The second day of jury selection is underway in the trial of a man charged with killing two teenage girls in Delphi, Indiana, in 2017.
Richard Allen, 52, faces two counts of murder and two counts of felony murder for the killings of Liberty “Libby” German, 14, and Abigail “Abby” Williams, 13.
Prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty. If convicted, Allen could face up to 130 years in prison.
Jury selection began in Fort Wayne on Monday with prosecutors and defense attorneys questioning about 100 of the nearly 300 members of the prospective juror pool.
On the first day of jury selection Monday, 14 jurors, eight women and six men, were selected. Among those chosen are a school counselor, a nurse, a stay-at-home mother, a transportation director, and a seminar professor.
The remainder of the jury is expected to be chosen on Tuesday.
The high-profile trial is anticipated to last at least a month with jurors being transported to Carroll County – more than 100 miles away from where the murders happened – and sequestered throughout the proceedings.
The trial is estimated to cost the state over $4 million.
The Context
In October 2022, Allen, a pharmacy technician from Delphi, was arrested nearly six years after the murders of the teenagers.
A relative dropped the eighth graders off at a hiking trail on February 13, 2017, but they never returned. Their bodies were found the next day in a wooded area near the trail.
Authorities released files from German’s cellphone, which included two blurry photos and an audio clip of a man saying, “down the hill.”
In July 2017, investigators unveiled sketches of the suspect and a brief video showing him on the Monon High Bridge, an abandoned railroad bridge. Allen, who had been interviewed in 2017, told police he was on the trail the day the girls went missing and had seen three females at another bridge.
Following a reinterview on October 13, 2022, police searched Allen’s home, seizing a .40-caliber pistol. Ballistic tests later indicated that an unspent bullet found between the victims’ bodies had been cycled through Allen’s gun.
The case has encountered several delays, stemming from evidence leaks and changes in Allen’s legal representation. The Indiana Supreme Court later reinstated his public defenders after they initially withdrew.
In December 2022, Judge Fran Gull of Allen County Superior Court issued a gag order, preventing public comments on the case, and banned cameras from the courtroom. In August, she permitted prosecutors to introduce evidence of incriminating statements Allen allegedly made to correctional officers, including a recorded phone call in which he reportedly confessed to his wife.
A court filing by Allen’s attorneys claimed the teens’ throats had been cut but prosecutors have not disclosed how they were killed.
This story will be updated with more information on jury selection as it becomes available.
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