Delphi murder victims’ families are left furious after court refused simple ask ‘for the dignity of alleged double killer’

Family and friends of Liberty German and Abigail Williams were outraged by an Indiana court’s decision to shield explicit prison video footage from the public out of “respect” for the “dignity” of the man accused of the murder on the Delphi teens.

Jurors in Carroll County Court were the only members of the public allowed to view nearly two hours of video recordings made of Richard Allen during the 13 months he was held at the Westville Correctional Facility in Westville, about 76 miles outside Delphi.

Libby’s grandmother Becky Patty expressed her frustration outside the Circuit courtroom where the trial is being held, saying it was “ridiculous” to “hide” Allen when the court had “shown the girls at their worst,” over a wealth of gruesome and publicly broadcast crime and autopsy photos.

Richard Allen denies the murders of Liberty and Abby, who were killed while hiking in their hometown of Delphi, Indiana

Family members of Liberty German and Abigail Williams listen as Indiana State Police Capt. Doug Carter announces the arrest of Richard Allen, 50, for the murder of two slain teenage girls during a hiking trip in Delphi, Indiana, Monday, Oct. 31, 2022. 2017 in northern Indiana

Allen, 52, faces four charges in connection with the murders of best friends Libby, 14, and Abby, 13, who went missing after walking the Monon High Bridge trail on Feb. 13, 2017.

He has been charged with the murder and murder of both girls, meaning murder committed during another crime; in this case the other act would be kidnapping.

If found guilty, he faces a maximum sentence of 130 years.

Today, his defense continued to make their case by admitting nearly two hours of footage taken from camcorders used by guards who continuously monitored and filmed Allen during his thirteen months in solitary confinement and suicide watch.

Early Saturday morning, judge Frances Gull explained that because of the “quite explicit scenes” in the fifteen videos, she would publish the exhibition – meaning the videos could be viewed – but only to the jury.

Bradely Rozzi, one of Allen’s team of attorneys, thanked Judge Gull for her decision, saying, “Out of respect for various parties, including my client and his dignity, this is the most professional way to handle this.”

Photos showed both girls lying on their backs on the mortuary table with their neck wounds flaring. Both were 6 feet tall, Abby weighed 95 pounds and Libby 200 pounds

The abandoned Monon High Bridge outside Delphi, Indiana, where Abby and Libby were murdered

The large screen on which evidence was presented to jurors was turned away from the public gallery as the videos, which did not contain audio, were played to a silent court.

Visible to some members of the media from where they sat in the gallery, in some Allen is naked, in all he is handcuffed or otherwise restrained.

In one, he kneels naked facing a wall as two officers soap and wash him before he is dried and a black ‘spit hood’ is placed over his head.

Allen, in another, still bearded at the time, gets a haircut and sits seemingly passively, his hands cuffed behind his back. At one point he is dragged through a hallway by two guards who grab both arms.

In another, he appears to be lying down as guards try to get him up.

Another video shows Allen naked and in a white spit hood.

Yet another shows him being transported to the prison’s medical unit, strapped to a chair while apparently being examined. Allen received several involuntary injections of the antipsychotic drug Haldol during his time in Westville.

The “motion videos” were all taken as Allen was transported in and out of his cell and filmed between April and June 2023, gathered from hundreds of hours of footage reviewed by his defense team.

The jury is expected to be featured in mobile video later next week.

The path in Delphi, Indiana, where Abby Williams, 13, and Libby German, 14, were killed

Richard Allen is slight, thin, with close-cropped hair and is barely five feet tall, but witness Breann Wilber described “Bridge Guy” as tall and muscular

They portray what the defense has presented as the culmination of the “severe mental illness” and psychotic breakdown they claim Allen suffered because of the constant monitoring and his prolonged stay in solitary confinement in Westville’s most secure unit.

Jurors watched the footage intently, sometimes with someone putting their hand over their mouth, but they were noticeably less visibly affected than Allen’s own lawyers.

Jennifer Auger watched with obvious discomfort as her colleague Rozzi presented each segment. At one point, Andrew Baldwin, with his arm around the back of Allen’s chair where he sat next to him, appeared close to tears.

Yesterday the court heard that Allen was ‘seriously mentally ill’ when he made a series of confessions in prison about the murders of Libby and Abby.

The statement came in the form of expert testimony from Dr. Deanna Dweinger, the psychologist who oversees mental health care at the Indiana Department of Corrections.

Under questioning by Rozzi, Dweinger told the court that the conditions in which Allen was held during his 13 months in Westville would have been “toxic” for a man already suffering from depression and anxiety.