Delphi Murders judge denies defense request to call ex-prosecutor as witness
DELPHI, Ind. (WISH) — With the trial continuing, a flurry of new court filings were revealed Thursday in the Delphi Murders case.
The most important filing centered around the defense team’s efforts to get Robert Ives to take the stand.
Ives is the former Carroll County prosecutor who initial oversaw the case when Abigail “Abby” Williams and Liberty “Libby” German were murdered.
Richard Allen, 52, is charged with two counts of murder and two counts of murder while committing or attempting to commit kidnapping in the deaths of 13-year-old Abby and 14-year-old Libby. The girls’ bodies were found near the Monon High Bridge near Delphi on Feb. 14, 2017, a day after they went missing.
Ives retired as the Carroll County prosecutor nine months after Abby and Libby were found dead in the woods near the Monon High Bridge trail in Delphi. He did so with a year left on his term.
On Tuesday, the defense team had subpoenaed him to testify at the trial about the early stages of the investigation into the murders.
In a court filing, Ives argued that any information he would have would be “purely speculative, irrelevant, and inadmissible in this proceeding.”
Judge Fran Gull agreed with Ives, which prevents the defense team from calling Ives to the stand.
Also, in the filings Thursday, a clearer picture emerged of who exactly the defense team will be calling to the stand. Most notable is Kegan Kline. He plead guilty to child pornography charges and to running the “anthony_shots” Snapchat account, the same one that was in contact with Abby and Libby in the leadup to their murders.
The defense also appeared ready to call three other Indiana Department of Correction inmates to the stand.
The flurry of filings released Thursday, though, lacked a ruling by the judge on the defense team’s latest motion to introduce Odinism into the trial. Gull in other rulings had previously ruled they could not do so, but the newest motion came as investigators testified this week how sticks were placed over the girls’ bodies.
More trial coverage from News 8
- Delphi Murders trial: Day 6 live blog
- Sheriff testifies in Delphi Murders trial about audio from girl’s phone
- Delphi Murders defense team again tries to introduce Odinism into trial
- Judge erases photos of Delphi Murders jurors from confiscated cameras