Delphi trial: Composite sketches, other unresolved issues before opening statements Friday
Delphi braces for opening statements in the trial of Richard Allen, two years after an arrest more than seven years after Abby Williams and Libby German were murdered near the Monon High Bridge
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DELPHI TRIAL: UNRESOLVED ISSUES BEFORE OPENING STATEMENTS FRIDAY
The murder trial of Richard Allen, a 52-year-old former CVS clerk charged in 2022 in the killings of Delphi teens Abby Williams and Liberty German, starts in earnest Friday morning with a couple of key details still unsettled.
On Thursday, after swearing in 16 jurors from Allen County and sending them 90 miles to Delphi, Judge Fran Gull heard arguments about the prosecution’s effort to block use of police sketches – ones that were central to the search of the “Bridge Guy” murder suspect during a 5½-year investigation – and eliminate a witness the defense plans to use to question the reliability of tests on an unspent bullet found near the girls’ bodies near the Monon High Bridge Trail on Feb. 14, 2017.
Here were a few of the moments Thursday in the Allen County Courthouse, along with the scene at Carroll Circuit Court.
About the ‘Bridge Guy’ sketches: On the first day of jury selection Monday, Prosecutor Nick McLeland filed a motion to block Richard Allen’s defense team from referring to pair of composite police sketches investigators used for years to generate tips after the 2017 murders.
Stacey Diener, part of the prosecution team, argued Thursday that prosecutors believed the sketches would be part of the opening statements by the defense on Friday. Diener said the prosecution didn’t plan to bring the sketches – one released four months after the murders in 2017, the second in 2019 – into the trial or to call either of the witnesses who helped forensic artists pull together the facial features to testify. Diener said investigators also had three other sketches never released to the public, used as a tool for investigators only.
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