradicted elements of the state's account of the murders. On Friday, former Carroll County Sheriff Tobe Leazenby testified that until August 2023 he believed at least two people had killed the girls, WTHR reported. And former Delphi Fire Chief Darrell Sterrett testified for the defense that he didn't see any clothing in the creek during an initial search, according to WTHR. Abby's jeans and jacket, as well as Libby's T-shirt, were later discovered in the nearby river, according to WRTV.

According to WTHR, a state DNA expert testified on October 28 that no Allen's DNA was found at the crime scene.

Stacy Bozinovski told the jury she tested items from the crime scene, including Abby and Libby's clothing, skin cells under their fingertips, blood from the crime scene and the unspent bullet found between the victims' bodies. While she found DNA from both girls in most crime scene samples, there was no DNA from Allen.

DNA from an unknown man was found at the crime scene – but Bozinovski stated that this was not unusual and could have come from the girls' environment. According to WTHR, there was no DNA evidence of sexual assault, she testified.

She also tested items from Allen's home and vehicle, including a blue Carhartt jacket, a carpet from his car and knives. No DNA from Abby or Libby was found on any of the items taken from Allen's home, WTHR reported.

When asked about hair samples found at the crime scene, Bozinovski said the state is not currently testing them.

“But now it’s time,” replied defense attorney Jennifer Auger. “Richard Allen is now on trial!”