Man convicted of killing Indiana teens wants new trial and blames confessions under psychosis

Darron Cummings/AP/File

An attorney for a man serving 130 years in prison for killing two teen girls in Indiana said police were so determined to find him guilty they used confessions gathered while he suffered from psychosis and withheld from trial a witness sketch that looked nothing like him.

Jurors convicted Richard Allen of murder in 2024 in the deaths of Abigail Williams, 13, and Liberty German, 14, known as Abby and Libby. The case in the tiny town of Delphi went unsolved for more than five years before Allen was arrested, becoming a magnet for true-crime enthusiasts.

After Allen told investigators he had been on the trail near where the girls died, authorities found any way they could to convict him and make sure no evidence surfaced that any other man was on that walkway, attorney Mark Leeman told a three-judge panel of the Indiana Court of Appeals on Monday.

“We live in a world where one or two things happen here,” Leeman said. “A pharmacy tech with no criminal history goes out for a walk to watch a stock ticker and look at fish and decides to gruesomely murder two girls. Or, we live in a world where the police through confirmation bias failed to find the right guy.”

The three judges handling the appeal questioned why the trial judge didn’t allow the defense to call an expert to testify that it looked like the girls were killed by unknown participants in a pagan ritual. They also asked why a police sketch of someone seen near the trail was omitted from trial, noting that the sketch looked nothing like Allen.

The panel also questioned why a defense expert wasn’t allowed to question whether marks on an unfired bullet can be traced to a specific gun, as prosecutors had asserted. And given that videos of Allen’s odd behavior in prison were shown to jurors, the appeals judges wanted to know why the trial judge did not allow the audio to be played as well, audio in which Allen claimed to be a king and that he had started World War III.

But the judges also asked the state several times if the decisions were harmless and whether the jury would have convicted Allen anyway even if the trial decisions being weighed had gone his way.

Indiana Deputy Attorney General Ellen Meilaender said Allen provided the strongest evidence himself when he told police before he was arrested that he was on the trail, but said he didn’t see the girls.

“Allen denied seeing Abby and Libby there, even though the timeline evidence indisputably shows he must have done so, which was consciousness of guilt,” Meilaender said.

The judges will rule at a later date.

The girls’ bodies were found down a steep hill from an abandoned railroad trestle on a hiking trail just outside of Delphi on February 13, 2017. The eighth graders were dropped off and never made it to their pickup point.

The teens’ throats were cut, and a few branches were scattered over their bodies. One was found nude while the other was wearing the first victim’s clothes. There was no evidence they had been sexually assaulted.

One of the girls took a brief video of a suspicious man nearby saying, “Down the hill.”

Prosecutors said Allen was armed with a gun and forced the girls off the hiking trail. They said he confessed to planning to rape them before a passing van made him change his mind and kill them. An expert testified an unspent bullet found between the teens’ bodies “had been cycled through” Allen’s handgun.

Defense lawyers at his trial said no witness explicitly identified Allen as the man seen near the trail the afternoon the girls went missing. They also said no fingerprint, DNA or forensic evidence linked Allen to the murder scene. They wanted to call an expert to dispute that guns can mark bullets in unique ways, but weren’t allowed.

Allen was held in solitary confinement while awaiting trial. He denied killing the girls for months, but his attorneys said mental stress from isolation led to a steep psychological decline. Eventually, his mental state became so bad he convinced himself he killed the girls and confessed several times, his lawyers said.

Prosecutors said the statements coincided with Allen seeing evidence in the case including the conditions of the teens’ bodies.

Allen’s trial attorneys wanted to put an expert witness on the stand to testify the killings appeared to be a ritual sacrifice by people who worshipped Odin, the king of the gods in Norse mythology.

The expert was expected to say the positioning of the bodies, the branches on the remains, the outdoor location of the crime and knife wounds to the victims all were indications of pagan rituals.

Prosecutors said the expert had limited examples and that defense lawyers shouldn’t be able to present just any theory without evidence to back it up. They said it would have turned the trial into a sideshow.

达伦·卡明斯/美联社/档案照片

一名男子因在印第安纳州杀害两名少女而被判处 130 年监禁，他的律师表示，警方一心想让他有罪，于是使用了他在精神病发作期间收集的供词，并在审判中隐瞒了一张与他长相完全不像的证人素描。

2024年，陪审团裁定理查德·艾伦谋杀罪名成立，他杀害了13岁的阿比盖尔·威廉姆斯和14岁的莉伯蒂·格曼，两人分别被称为艾比和莉比。这起发生在德尔菲小镇的案件悬而未决五年多，直到艾伦被捕，才引起了众多犯罪爱好者的关注。

周一，律师马克·利曼告诉印第安纳州上诉法院的三名法官小组，艾伦告诉调查人员，他曾在女孩们死亡地点附近的小路上出现过，之后当局想方设法给他定罪，并确保没有证据表明有其他男人出现在那条小路上。

“我们生活在一个只有两种情况的世界里，”利曼说。“一个没有犯罪记录的药剂师助理出门散步，看看股票行情，看看鱼，结果却残忍地杀害了两个女孩。或者，我们生活在一个警察因为确认偏误而错失真凶的世界里。”

负责上诉的三名法官质疑，为何原审法官不允许辩方传唤专家作证，证明女孩们似乎是被身份不明的异教仪式参与者杀害的。他们还质疑，为何警方绘制的在小路附近出现的嫌疑人画像被排除在庭审之外，并指出该画像与艾伦的相貌完全不符。

陪审团还质疑，为何不允许辩方专家质疑未击发子弹上的痕迹是否能追溯到特定枪支，正如检方所声称的那样。鉴于陪审团已观看了艾伦在狱中行为怪异的视频，上诉法官想知道，为何审判法官不允许播放艾伦自称国王并发动第三次世界大战的录音。

但法官们也多次询问州政府，这些决定是否无害，以及即使正在权衡的审判决定对艾伦有利，陪审团是否仍然会判他有罪。

印第安纳州副检察长艾伦·梅兰德表示，艾伦在被捕前告诉警方，他当时正在小路上，但没有看到女孩们，这提供了最有力的证据。

“艾伦否认在那里见过艾比和莉比，尽管时间线证据无可辩驳地表明他肯定见过，这说明他有罪，”梅兰德说。

法官们将在稍后日期作出裁决。

2017 年 2 月 13 日，在德尔菲郊外一条远足小径上，一座废弃铁路桥下陡峭的山坡上，发现了两名女孩的遗体。这两名八年级学生被送到那里后，再也没有到达接送地点。

两名青少年的喉咙被割开，尸体上散落着几根树枝。其中一人被发现时全身赤裸，另一人则穿着第一名受害者的衣服。没有证据表明他们曾遭受性侵犯。

其中一个女孩拍摄了一段视频，视频中附近一个可疑男子说：“下山。”

检方称，艾伦当时携带枪支，强迫两名女孩离开徒步小径。他们表示，艾伦承认原本计划强奸她们，但一辆路过的货车让他改变主意，最终杀害了她们。一位专家作证称，在两名少女尸体之间发现的一颗未击发的子弹“曾被艾伦的手枪发射过”。

辩护律师在庭审中表示，没有证人明确指认艾伦就是女孩失踪当天下午在小径附近出现的男子。他们还表示，没有指纹、DNA或法医证据将艾伦与谋杀现场联系起来。他们原本想传唤一位专家来反驳枪支会在子弹上留下独特痕迹的说法，但被拒绝了。

艾伦在候审期间被单独监禁。他数月来一直否认杀害女孩，但他的律师表示，隔离造成的精神压力导致他心理状况急剧恶化。最终，他的精神状态恶化到他确信自己杀害了女孩，并多次认罪，他的律师说道。

检察官表示，这些声明与艾伦看到案件证据（包括青少年尸体的状况）的时间相吻合。

艾伦的辩护律师希望传唤一位专家证人出庭作证，证明这些杀戮似乎是崇拜北欧神话中众神之王奥丁的人们进行的祭祀仪式。

专家预计会指出，尸体的摆放位置、遗骸上的树枝、犯罪地点在室外以及受害者身上的刀伤，都表明这是异教仪式。

检方表示，这位专家提供的案例有限，辩方律师不应在没有任何证据支持的情况下随意提出任何理论。他们认为，这样做会将审判变成一场闹剧。