Delphi trial, Day 11: ‘I killed Abby and Libby’
Reports of confessions kept rolling Wednesday in the state’s case, as a prison psychologist testifies about several times Richard Allen told her about how he killed the girls in 2017.
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DELPHI MURDERS TRIAL, DAY 11: ‘I KILLED ABBY AND LIBBY’
Day 11 in the Delphi murders trial continued to catalog a string of confessions Richard Allen made during spring 2023, with the prison psychologist who treated the 52-year-old Delphi man testifying Wednesday about times he told about killing teens Abby Williams and Libby German, along with details about why and how he did it.
Dr. Monica Wala, who was lead psychologist at Westville Correction Facility while Allen was there after his October 2022 arrest, testified that Allen told her several times over the course of two months that he killed the girls.
Each time, Wala testified, Allen instigated the details about his case, which she said she had encouraged him to save for his lawyers rather than his psychologist. She testified that the first time he confessed to her, on April 5, 2023, Allen was calm and “did it in an almost straightforward manner.” Another time a month later, Allen “almost seemed relieved,” Wala testified.
Wala also testified that what she called “bizarre behaviors” that were escalating during that period seemed at times to be exaggerated for effect as much as they might have signaled Allen’s deteriorating mental condition while being held in solitary conditions while awaiting the trial – a key to the defense team’s attempts to discredit the pile of confessions collected in the case.
Feigning or not, Wala testified, Allen needed to be on constant suicide watch during much of his time in Westville. She also testified that there came a time when prison officials decided that his disjointed thoughts and unstable actions, such as kicking the walls, covering himself in feces and eating from the toilet mounted on his cell wall required Allen to be given involuntary injections of psychotropic medication.
Wala’s testimony came on the heels of testimony Tuesday from a former warden at Westville Correctional Facility who said Allen confessed the crime to him two times face to face and other times through notes. Eight guards – seven from Westville and one from Wabash Valley and most of whom were assigned as “suicide companions” to keep watch on Allen’s cell – also testified that they logged times he’d confessed in some way to the crime.
She said Allen told her on April 5, 2023, that Allen told her, “I killed Abby and Libby.”
Wala said Allen was tearful as he told her that his intentions “were sexual in nature.” She said he told her than he thought the girls were 18 or 19, but that they could have been as young as 11. (Abby Williams was 13. Libby German was 14.) She said he told her that he wanted to be sure the girls were dead at the scene “so they wouldn’t suffer” when he left. Wala said Allen told her he hoped he could apologize to girls’ families.
Wala said Allen also told her at the time that he was slipping into forgetfulness and might not remember what he said the next day. At one point, Allen asked her whether he’d signed anything related to a confession.
Wala said Allen told her again on May 2, 2023, that he’d killed Abby and Libby. She also testified that Allen told her that he’d killed his family, a friend and mentioned “starting World War III.” Asked about his comment about killing his family and friends, Wala testified: “I took that more as a metaphor for the situation.”
Wala testified that Allen tried to call his wife, Kathy, on May 3, 2023, but she didn’t pick up. Wala said Allen then laid a version for her of what happened Feb. 13, 2017: He’d gone to his mom’s house near Peru that morning but decided not to stay for lunch. He bought a six-pack of beer on the way home and drank three. He bundled up and went to the Monon High Bridge Trail in Delphi. He saw Abby and Libby and followed them to the Monon High Bridge. He said he did something with his gun that made an unspent cartridge come out, later found by police at the crime scene. Wala said he told her he intended to rape the girls. But he saw a van nearby, which scared him and stopped that plan. He cut Abby and Libby’s necks and made sure they were dead. He covered them with some branches. And he left to continue living his life.
Wala testified that on May 10, 2023, a day after she said Allen told her that he wanted to sign a confession, she arranged access to a phone for Allen to use because he’d broken a prison-issue tablet. Wala testified that she left the room, and when she came back, Allen said he wanted to call his wife again. Wala testified that Allen asked her to stay, telling her, “I want you to hear this so you understand.”
Wala testified that Allen told his wife that he didn’t believe he’d see her again and mentioned the electric chair. Wala said it appeared that his wife told him to stop talking and hung up.
“She doesn’t believe me,” Wala said Allen told her. “He said, ‘I didn’t do everything thing I said I did, but I killed Abby and Libby.’”
Stacey Diener, part of the prosecution team, asked whether Allen elaborated about the “everything I said I did” part. Wala said that he hadn’t.
Wala testified that Allen’s confessions and ramp-up, bizarre behavior came about the time he received a box of discovery for his case from his attorneys. Wala testified that she saw papers scattered on the floor of his cell. What specifically was in it wasn’t said in court Wednesday, though defense attorney Brad Rozzi said during cross-examination that it would have included the evidence and details that could come up in trial.
Rozzi used his time with Wala to hammer away at conditions Allen faced for months at Westville. Allen was sent by a safekeeping order by Carroll County to be assigned to a solitary, 12-by-8-foot cell in a prison block intended for offenders put there for behavior violations. Rozzi came back frequently to Allen’s history of anxiety and depression.
Rozzi asked: “Was Richard Allen a fragile man?”
“He was,” Wala said.
Complicating the testimony for Wala was her interest in true crime podcasts, including those revolving around the Delphi murders and Richard Allen’s arrest.
During testimony during a pretrial hearing in Allen’s case in July, Wala said she’d had been following the Delphi murders case in recent years. And since Allen’s arrest, she’d made a side trek on a trip from Indianapolis to Chicago to see the Monon High Bridge in Delphi and listened to podcasts about the case on her 1½-hour commute to work. During that hearing in the summer, Rozzi presented a Facebook post where Wala contributed the names of her Delphi podcast recommendations. Wala also admitted on the stand to checking prison records to look up subjects in other cases that have had tangential ties to the murders of Abby and Libby.
Wala testified Wednesday that she wasn’t allowed back at Westville after that testimony. As she did in July, Wala that her true crime hobby hadn’t affected her treatment recommendations and care for Allen.
When Rozzi asked whether she’d crossed an ethical line by getting involved with Allen’s case, she said it was a gray area. Diener asked her about her conversations with Allen. Wala said she encouraged Allen not to talk about the case, for fear that word would get out into the general population and Westville and then potentially to family and friends outside the prison.
Based on her podcast rotation, Wala testified, “I think I told him he had supporters out there and to maintain hope.”
ABOUT THAT FORD FOCUS ON COUNTY ROAD 300 NORTH: Last week, Steve Mullin – former Delphi police chief and now an investigator for the Carroll County prosecutor – testified about a car matching a black 2016 Ford Focus SE captured by a security camera at the Hoosier Harvestore on County Road 300 North, near an entrance to the Monon High Bridge Trail, the day of the murders. Mullin said since that testimony, he asked for a list of black Ford Focus SE models registered in 2016 and 2017 in Carroll and surrounding counties. Of the 31 black Ford Focus vehicles owned in those counties, one SE model was registered in Carroll County at the time. Mullin said it was registered to Richard Allen.
Jennifer Auger, an attorney on the defense team, asked whether the Monon High Bridge Trail had a restriction to residents who live in Carroll County or surrounding counties. Mullin said there was no restriction. She asked whether Mullin could see on the security footage that could see the letters “SE” on the car on the road that day. Mullin said he couldn’t.
A NEIGHBOR AND HIS VAN: Brad Weber, a Delphi resident who lives just southeast of the south end of the Monon High Bridge, testified that he owned a Ford Econovan that he drove to and from his shift at the Subaru of Indiana Automotive plant in Lafayette. (The testimony came after Wala’s about Allen confessing to her about seeing a van the day of the murders.) Weber testified that he got off his shift at 2:02 p.m. Feb. 13, 2017, and drove home. He said it took 20 to 25 minutes to get home.
Libby German shot a final video – the one capturing the image and voice of a suspect known as Bridge Guy – at the southwest end of the Monon High Bridge at 2:13 p.m. Feb. 13, 2017.
Andrew Baldwin, one of Allen’s attorneys, asked Weber whether he’d told police that he’d made stop to service some ATM machines he owns on the way home that day. Weber said that wasn’t true.
For good measure, Baldwin handed Weber a subpoena before he was excused from the stand. Sounds like we’ll hear from him again after the state rests its case.
WHAT’S NEXT: Prosecutor Nick McLeland told Judge Fran Gull to expect two hours of audio, followed by testimony Thursday. He didn’t specify what. During a July hearing, Indiana State Police Detective Brian Harshman testified that investigators had collected more than 60 times Allen had implicated himself in the crime, including during calls made from the prison. Harshman hasn’t been called, yet, to testify about those recordings.
OF NOTE: TV crime show host Nancy Grace was among those in line to get public seats Wednesday in Carroll Circuit Court.
MORE COVERAGE:
Day 10: Interrogation denials and confessions in a state prison
Day 9: DNA doesn’t come back to Richard Allen, state witness says
Day 7: How investigation tied a bullet found at scene to Richard Allen’s gun
Day 6: How attention turned to a tip Richard Allen gave in the days after the murders
Day 5: Autopsy photos, another ‘Bridge Guy’ witness and new info from Libby’s phone
Day 2: Delphi murder trial: Family friend who found Abby, Libby tells about that day
Day 1: Families testify about Abby, Libby’s last day as Delphi murder trial opens
Final day, pretrial: Composite sketches, other unresolved issues before opening statements Friday
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