Attorneys for Delphi murder suspect refute probable cause affidavit
Richard Allen 'innocent and completely confused' about his arrest; defense questions 'magic bullet' and lack of information about second suspect
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Late on Dec.1, attorneys for murder suspect Richard (Rick) Allen released a media statement that questioned the publicly released probable cause affidavit which put their client behind bars this October for the murders of two Delphi teens in 2017.
On Valentine’s Day 2017, two teen girls, Liberty “Libby” German and Abby Williams, were found dead along the Monon High Bridge Trail, a popular Carroll County nature and hiking spot. Last month Richard Allen, a resident of Delphi, was arrested and charged with the two murders, the culmination of a five-year investigation by local and state law enforcement.
Earlier this week, against a request by Carroll County Prosecutor Nicholas McLeland, Allen County Superior Judge Fran Gull ordered the release of the probable cause affidavit that gave the State’s justification for Allen’s arrest, revealing previously unreleased evidence that pointed to Allen as a suspect. In response to the affidavit’s release, Allen’s attorneys, Brad Rozzi of Logansport and Andrew Baldwin of Franklin, released a media response to the affidavit’s accusations.
“Rick is a 50-year-old man who has never been arrested nor accused of any crime in his entire life,” the release stated. “He is innocent and completely confused as to why he has been charged with these crimes.”
The attorneys’ press release continued to refute the procedures and evidence pointed out in the arrest affidavit,
“The police did not contact Rick after Libby German and Abby Williams went missing, rather Rick contacted the police and voluntarily discussed being on the trail that day,” the release stated. “Like many people in Delphi, Rick wanted to help any way he could. Rick contacted the police to let them know that he had walked on the trail that day, as he often did. Without Rick coming forward, the police probably would not have had any way of knowing that he was on the trail that day.”
Rozzi and Baldwin’s response goes on to document a later interview concerning the day of the murder’s events Allen had with Indiana conservation officers,
“After Rick shared his information with law enforcement officials, he went back to his job at the local CVS and didn’t hear from the police for more than five years.” The release stated.
Allen was taken into custody October 28. Rozzi and Baldwin’s release also questioned much of the revealed evidence in the affidavit, along with the .40 caliber unspent bullet found near the bodies, alleging “that a single magic bullet is proof of Rick’s guilt.”
Allen owns a .40 caliber Sig Sauer pistol that law enforcement officials say the found bullet had been cycled through.
The attorneys claim that the prosecutor’s office had introduced a possibility of second suspect,
“The prosecutor mentioned, at the last hearing, his belief that others may have been involved in the killing, yet there was no mention in the PCA about a second suspect involved in the killing,” the release stated. “The defense is confused by such discrepancies in the investigation and will be in a better position to respond as more discovery is received.
“To the extent we continue to discover information that points to Rick’s innocence, we will offer up this information to the public, so long as we are not prohibited from doing so as a result of the recent request by the Prosecutor for a gag order or by the Indiana Rules of Professional Conduct.”
Allen’s trial is now scheduled for March of 2023.