No verdict on the first full day of jury deliberations in the Delphi murder trial for the slayings of two teenage girls in Indiana

INDIANAPOLIS – The first full day of jury deliberations ended Friday without a verdict in the trial of Richard Allen, who is accused of the 2017 murders of two teenage girls who disappeared while hiking in Delphi, Indiana, in 2017.

Jurors began deliberations Thursday afternoon and spent two hours before wrapping up for the day. They then spent seven hours deliberating on Friday without reaching a verdict and will return on Saturday morning.

Allen had pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder and two counts of aggravated murder in connection with the 2017 deaths of Liberty “Libby” German and Abigail “Abby” Williams, who were 14 and 13 years old, respectively.

If convicted of all charges, he could face up to 130 years in prison.

The seven women and five men continued their deliberations Friday after hearing closing arguments in the week-long murder trial. The deliberations ended after about two hours and will continue on Friday morning. They will deliberate Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. until they reach a verdict, CNN reports.

Carroll County Prosecutor Nicholas McLeland told jurors that Allen was the man seen in a grainy cell phone video taken by one of the girls, known as Abby and Libby, as they crossed an abandoned railroad bridge, shortly before they disappeared on February 13, 2017.

“Richard Allen is a bridge guy,” McLeland told the jury. “He kidnapped her and later murdered her.”

He noted that Allen had repeatedly confessed to the murders – in person, on the telephone and in writing. In one of the recordings he played for the jury, Allen was heard telling his wife: “I did it. I killed Abby and Libby.”

Allen's defense cast doubt on the confessions and fielded witnesses, including a psychiatrist, who testified that Allen was delirious and psychotic after months in solitary confinement. The defense further argued that there was no physical evidence linking Allen to the murders, saying that the confessions he made in the past were “involuntary” and resulted from months of solitary confinement.

No witness specifically identified Allen as the man seen on the trail or bridge the afternoon the girls went missing, he noted. No fingerprint, DNA or forensic evidence linked Allen to the crime scene, Rozzi said.

And more than five years after the teens' murders, Allen was still living in Delphi while working at a local pharmacy.

“He had every chance to run, but he didn't because he didn't,” he told jurors.

Before the trial began, Allen's lawyers had tried to argue that the girls had been killed in a ritual sacrifice by members of a white nationalist group called the Odinists, who follow a pagan Nordic religion, but the judge ruled against it, saying the defense had presented “no admissible evidence” of such a connection.

Timeline of events surrounding Delphi murders

The Delphi murder case dates back to February 13, 2017, when “Abby” and “Libby” went for a hike on the Monon High Bridge in Delphi. The two girls were reported missing after they failed to meet Libby's father that afternoon. The next day their bodies were found, both dead from cuts to their throats, partially covered by sticks.

The case gained public attention, among other things, through a photo and audio recording of the suspect taken from Libby's smartphone. The image shows a man walking across the bridge with his hands in his pockets, and in the audio the muffled voice of a man can be heard saying, “Guys, down the hill.” Although police only have the photo and audio recording spread a few days after the murders and identified the “Bridge Guy” as their prime suspect, the case lay dormant for more than five years until Allen was arrested in 2022.

Allen had apparently escaped police attention, remaining in the small town of Delphi and working at a local CVS pharmacy until September 2022, when an employee digitizing tips related to the investigation noticed he had been at the crime scene. Just days after the bodies were discovered, Allen told police that he had been on the trail during the period in which the girls were believed to have been killed.

Carroll County Sheriff Tony Liggett said Allen “got lost in the cracks” despite the tip, according to CNN affiliate WLFI. About a month after the tip was rediscovered, Allen was arrested after police matched an unused cartridge found among the girls' bodies to a handgun recovered during a police search of his home.

After Allen was arrested on October 26, 2022, he was charged five days later with two counts of murder for kidnapping or attempted kidnapping. Prosecutors later added two more counts of murder to the charges.

During the trial, which began Oct. 18, prosecutors highlighted Allen's dozens of confessions while incarcerated: He confessed to the crime more than 60 times, prosecutors said, including to his wife, his mother, the psychologist, the prison director who treated him and other prison employees and inmates. They played audio recordings of some of the confessions to the jury.

Monica Wala, the former chief psychologist at the Westville Correctional Facility where Allen was housed, testified that he initially told her he was innocent, but in April 2023, around the time he was placed back on suicide watch, he began to confess the crimes.

Wala testified that Allen told her, “I killed Abby and Libby. I’m sorry,” said WTHR. He said he originally planned to sexually assault the victims but ran away when he saw a van nearby and that he cut the girls' throats and covered their bodies with sticks, she testified.

contributed to this report.