Court officials, media preparing for Delphi double-murder trial

Nearly two years after his arrest, the man accused of the February 2017 murders of 14-year-old Liberty German and 13-year-old Abigail Williams in Delphi is set to go to trial approximately two miles from where the victims were found.

Jurors for the anticipated month-long trial of Richard Allen are scheduled to be selected in Allen County from Oct. 14 through 16.

The jurors would then be taken to Carroll County for the start of the Oct. 17 trial, with Allen County Special Judge Frances Gull presiding over the proceedings.

The crime itself has made headlines across the country, and news coverage intensified even more with Allen’s arrest on Oct. 28, 2022, and the ongoing tense exchanges between Allen’s defense team and the judge.

Court rulings since May

Allen’s trial has been rescheduled numerous times since his arrest.

While seemingly set to go in May of this year, the trial was moved back to this month just days before jurors were to be selected.

Since then, both the state and defense have filed notable motions in preparation for the trial.

In April, the state filed a motion requesting the defense not be allowed to bring up certain topics related to other alleged theories as to how the victims died.

The motion stemmed from an argument presented by the defense that Williams and German were murdered as part of a ritualistic killing by members of Odinism, a pagan religion often tied to white nationalism, and not by Allen.

In their argument, the defense suggested a group of men unrelated to Allen were the ones to carry out the crime in connection with the religion’s beliefs.

On Sept. 3, Gull ruled that the defense cannot use the Odinism claims at trial because the defense didn’t provide the evidence to show a connection between the religion and the murders.

Gull stated the probative value of the evidence the defense submitted on the topic is outweighed by “confusion of the issues and its potential to mislead the jury.”

Also, in April, Allen and his defense team filed a motion to suppress reportedly incriminating statements he made to family members and people in the Indiana Department of Correction during his pre-trial detention.

In the motion, the defense claimed the statements were obtained using psychological, mental, and physical coercion in violation of Allen’s Fifth, Sixth and 14th Amendment rights.

But the court ruled on August 28 that the statements Allen made are admissible in trial.

Gull wrote that Allen failed to clearly identify which statements he wanted to suppress, nor did he provide the necessary evidence to suggest the statements he gave were coerced.

The court further denied that Allen’s pre-trial detention caused him to make incriminating statements.

Allen suffers from major depressive disorder and anxiety, as described in the order, but those illnesses aren’t severe enough to affect his ability to give statements, Gull wrote.

More recently, the defense filed a motion on Sept. 23 requesting that jurors be taken to see various scenes connected to the crime.

The defense requested the jury walk the trail from the Freedom Bridge to the Monon High Bridge.

The Freedom Bridge runs over Indiana Highway 25 and connects both sides of the Monon High Bridge Trail.

The Monon High Bridge, which is approximately 0.7 miles from the Freedom Bridge, is where the victims were reportedly abducted before their murders.

The defense also wants jurors to view the area where the victims were found and the location where the state claims Allen’s car was on the day of the crime.

Allen and his team reason that these locations are all less than two miles from the Carroll County courthouse, and the endeavor would take less than 90 minutes to complete.

The state objected to the request on Sept. 27, arguing the terrain where the bodies were found is difficult and dangerous to walk through and, further, that to get to the area, jurors would have to enter private property.

Their objection also stated that it would be difficult to take the jurors to the area while keeping them sequestered from the public and “outside influences.”

Finally, the state argued that the area where the bodies were found and where Allen reportedly parked his car look significantly different today than they did back in 2017.

The state said it plans on introducing evidence that lays out where these locations are.

A hearing will be conducted to decide on whether to allow jurors to view these locations at the end of the jury selection process, according to the court docket.

Media access

The case has drawn media attention across the country, with reports airing on national broadcasts of ABC and NBC news, CNN, Court TV and others.

Allen’s trial once held the promise of being the most high-profile court proceeding in Indiana history to be allowed to be captured live by television and streaming service cameras.

But Gull ultimately decided to deny access under a new state rule adopted in February 2023 that allowed judges to decide whether cameras will be allowed in their courtrooms.

Previously, cameras were banned by state court rules. Indiana was one of the last states in the country to loosen restrictions on court cameras.

In laying out the new Indiana Code of Judicial Conduct Rule 2.17, Indiana Chief Justice Loretta Rush said in a news release that “trial court judges are in the best position to determine how to balance the importance of transparency while protecting the rights of people involved in a court matter.”

Gull has not granted camera access to hearings in Allen’s case since last Oct. 19.

When denying access to a subsequent hearing, Gull cited the “unauthorized filming and broadcasting of pre-hearing activities” at the Oct. 19 hearing.

On Sept. 30, Gull issued a final courthouse management and decorum order stating that no electronics will be allowed inside the courtroom whatsoever during the trial. This includes smart watches, cell phones, and laptops.

“The purpose of this order is to secure the defendant’s constitutional rights to a fair and impartial jury while permitting the public and the press to exercise their First Amendment rights. In addition, the order protects the identity of jurors,” Gull wrote in the decorum order.

The media has been given 12 seats in the courtroom for each day of the trial. The rest of the seats are reserved for the prosecution, defense, and families.

The public is allowed to fill the rest of the seats in the courtroom.

On the same day the decorum order was issued, the News Media Coalition, comprised of media outlets like the Associated Press, WTHR, and the Indianapolis Star, filed a motion requesting access to public trial exhibits that were submitted by the state and defense during the pre-trial hearing and during the trial.

In the motion, the coalition reasoned that the exhibits “already submitted into the public record indisputably are ‘accessible to the public’,” according to the General Access Rule (Rule 4) of the state’s Access to Court Records Rules.

The motion argued that the media is entitled to judicial documents and proceedings under the First and 14th Amendments, and denying them and, by extension, the public, access to exhibits in the public record violates the U.S. Constitution.

Gull had not ruled on that motion as this edition of Indiana Lawyer went to press.•