Jury finds Richard Allen guilty on all counts in Delphi murders trial

Richard Allen, the man accused of killing two teenagers in Delphi, Indiana in 2017, has been found guilty on all four counts.According to NBC affiliate WTHR, the jury found suspect Richard Allen guilty on all four counts, two counts of murder and two counts of murder while committing or attempting to commit kidnapping, in the killings of 13-year-old Abigail Williams and 14-year-old Liberty German.It took the jury less than two minutes to come in read the verdict and leave. Allen sat motionless as the verdict was read.The verdict comes seven years after the girls’ deaths. A relative had dropped the two girls off at a hiking trail near the Monon High Bridge just outside their hometown of Delphi, about 60 miles northwest of Indianapolis. Their bodies were found the next day, Feb. 14, 2017, in a rugged, heavily wooded area near the trail.The case gained national attention over the following months, years. Allen was arrested in 2022, roughly five years after the girls’ deaths. It came after investigators say they linked a shell casing at the crime scene to a pistol they say Allen owned.The gag order on the jurors, attorneys and people involved in the case remains in place until Allen’s sentencing. Allen will be sentenced on Dec. 20. He could face up to 130 years in prison. A family-friend of the victims said the verdict offers much-needed closure.”Today is a new day. Today is that day. The day they can start healing. Today is the day those families can start the healing process. This part is done,” Sarach Ausbrook, a family friend of the victims, said.In closing arguments following the weekslong trial, Carroll County Prosecutor Nicholas McLeland told jurors that Allen was the “Bridge Guy” seen in a video German recorded on her cellphone just before they vanished. He also recapped prosecution evidence that an unspent bullet found between the teens’ bodies came from Allen’s Sig Sauer, a .40-caliber handgun. Prosecutors have said the bullet “had been cycled through” Allen’s gun, while a firearms expert called by the defense during the trial questioned the state police analysis of that unspent round.McLeland said Allen had confessed repeatedly to the killings — in person, on the phone and in writing. He replayed for the jury recordings of phone calls, including one in which Allen could be heard telling his wife, “I did it. I killed Abby and Libby.”Defense witnesses testified that Allen was delirious and psychotic while behind bars and made the confessions while under mental stress.