INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Wednesday was Day 17 in the trial of Delphi Murders suspect Richard Allen at the Carroll County Courthouse in Delphi.

Allen, 52, is charged with murder and murder while committing or attempting to commit kidnapping in the deaths of 13-year-old Abigail “Abby” Williams and 14-year-old Liberty “Libby” German. The girls’ bodies were found near the Monon High Bridge near Delphi on Feb. 14, 2017, a day after they went missing.

Allen was first investigated in 2017 and again in October 2022. After a second police interview, he was taken into custody.

The trial began Oct. 18 and was expected to continue through mid-November. Originally, 16 Allen County residents sat as the jury on the case, but one juror was dismissed on Oct. 25.

Cameras are not allowed in the courtroom.

Tune into News 8 and follow our daily live blogs throughout the trial for the latest developments.

NOTE: The times listed in the blog headers are the times which the entries were added. Specific times for courtroom events will be listed in the entries if available. These notes are compiled from photographs of written notes provided by reporters in courtroom and emailed to the WISH-TV news desk.

For a brief summary of Day 16 in the Delphi Murders trial (Tuesday), scroll to the bottom of the page.

To view all of our previous trial coverage, click here, and follow News 8’s Kyla Russell on X as she covers the trial live from Delphi.

• More Delphi Murders trial on WISHTV.com

3:55 p.m. Pool reporter’s transcription of a court exhibit.

The following is a direct transcription of an exhibit shown to the media today after court adjourned. It is a psych evaluation of Richard Allen prepared by Dr. John Martin on June 20, 2023.

“This morning the patient was interviewed in an interview cell. He had been wearing a uniform when he was taken to the cell but chose to take it off and was in a tee shirt and boxers. Several contusions on his face that had been self-induced are no longer as prominent. Eye contact was poor. he spoke very softly but also very briefly. He kept asking for Dr. Wala. He was coherent and spoke without loose associations or flight of ideas. He was oriented to person, place, time of day and situation. He has a constricted (ed. note, difficult to read this word.) affect. He said that he had suicidal ideations. He did not want to talk too much. What he did talk about was his concern for his wife. He said that he wanted to apologize to the families of his victims. He is eating his meals. He is keeping himself clean. A renew of the logs shows that he is getting an adequate amount of sleep and is eating most of his meals. He has been meeting with Dr. Wala for therapy sessions and is due to see her in a few minutes. He was not consistent in taking his oral medications and so it was discontinued. He will continue on Prozac. I am discontinuing the Haldol Decanoate today. In general he is much improved and does not appear to be psychotic at the present time. He claims to be suicidal. He is continued on suicide watch. He will be interviewed again in two weeks.” -End of transcription.

2:37 p.m. Remaining rebuttal witnesses testify.

At 1:16 p.m., Judge Gull returns to the court room. The jury enters shortly after.

Defense attorney Brad Rozzi begins cross-examination of Dr. John Martin, a license psychiatrist. Rozzi tells the jury that Dr. Martin does not have a traditional bachelor’s degree from and American university. Rozzi says Martin was terminated from a position in Florida. He says Martin was involved with lawsuits with a person that was in solitary confinement.

Prosecutor Stacey Diener calls for a sidebar and Judge Gull tells Rozzi to “move on.”

Martin tells the jury he went to Westville because there was a 200 to 250 case backlog. Rozzi describes SMI, or severe mental illness. Diener objects. Martin says solitary can cause or exaggerate mental illness.

Martin tells the jury that Allen could “possibly” move in and out of psychosis. He says that some of the meetings happened with Allen by speaking through his cell door. He says he did not watch camcorder or in-cell videos of Allen.

Martin said that on April 13, 2023, Allen was “very psychotic.” He said he agreed that Allen suffered from major depressive disorder and that him believing the was unfairly incarcerated could make the depression worse.

Martin tells the jury that he agrees that he reported being concerned when Allen met with his lawyers. He says Allen told Dr. Wala that he thought one of his lawyers was a good cop and the other was a bad cop.

Martin says he has treated a pre-trial detainee in prison that had no criminal history before. Rozzi shows Martin his previous deposition and Martin agrees that he earlier said he had not treated a pre-trial detainee in a prison before.

Martin agrees that Allen’s situation was unique to him.

He tells the jury about working on a computer off-site at times, Diener objects to this testimony.

Martin describes an occasion where he administered medication to an inmate from Michigan City in Westville.

He says he did not ask Allen if he had lawyers when he met with him in Nov. of 2022. Martin says that meeting was an interview and not a formal psychiatric visit. He says in a report from that same month that Allen had used alcohol socially.

Martin tells the jury that it would be more confusing for someone in solitary if they had not done something wrong.

Rozzi asks to play the video from June 20, 2023 in which Allen said he wanted to apologize to the families.

Diener asks to review. The video is played. The reporter in the court room cannot see the screen and reports that Kathy Allen looks away.

Gull calls for a sidebar in the middle of the video playing. Diener begins again.

Martin says his conversation with Allen on that day was an interview and that he was oriented. (Ed. note “in control of his faculties.”) He says Allen’s statement about apologizing to the families was spontaneous. Martin says he does not remember if the interaction was recorded.

Martin tells the jury that he does not know why Allen’s actions on June 20, 2023 seem different than what he had recorded but that he does not question his own records. He says he believes that Allen had returned to baseline by May 2, 2023.

He says he continued haldol after Allen was no longer in psychosis because he did not want it to ‘re-occur.’ he says he never again had to have an emergency meeting for Allen after the first meeting in April of 2023.

At 2:10 p.m. Rozzi begins again. Martin tells the jury there was not anything to communicate that Allen couldn’t have communicated spontaneously on June 6, 2023.

At 2:13 p.m. the jury asked questions:

1. Did the oral haldol continue after June 20, 2023? Martin answers yes.
2. What time did you meet with Allen on June 20, 2023? Martin says early in the morning.
3. Based on the video, could this presentation be consistent with faking? Martin says no.
4. Is it possible for Allen to slip in and out of psychosis in a 24-hour period? Martin says yes

At 2:15 p.m. the state says it has no other rebuttal witnesses. Gull tells the jury “you have now heard all arguments in this case.”

The jury exits the court room at 2:16 p.m. Defense attorney Andrew Baldwin revisits jury instructions wanting to add a statement of confessions. The state objects. The defense withdraws the request.

Baldwin again brings up an offer of proof involving a man named Elvis Fields, who is connected to the defense’s Odinism defense. The state says this does not matter because the defense has rested.

Baldwin says he wants Fields addressed because he did not respond to a subpoena. Judge Gull says she already ruled he would not testify.

Court is in recess at 2:27 p.m.

12:43 p.m.: Richard Allen’s psychosis

At 10:25 a.m., court went back into session and both sides approached the bench — the jury had not returned to the courtroom.

At 10:52 a.m., court went back into session and the prosecution said their witness was ready to testify.

The jury was seated at 11 a.m.

Diener called their witness, Breann Wilber to the stand.

Diener asked Wilber if she had a Snapchat photo of the Freedom Bridge taken on Feb. 13, 2017.

Wilber said she did. The photo was introduced as state’s exhibit #318.

Defense attorney Andrew Baldwin asked when Wilber gave Diener the bridge photo.

Wilber said she didn’t know exactly when she supplied the photo, but it was before her testimony earlier in the trial.

The photo, taken in a sequence with others, indicates Wilber arrived at the bridge at 12:25 p.m., according to News 8’s Kyla Russell.

Wilber said she walked from Freedom Bridge to the Monon High Bridge but did not see “Bridge Guy” or Abby and Libby on her walk.

Baldwin said Wilber had a good memory and asked her about remembering details of Feb. 13, 2017.

Diener interjected and said Wilber was interviewed shortly after the murders.

A short time later, Wilber was allowed to step down.

Next to testify is Brian Harshman, the Westville correctional officer who listened to Allen’s phone calls from jail.

He confirmed that Richard Allen has been in a one-man cell at Westville, Wabash, and Cass County.

Harshman said that Allen has a chair in his cell in Cass County and that the cell is bigger than the one at Westville was.

He told the court that there is less human interaction in Cass County than in Westville and that Allen has no “neighbors.”

Harshman also said that Richard Allen threatened the staff at Cass County.

Dr. John Martin, a licensed psychiatrist with 40+ years of experience in corrections, was next to testify.

Martin said he started working at Westville as third-party contractor in Feb. 2022 and began seeing Allen that November.

“He was stable. He had a history of depression but did not seem depressed,” Martin told the court.

Three weeks later, the doctor said, Allen seemed “fine” again. When they met on Nov. 24, 2023, sixteen days after their first session, Allen signed a consent form for Prozac.

He told the court he would prescribe Allen medication and knew Allen was on Prozac before arriving at Westville. He said he also had a record of when Allen took his medication because staff members would initial a certain log if he was successful.

Martin said he would type up notes on his computer after meeting with Allen and that the computer system was secure — no one else had access.

At this point, the state introduced two exhibits, including records of medications ordered for Richard Allen and medication logs signed by staff.

Martin said Allen was kept in “what could be referred to as solitary confinement; others say ‘one man cell.’”

He added that solitary confinement has a “punitive reason,” while a one-man cell does not.

“Mr. Allen had not done anything wrong, and yet he was being treated as though he had, or at least that’s what he could have felt,” Martin told the court.

He said that the prison had a responsibility to keep him safe and there were “many meetings” to ‘make life more comfortable” for Allen.

Martin said he knew Allen had suicide companions and had expressed suicidal interests. He also knew that Allen was sometimes moved to be seen by himself or Dr. Wala.

He testified that he saw Allen again in April 2023 after he got a “phone call that prompted him to visit Allen unplanned.”

Martin said he saw Allen lying naked on a cell mattress with feces smeared on his body.

He told prison staff he needed to see Allen and “they practically dragged him” to a shower cell and gave him a gown, Martin recalled.

Martin said it was at this point he decided Allen was “psychotic” and that in order to treat Allen’s psychosis, he had to put him on an antipsychotic medication.

Martin said he wanted to put Allen on Haldol (Haloperidol), an antipsychotic drug commonly used to treat schizophrenia, but Allen’s mental state was such that he could not consent to treatment.

In order to give him Haldol injections without consent, Martin called Dr. Hayes, a regional psychologist with his contractor, asked for an emergency meeting with 3 psychologists.

Martin said all three psychologists agreed Richard Allen was psychotic and he proceeded with the first treatment on April 14, 2023.

He testified that he gave Allen 5 milligrams of short-acting Haldol and that the maximum dose is 100 mg.

Martin said he administered such a small dose because he wanted to make sure Allen didn’t have a reaction.

After that, Allen was injected with a 15 mg dose of long-acting Haldol one every four weeks, with the first dose administered on April 18, 2023.

Martin said he saw Allen one week later and that Allen was “still psychotic” but there was “some improvement.”

He described the “improvement” as there being no evidence of smearing feces and that Allen would recognize him but he did not know the date.

Martin told the court that Allen knew he was in prison and asked for his wife and Taco Bell. There was also improvement in Allen’s coherence, eating and sleeping.

He said that he believed April 13 was the height of Allen’s psychosis.

Martin said he saw Allen several times in May, and each time, Allen was “coherent” and there was “no evidence” of psychosis By the end of the month, Allen was eating meals and had spoken to his wife.

On June 20, Allen had gone seven weeks without showing signs of psychosis and Martin decided to stop the Haldol injections.

Martin said Allen told him that day, “I would like to apologize to the families of my victims.”

He told the court Allen was “not psychotic” at the time of the statement.

The state finished its questions at 12:25 p.m. and the court adjourned for lunch until 1:15 p.m.

9:36 a.m.: Defense rests their case

News 8’s Kyla Russell confirmed the defense rested their case Wednesday morning.

The defense only took six days to call forward over 20 witnesses to present their case, nearly half as many as the prosecution.

At 9:07 a.m., just after the jury entered the courtroom, Russell reports defense attorney Brad Rozzi immediately said, “Your Honor, the defense rests.”

State prosecutor Nick McLeland requested a sidebar with Special Judge Fran Gull. Gull said several witnesses weren’t available yet so she dismissed the jury for a quick break.

She then said she wanted to set jury instructions with the attorneys, including relating to the defendant not testifying and prior inconsistent statements.

It was noted that Richard Allen will not testify.

The defense left to discuss the instructions in private, and returned to the courtroom around 9:50 a.m. The courtroom awaited their return in total silence.

McLeland chimed in and said the state had no objections to the instruction as proposed, but defense attorney Andrew Baldwin drew attention to instruction regarding if Richard Allen testified or not. The pool reporter noted that instructions about jurors not drawing inferences out of absence of testimony is different from passages he’d seen before but he “accepts the modified language.”

Rozzi asked for time until the afternoon to “finalize instructions relating to jurors judging credibility of Allen’s incriminating statements,” whether they were voluntary or involuntary.

Gull said she planned to give the jurors instructions before closing statements and will limit the argument lengths to 2- 2.5 hours. “Two hours is a long time for folks to be sitting in these really uncomfortable chairs,” Gull said. The judge also told the attorneys if they go over the time, she “will kindly ask them to stop.”

Court was in recess at 10 a.m.

The next step in the trial is closing arguments from the prosecution and defense, then it will turn to the jury to make final decisions.

9 a.m.: Court in session for Wednesday

Brief summary of Day 16 in the Delphi Murders trial

Tuesday’s first testimony came from Betsey Blair, a witness who told police she saw “Bridge Guy” on the Monon High Bridge in Delphi. She said she went to the trails two times on Feb. 13, 2017, but left for good around 2:15 p.m. She told the jury she left through the Mears entrance, turned left, and saw one vehicle in the CPS lot. It was backed into the parking spot and not a bright color, according to Blair.

She told the defense she only saw the side of the vehicle and couldn’t tell if it was a hatchback like Richard Allen’s vehicle. After a brief cross examination, Blair told the jury the CPS building was abandoned so it couldn’t have belonged to an employee or someone inside.

Next on the stand was Dr. Stuart Grassian. Grassian is Harvard-educated and has been on faculty at the Harvard University School of Medicine for 25 years. He said he has a special interest in what solitary confinement does to someone’s mental health. He has interviewed hundreds of people in those conditions.

Grassian reviewed reports from Allen’s psychologist in Westville, Dr. Monica Wala, and said Allen met the requirements for slipping into psychosis and given his environment and lack of mental stimulus. He also said solitary confinement can cause behaviors noted from Allen, like smearing feces and acting out sexually. He also said the conditions can always impact memory and define the difference between solitary and protective custody. He later told the jury that a normal person could absolutely become psychotic after being in solitary confinement for more than 6 months.

Grassian left the stand and the defense called Dr. Eric Warren, a toolmark specialist based out of Memphis.

He said he was asked by the defense to review toolmark conclusions made by Melissa Oberg, a former firearms analyst who examined the bullet found by Libby and Abby’s bodies and Richard Allen’s gun. He described the different characteristics of a bullet, including class, subclass, and individual, and explained the difference between cycling and firing a bullet.

Warren then confirmed that Oberg used a fired round to compare the cycled round to, which he said wasn’t right as it isn’t repeatable and reproducible, and also produce different markings on the cartridge.

Prosecutor James Luttrell began his cross examination, asking if Warren only looking at the report and photos and not physical evidence would impact his ability to draw conclusions. But Warren disagreed.

He said Oberg didn’t examine the actual extractor in the gun to determine if there were potential subclass characteristics.

Defense attorney Brad Rozzi then showed Warren a picture of triangular marks on the cartridge, which are ejector marks. He says those were “hallmark of subclass characteristics.”

After a short break, Rozzi continued questioning Warren, asking about characteristics of firearms, including force of the slide, if there was research on slide integrity over time, and the quality of the Sig Sauer. He said the slide force was a “blueprint characteristic” and the Sig Sauer should maintain integrity over time.

Luttrell began his cross-examination, asking Warren about cartridge characteristics. After back-and-forth about cartridges, where Luttrell was “hammering into Warren on why he didn’t request or physically examine the cartridge and gun,” Rozzi asked if Warren wrote a report. He said no, but said he was available to the defense when they wanted to depose him, but he was in Morocco.

The jury asked Warren 16 questions. Here are a few:

• Would individual markings be different depending on who cycles? Warren says, “documentation of Oberg does not support conclusion.”
• What are the chances that the cartridge at the scene matches the test bullets? Warren says, “higher likelihood of guns just in Indiana.”
• Would removing, cleaning, disassembling change individual characteristics of a firearm? Warren says, “No, only if there was some sort of damage.”

The next witness was Stacy Eldridge, an expert in computer information management. She examined Libby German’s cell phone after Indiana State Police’s investigation.

She explained what tools she used to examine the phone, primarily Axiom opposed to ISP’s use of Cellebrite. She told the jury there were three level 6 extractions you can do for pulling data, each of them pulling a different amount of information. Libby’s extraction from early 2017 only covered basic information.

Eldridge said ISP had the capacity to do a full extraction in early 2017, but didn’t until later that year. She said this caused issues and caused the loss of “current power log” data, which stays saved between a phone being turned all the way off and on.

Eldridge says that log can also say if the phone went into airplane mode. She said her priority was figuring out what was going on with the phone at 4:34 a.m. on Feb. 14, 2017 to make the phone receive multiple text messages.

After a brief sidebar from Judge Gull, Eldridge left the witness stand to discuss her report on Libby’s phone. She said she generally agrees with the state expert’s examination, but there are things she disagrees with about Libby’s examination. She didn’t agree with some of the times, texts, calls, and FaceTimes delivered between Feb. 13 – 14.

Eldridge said Libby’s phone last connection time was Feb. 14 at 4:33 a.m. and before that, 5:45 p.m. on Feb. 13, and said there is evidence messages weren’t received during that time period. Some texts did have time stamps, but weren’t received until Feb. 17.

Eldridge said she doesn’t know why the phone did not ping in that time frame, even though it was under Abby’s back and was stationary. She said, “I can only conclude something external happened to the phone,” meaning it could have been moved, blocked by metal or have been blocked from the tower.

She said she now knows that at 5:45 p.m. to 10:32 p.m. on Feb. 13, the phone had wired headphones plugged in.

At 3:09 p.m., prosecutor Nick McLeland starts cross-examination. He asked Eldridge about her training on cell phone extraction. She said this is the first time she has testified about cell phone extraction, other than in July.

She said she mainly focused on the phone’s health data, and also reviewed the Bridge Guy video. She said that the phone wouldn’t have logged movement if it were in a car, and couldn’t find evidence that the phone was turned off. Libby’s phone appeared to be “hopping in and out of service.” She added that phone movement to plug in headphones could have registered as health data, but she didn’t test that, and there could have been a signal blocking on the phone.

The jury asked Eldridge six questions, including if she wrote her own timeline for the cell data, if it could be connected to Libby’s iPad, and if she could review Allen’s location timeline if he was using a phone. She said she didn’t have time to make a timeline, the iPad and phone weren’t synced, and she could track Allen’s timeline if it was available.

The last session Tuesday began with Gull scolding the jury for talking and said she would kick out anyone talking in court.

The final two witnesses were ISP First Sgt. Chris Cecil and ISP Lt. Brian Bunner. The defense asked Cecil to explain an “audio output start,” but he said he didn’t know and also didn’t have the knowledge to explain why a cell phone would or wouldn’t connect to a cell tower.

McLeland began his cross examination, starting by saying he Googled a question the jury asked to Eldridge. They asked if a phone made contact with water, would the phone register it as movement? According to Google, a phone could register water or dirt in the headphone port as having headphones plugged in.

The defense redirects, asking Cecil if he Googles things while conducting a criminal investigation. Cecil said he didn’t and normally looks over peer-reviewed research.

The defense asked, “You and the state have had 7.5 years to research this?”

“That’s correct,” Cecil said.

Brian Bunner came to the stand, and also said he didn’t know what “audio output start” was and didn’t perform any Google searches.

Court adjourned at 4:25 p.m.