INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — New court filings in the Delphi murders trial could have a big impact on the trial that is quickly approaching in May.

Richard Allen, 51, of Delphi, was arrested on Oct. 28, 2022, for the February 2017 murders of 13-year-old Abigail “Abby” Williams and 14-year-old Liberty “Libby” German near the Monon High Bridge in Delphi.

In the most recent court filings, Allen’s attorney’s are trying to get specific information thrown out of this case. The most important: Allen confessing to killing the teen girls to several people over the span of months.

Kevin Greenlee is co-host of The Murder Sheet podcast, which has been closely following the case. He said, “It’s hard to reconcile someone being factually innocent with them going around and insisting that he is guilty. So, it would be really interesting to see how this plays out and what kind of explanation they can come up with. Not only for the confession of the murders, but also for him proclaiming himself basically to be a child molester.”

Recent court filings show Allen confessed to his wife over the phone, to fellow inmates at the Westville Correctional facility, and to guards at the facility.

Normally, people are not held inside a prison until after they are convicted.

The defense is arguing that extreme conditions inside the prison helped contribute to a psychosis, which is when the confessions happened.

Allen’s attorneys had a mental health expert evaluate him. About that expert, Greenlee said, “I assume her testimony would be a big part of whatever hearing ultimately occurs to decide this.”

The defense is arguing the confessions were coerced out of Allen.

Aine Cain, co-host of The Murder Sheet podcast, said, “We’re all aware now that wrongful confessions, or inaccurate confessions, or coerced confessions can absolutely happen, and so I think we’ll have to scrutinize what are the circumstances of some of these confessions.”

In a separate filing, Allen’s attorneys are also asking the judge to throw out the second interrogation of Allen in 2022. The attorneys say Allen’s constitutional rights were violated because he was not properly read his Miranda rights.

Cain said, “It seems like the big piece of information that police got from this talk was that he has not loaned his gun out to other people, so it’s basically saying that ‘No one else could have borrowed my gun and done something with it out in the woods.’ If the state loses this, if it gets suppressed, I don’t know if there’s going to be a huge impact, but I guess we’ll have to wait and see. Anytime you have the defense able to suppress evidence in a case that’s a win for the defense.”

Outside of these most recent filings, Special Judge Fran Gull from Allen County has yet to rule on whether she will find Allen’s attorneys in contempt of court because of leaked crime scene photos of the girls that came from the defense team’s office last October.

Allen’s trial is set to begin May 13 in Delphi. Jurors from Allen County will hear the case. The trial is scheduled to last through May 31.