The Associated Press File Photo
By Áine Cain and Kevin Greenlee | The Murder Sheet
For the Daily Journal
DELPHI, Ind. — Following a start crammed with testimony from a variety of different witnesses, the pace of the Delphi murders trial has slowed somewhat.
Friday and Saturday — the latter of which represents a half day of court, from 9 a.m. to noon — saw prosecutors get through only one witness per day. On Friday, the state called forensic firearms examiner Melissa Oberg to the stand. The following morning, Indiana State Police Lt. Jerry Holeman returned to testify for a second time.
In both instances, Richard Allen’s defense team engaged in lengthy — and, at times, heated — cross examinations.
Allen is accused of murdering 14-year-old Liberty German and 13-year-old Abigail Williams on Feb. 13, 2017. The girls went missing while hiking the trails of Delphi. Jurors reviewed footage that German captured of a man in a dark blue jacket and jeans stalking behind Williams on the Monon High Bridge. Witnesses have testified that they saw the so-called “Bridge Guy” that afternoon.
Meanwhile, in statements to authorities, Allen put himself on the trails, corroborating those witness accounts and surveillance footage from the nearby Hoosier Harvestore. While incarcerated before trial, Allen confessed to the murders 61 times.
Currently, Carroll County Prosecutor Nicholas McLeland and deputy prosecutors Stacey Diener and James Luttrell are putting together the case against Allen. When they are finished, the defense will get a chance to present their case. The defense has hinted at an alternate theory involving unknown suspects abducting the girls from the trail in a car, and then returning the girls to a nearby spot, turning on German’s phone, and killing them.
On Friday, Oberg testified about linking Allen’s firearm, a Sig Sauer gun, to an unspent round discovered at the scene, between the bodies. She explained the facts of firearm manufacturing, the steps she takes to analyze evidence, and her work on the Delphi case.
Lead defense attorney Bradley Rozzi cross-examined her for hours, questioning the expert on everything from her work at the ISP’s Indianapolis Laboratory to the definition of the word “sufficient.” At one point, after repeated objections from Luttrell, Special Judge Judge Frances Gull admonished Rozzi for mischaracterizing evidence to the jury.
One of Rozzi’s co-counsel, defense attorney Andrew Baldwin, of the Franklin-based Criminal Defense Team law firm, argued during cross examination of Holeman Saturday that the state could not “rule out” the defense’s proposed alternate theory
“I think we can rule that out,” Holeman said in response to the Baldwin’s question.
Holeman also noted that in an interview he conducted with Allen in 2022, the then-suspect denied killing the girls. The investigator spoke of trying to build rapport with Allen before later pivoting to trying to match the man’s heated, agitated energy. At one point, Holeman said he tried to assure Allen by telling him that he thought he was a good person.
“He looked at me and said, ‘What kind of good person would kill two girls?’” Holeman testified.
Allen never terminated the interview or asked for an attorney, although he did tell his wife Kathy — also present for a time — that the police would have to let her go if she asked for a lawyer.
Holeman said Allen told him, “Take all your evidence and just arrest me.”
At the end of the interview, Holeman conferred with other investigators. They opted to detain Allen at that time.
The Murder Sheet is a podcast that takes a journalistic and analytical approach to true crime coverage. They are partnering with the Daily Journal to provide coverage of the Delphi double-murder trial. Check out their podcast at murdersheetpodcast.com.
