Delphi murder case hearing canceled suddenly without explanation
As families of Abby and Libby waited outside courtroom for a public portion of a hearing in Richard Allen’s murder case, sheriff said the hearing was off. Plus, United Way sets a $4.6M goal for 2024
Thanks to this edition’s sponsors The Bindery Artist Studios and LaLa Gallery, presenting the Indiana Makers Market "Summer Pop-Up.” Mark your calendar for Saturday, Aug. 31, for an event that features handpicked makers from all over the state to showcase their handmade items for sale in beautiful downtown Lafayette. The event is free to attend, set up between Fifth and Sixth streets on Ferry Street from 8 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Aug. 31.
HEARING IN DELPHI MURDER CASE CANCELED SUDDENLY WITHOUT EXPLANATION
The first of a pair of status hearings in the case against Richard Allen, accused in the 2017 murders of Delphi eighth-graders Abby Williams and Libby German, happened behind closed courtroom doors Friday afternoon.
A little over a half-hour into it, Carroll County Sheriff Tony Liggett emerged from Carroll Circuit Court and announced to those milling on the third-floor rotunda that the second hearing, expected to be done in open court, would not happen has scheduled.
“That’s the best I can tell you,” Liggett told family members of the girls and Allen, as well as more than a dozen members of the media, detectives and Indiana State Police Superintendent Doug Carter.
Prosecutors and victim advocates escorted the extended families of Abby and Libby into the neighboring Carroll Superior Court for an update.
Asked what had happened during the first hearing, Brad Rozzi, one of Allen’s defense attorneys, simply said, “Nothing.” He then met briefly with Allen’s wife and family before walking them downstairs at the courthouse for a private discussion.
Judge Fran Gull left the courthouse without comment about 15 minutes later.
Gull scheduled the status hearing a little over a week ago, without posting what would be discussed. In the closing minutes of three days of pretrial hearings July 30-Aug 1, including a nearly 12-hour third day, Allen's attorneys, the prosecutor and judge talked about additional matters at the bench before Gull said she'd set a hearing in the coming weeks.
Still pending are two motions heard July 31 and Aug. 1, each of which are pivotal in the case against Allen, a 51-year-old former CVS clerk from Delphi.
In one, his attorneys have asked to toss what investigators contend were more than 60 confessions. They’ve argued that conditions imposed by forcing Allen into a maximum security, “prison inside a prison” setting at Westville Correctional Facility to await trial broke him physically and mentally, making the confessions suspect.
The other one deals with whether Prosecutor Nick McLeland can block the use of some words and names, including Odinism, cult or ritualistic killing and names of people central to a third-party theories Rozzi and Baldwin have been building to raise doubts about whether Allen killed Abby and Libby.
For more on arguments from that week in court and more about the case and charges against Allen, check this coverage:
About the case and the arrest: Abby Williams and Libby German, eighth-graders at Delphi Community Middle School, were killed Feb. 13, 2017, while on the town’s Monon High Bridge Trail. That day, Libby and Abby had taken advantage of a day off school and an unseasonably warm, winter afternoon to hike Delphi’s trails, taking off near the Freedom Bridge over Indiana 25/Hoosier Heartland Highway. When the girls didn’t show up that evening to meet their ride home, family and friends combed Delphi’s popular trail system, crossed an abandoned rail trestle called Monon High Bridge and brought in people to walk the woods that lined Deer Creek. The next morning, Feb. 14, 2017, a group of volunteers in a search party found the girls’ bodies, about a half-mile upstream from the Monon High Bridge.
Allen was charged in late October 2022, a big turn in a case that had gone unsolved for 5½ years and that hadn’t seen an arrest in that time. Investigators tied Allen to the scene after revisiting an interview with him in the days after the murders, when he told police he’d been on the trail that day, going to look at fish from the bridge, but had not seen the girls. Investigators say witness descriptions put Allen there. They also pointed to the discovery of an unspent bullet that they say they found near the girls’ bodies in February 2017 and that matched a handgun Allen owned, according to a probable cause affidavit made public months ago.
Court documents laid out that investigators believed Allen was the man shown in Libby German’s cellphone footage walking across the Monon High Bridge and kidnapping the girls, telling them, “Guys … down the hill,” and leading them to where their murders occurred near Deer Creek. Court documents indicate that investigators “believe they hear the sound of a gun being cycled and one of the victims mentioning ‘gun.’”
Allen’s attorneys have argued in court and in court documents that investigators ignored the possibility that a group of others, involved in a Norse religion ritualistic sacrifice, were involved in the girls’ murders.
Allen has been held without bond since his arrest in October 2022.
Sidenote … courthouse empties as Bacon Fest prep starts: Outside the Carroll County Courthouse Friday afternoon, barriers and assorted equipment was being dropped off, as setup started for Saturday’s Indiana Bacon Festival. Here’s an entry from this week’s edition of Tim’s Picks with the details:
Indiana Bacon Festival, 2:30-11 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 24, downtown Delphi — While bacon is always the headliner at the Indiana Bacon Festival, opening for the pork product will be an eclectic mix of live bands at the 11th annual event. Lou Gramm, the original voice of Foreigner, will always be the “Juke Box Hero” as he will surely lead his band through his hits from the 1970s and ’80s — “Urgent,” “I Want to Know What Love Is,” “Waiting for a Girl Like You” and many more. Also between the bacon eating contest, barbecue and beer, you will hear Cleveland’s top Journey tribute band, Escape, as well as The Indigos and Young Kingdom, rock bands from Indianapolis. $10 in advance, $20 day at the gate, children under 12 free. Tickets.
UNITED WAY SETS $4.6M GOAL FOR 2024 CAMPAIGN
United Way of Greater Lafayette opened its 2024 campaign Thursday, announcing a $4.6 million goal during a launch at Junior Achievement at the Lafayette Family YMCA.
The goal is up from the $4.5 million raise in the 2023 campaign, when things came up short of a $4.75 million goal.
“Each year the United Way staff, funded partners, campaign volunteers, employee campaign coordinators and the campaign chair give everything they have to deliver the results this community needs," Andrew Ball, co-CEO at Henriott Group and chair of the 101st United Way campaign, said. “Yet, it's still not enough. Maybe it won't ever be enough, but if there is a community out there that can figure it out, I believe it's right here in Greater Lafayette.”
The United Way helps support these agencies: The American Red Cross, The Arc Tippecanoe County, Bauer Family Resources, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Boy Scouts of America Sagamore Council, Lyn Treece Boys & Girls Club, Family Promise of Greater Lafayette, Food Finders Food Bank, Girl Scouts of Central Indiana, Hanna Community Center, Junior Achievement of Northern Indiana, Lafayette Adult Resource Academy, Legal Aid Corp. of Tippecanoe County, LTHC Homeless Services, Mental Health America-Wabash Valley Region, NAMI West Central Indiana, Riggs Community Health Center, Right Steps Child Development Centers, The Salvation Army, Tippecanoe Senior Services, Lafayette Family YMCA, Heartford House, HomesteadCS, Willowstone Family Services, Wabash Center and YWCA Greater Lafayette.
To support the 2024 campaign, go to www.uwlafayette.org/donate.
For information about lining up a company United Way drive, check www.uwlafayette.org or contact unitedway@uwlafayette.org.
Thanks, again, to today’s sponsors The Bindery Artist Studios and LaLa Gallery, presenting the Indiana Makers Market "Summer Pop-Up.” on Saturday, Aug. 31, in downtown Lafayette. Details here.
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Tips, story ideas? I’m at davebangert1@gmail.com.