Indiana man Mitchell Westerman is charged over leaking gruesome Delphi murder crime scene photos

Indiana police have arrested a man for allegedly leaking gruesome crime scene photos from the Delphi murder case to the public.

Mitchell Westerman, 41, of Westfield, Indiana, has been charged with one count of conversion after allegedly taking photos of sensitive crime scene evidence related to the 2017 Delphi murder case – which were later leaked online.

Westerman is a friend and former associate of attorney Andrew Baldwin, who, along with Brad Rozzi, was accused of Delphi killing Richard Allen’s original defense team.

Allen, 50, is accused of killing Libby German, 14, and Abby Williams, 13, as they hiked the Delphi Historic Trails in Indiana in February 2017.

According to court documents, even after Westerman stopped working for Baldwin, he regularly visited the office and met with his friend.

During one such visit, the suspect allegedly found evidence photos related to the Delphi case scattered around Baldwin’s conference room and decided to take photos with his phone.

Westerman allegedly sent those photos to a Fishers man working at Fort Wayne Air Force Base, who then shared them with a Texas man.

The unknown man from Texas posted the photos to various YouTube and podcast makers.

On October 5, officials were notified of the leak and began questioning the Fishers man. He committed suicide after the interrogation.

Lawyer Kevin Greenlee and journalist Aine Cain, who run the podcast ‘The Murder Sheet’, said they had received photos of the horrific scene from a source and had contacted police.

Cain described them as “some of the worst I have ever seen.” Very disturbing, very disturbing, not just what we see, but the fact that they got out.”

In a statement, Westerman said he did not receive permission from Baldwin to take photos of the evidence and was not in the conference room at the time.

“I was sitting in attorney Andrew Baldwin’s office building waiting to see Andrew.

‘He was in his office, had an appointment with a client or was on the phone with the door closed. I went to the conference room to wait. I saw printed copies of photo evidence on the conference room table. I took pictures of some of them,” the statement read.

The leaks delayed Allen’s trial by 10 months after Baldwin’s team withdrew from the case due to “gross negligence” over gruesome crime scene photos leaked to the public.

Allen County Special Judge Fran Gull ordered Baldwin and Rozzi on Oct. 12 to cease work on Allen’s case.

Shortly thereafter, attorneys William Lebrato and Richard Sremin became the newly appointed attorneys on Allen’s case. They told the judge they had not received any discovery and said it would be impossible to review all the evidence in time for the January 2024 trial.

The new attorneys filed a motion and the judge approved the stay. The new date for the high-profile murder trial has been set for October 15-31, 2024.

During the trial in late October, a handcuffed Allen was brought into the courtroom. He sat next to his former attorneys, Baldwin and Rozzi, as his newly appointed attorneys, nearby.

Baldwin’s attorney, David Hennessy, was also present to defend him in court over the leaks.

McLeland alleged that Baldwin and Rozzi made negligent statements and “told lies.”

McLeland told the court that the two lawyers were trying to “bring the trial to the attention of the public.”

During the hearing, Judge Gull turned to the defendant and told Allen, “I cannot and will not allow these attorneys to represent you.”

She disqualified Baldwin and Rozzi from representing Allen, even pro bono. She also instructed both attorneys to turn over discovery to the newly appointed defense team by the end of the week.

Hennessy denied “gross negligence” and said they were unprepared for the Oct. 19 ruling that saw the team withdraw.

He further stated that the “summary judgment was unconstitutional.”

Fourteen-year-old Liberty “Libby” German and her friend Abigal “Abby” Williams, 13, went missing on February 13, 2017, while the pair were hiking the Delphi Historic Trails in Indiana.

Their bodies were found the next day in a heavily wooded area near the trail at the Monon High Bridge.

Allen was arrested on two murder charges on October 28, 2022, five years after the gruesome murders of the two young girls.

In September, Allen’s defense team alleged that the girls’ murders were committed by members of a pagan cult devoted to Odin, a god of war in Norse mythology, and that Allen was accused by law enforcement of being the prime suspect in the murders.

Baldwin previously called Westerman’s leak a betrayal and said he has since kept all Delphi documents and files in locked cabinets.

Rozzi claimed that Westerman’s actions constituted “theft” because he did not have permission from either attorney to photograph or share the evidence.