Delphi double murder suspect Richard Allen is set to appear in court for a bail hearing on Thursday, with his lawyers poised to argue evidence against him ‘isn’t strong enough’ to hold him in jail while he awaits trial.
The 50-year-old is accused of killing best friends Libby German, 14, and Abby Williams, 13, while they were hiking through Indiana‘s Delphi Historical Trails on February 13 2017.
Their bodies were discovered the next day and the case puzzled police for years – until a bullet found at the bloody crime scene linked Allen to the slayings in 2022.
Allen, who is from Delphi and has a daughter, is due to appear before Judge Frances Gull at Carroll Circuit Court on Thursday.
According to News Nation Now, the defense will argue for his release on bail on the basis that the evidence against him is not strong enough to hold him while he awaits trial – which could be several months away.
Richard Allen is due to appear at Carroll Circuit Court on Thursday for a bail hearing where his lawyers will argue that there is insufficient evidence for him to be kept in jail while awaiting trial – which could be several months away
Abby Williams and Liberty German were brutally killed on February 13, 2017, in Delphi, Indiana, and their families have been waiting for answers ever since
Two days after the girls were killed, law enforcement officers released a photograph of a white male wearing blue jeans, a blue coat and a hoodie
Thursday’s hearing was initially scheduled for February, but was delayed at the request of Allen’s attorneys – Bradley Anthony Rozzi and Andrew Joseph Baldwin – due to the dense volume of evidence they have to get through.
For the same reason, the trial, which was originally scheduled for March, could be delayed until 2024.
The trial date will be discussed at Thursday’s hearing.
Allen’s attorneys said he had been sleeping on a pad on the floor of a ‘cold, concrete’ cell the size of a dog kennel without a change of clothes for days on end or visitation rights from his wife and family.
They released a photo of Allen taken on April 4 showing him looking gaunt, and argued that his treatment had let to a deterioration of his physical and mental health, which was slowing their ability to build a defense with him.
Attorneys for Delphi murder suspect Richard Allen (pictured left in the years leading up to the alleged murder) say he’s been treated like a prisoner of war, and is looking gaunt and unhealthy in this recent photo (right)
Allen was charged in October with two counts of murder in the slayings of Liberty German (pictured right), 14, and Abigail Williams (pictured left), 13
Delphi murder suspect Richard Allen, accused of murdering two Indiana teenage girls in 2017, was seen hobbling down the stairs leaving court in January
County Judge Fran Gull said in court that attorneys for Richard Allen, 50, of Delphi and the county prosecutor must decide within a week from which county that jury should come
Allen’s attorneys in November requested the trial location be changed, arguing it would be difficult to form an impartial jury in Carroll County because of intense public scrutiny and media attention surrounding the case
The February 2017 killings sparked nationwide interested after Indiana State Police released images from German’s Snapchat story showing the girls hiking on the Monon High Bridge.
A blurry man dubbed ‘Bridge Guy’ could be seen in the image, and was identified as one of the main suspects in the case.
Police interviewed Allen shortly after the murders, and he told them he had been on the bridge on the day of the girls’ deaths, but denied meeting them.
Kegan Kline, 28, was linked to the case last December
An affidavit released in November 2022 shows that an unspent .40 caliber round was found between the teenagers’ bodies, and it was later linked to Allen’s Sig Sauer Model P226 firearm through forensic evidence.
In December, the DailyMail.com revealed that German and Williams were killed amid a botched kidnapping plot hatched by members of a local pedophile ring, which Allen was allegedly part of.
Carroll County Prosecutor Nicholas McLeland openly stated that he believes ‘Allen is not the only actor involved in this’, and prosecutors have alleged that he attempted a kidnapping – though he has not been charged with this.
Sources close to the investigation have claimed that Allen was acting with at least two other men.
Pedophile Kegan Kline, 28, of Peru, Indiana, who is currently awaiting trial on a slew of child pornography charges, used a fake social media profile named Anthony Shots to communicate with German before she died.
Both Allen and Kline are alleged to have had ties to Ron Logan (pictured) who authorities previously pegged as a suspect in the case after the girls’ bodies were found on his property. Logan, who died in January 2022, was never formally named as a murder suspect
Family members of Liberty German and Abigail Williams at a press conference after Allen’s arrest
Abbie was seen in a Snapchat video posted by her friend Libby in February 2017, moments before both were murdered
Police interrogating Kline told him they did not believe he committed the murders but was protecting the identity of whoever did – and he is now reportedly cooperating with prosecutors in a bid to reduce his own charges.
The source told DailyMail.com that Kline met Allen when they both lived in Peru, roughly 40 miles northwest of Delphi.
They also claimed that both men knew Ron Logan, whom police first pegged as a suspect in the killings after the girls’ bodies were found on his property, some 1,400 feet from his home.
