CHICAGO (CBS) — Delphi double murderer Richard Allen will learn his fate at sentencing Friday morning.
A Indiana jury convicted Allen in the murders of Liberty “Libby” German, 14, and Abigail “Abby” Williams, 13, who went missing while hiking in Delphi in 2017.
The jury of seven women and five men deliberated for about 19 hours over three days before finding Allen, 52, guilty on all counts.
Allen faces up to 130 years in prison. His sentencing is scheduled for 8 a.m. CT.
Delphi Murders: Chronology of Events
On February 13, 2017, Abby and Libby were dropped off at a hiking trail on the Monon High Bridge in Delphi. When they failed to meet Libby’s father later that day, they were reported missing. They were found dead about a mile from where they were last seen, with cuts to their throats, prosecutors said.
The police investigated thousands of prospectsand released several composite sketches of the suspect based on eyewitness accounts.
Audio evidence Libby’s cell phone revealed that a stranger told the girls to “go down the hill.” Libby too recorded a short Snapchat video of a man police believed to be the killer. Although police released the photo and audio just days after the murders, the case went unaddressed for more than five years until Allen was arrested in 2022.
Allen lived in Delphi and worked at a local CVS pharmacy until an employee connected to the investigation in September 2022 noticed that he had placed himself at the scene of the murders. Just days after the bodies were discovered, Allen told police he was on that trail when the girls were allegedly killed. He told them he had been walking around and saw three “females” near a bridge, but had not spoken to them.
On October 13, 2022, Allen was questioned again after police searched previous suspects. Allen was arrested after police compared an unspent cartridge found between the girls’ bodies to a pistol recovered from his home during a police search.
Allen was arrested on October 26, 2022, and was charged with two counts of murder while committing or attempting to commit kidnapping five days later. Prosecutors later amended the charges to include two additional counts of murder. Allen has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
During the trial, the prosecution highlighted Allen’s dozens of confessions during his incarceration: he confessed to the crime more than 60 times, according to prosecutors, including to his wife, to his mother, to the psychologist who treated, the warden and other people in the prison. employees and inmates. They played audio recordings of some confessions for the jury. The defense questioned the confession and said it was made involuntarily and that he was suffering from mental illness at the time.
Monica Wala, the former lead psychologist at the Westville Correctional Center where Allen was housed, said he initially told her he was innocent, but began confessing to the crimes in April 2023, at around the time he was put back on suicide watch.
According to WTHR, Wala said Allen told him, “I killed Abby and Libby.” I’m sorry” and that he had initially planned to sexually assault the victims, but fled when he saw a van nearby and that he had cut the girls’ throats and covered their bodies with sticks, she testified.
Allen’s lawyers previously suggested the girls were killed as part of a pagan ritual sacrifice and accused police of ignoring evidence found at the crime scene. In a search warrant application in March 2017, an FBI agent claimed the girls’ bodies appeared to have been “moved and staged” at the crime scene. This theory was not heard by the jury in accordance with the judge’s decision.
Thompkins said Allen’s conviction could be overturned if an appeal finds the jury did not hear enough evidence.
The defense could appeal within 30 days of sentencing.
This is a developing story.
