The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday
Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US
An Indiana prosecutor is seeking to keep criminal sketches of suspects in the so-called Delphi murders from a jury in the trial of a man accused of killing two teenage girls seven years ago.
Richard Allen, 52, is charged with the murders of Abigail “Abby” Williams, 13, and Liberty “Libby” German, 14, in Delphi, Indiana in 2017. The two friends disappeared while walking near an abandoned rail bridge on a trail near Delphi, Indiana. Their bodies were later found with fatal stab wounds. The case rocked the small, close-knit community of Delphi.
Allen’s lawyers maintain his innocence and have suggested the two teenagers died at the hands of a white nationalist pagan cult, adding the girls were killed as part of a “ritualistic sacrifice” by a group of Odinists. The attorneys have been banned from mentioning the cult during the trial.
Caroll County Prosecutor Nick McLeland filed a motion on Monday to ban the two sketches and mention of them from proceedings, citing concerns that they could be used to sway the jury.
The motion asks the court to order the defense to not mention the sketches during the trial, which is set to begin on Friday at the Carroll County Courthouse in Delphi. Allen was arrested in 2022 and has been charged with two counts of murder and two counts of murder while committing or attempting to commit kidnapping.
Authorities had released an initial sketch of the suspect dubbed “bridge guy” in 2017 after obtaining information from witnesses in the area of the murders.
A second sketch was released at a news conference in April 2019. Officials said the second sketch was needed due to new information and intelligence. In that image, the suspect appears younger. As a result, police updated their description of the suspect as a man aged between 18 and 40.
“A composite sketch is not relevant, admission would result in undue prejudice, confuse or mislead the jury, or is impermissible hearsay, and the witnesses who participate in the preparation of composite sketch will not be presented by the State for the purpose of in-court identification of the defendant,” McLeland wrote in the filing.
Allen told investigators he was on the bridge trail the day the girls vanished but he has pleaded not guilty to the charges. His family home is less than a five-minute drive away from where the bodies of Libby and Abby were found.
McLeland states that the defense intends to use the sketches as “demonstrative evidence and for impeachment purposes.”
The sketches were not related to Allen’s capture, McLeland wrote. The witnesses who helped to create them testified they did not see the person in the sketch long enough to identify the defendant.
Special Judge Francis Gull will rule on the motion ahead of the beginning of the trial on Friday.
Libby and Abby went missing on February 13, 2017 after they set off on a hike along the Monon High Bridge Trail in Delphi, a small town of just 3,000 people.
Libby managed to capture grainy video on her phone of a man dressed in blue jeans, a blue jacket and cap walking along the abandoned railroad bridge. It’s thought that the man in the footage could be the girls’ killer.
In the footage, the man can be heard telling the girls to “Go down the hill.” Officials determined they suffered wounds caused “by a sharp object.” A bullet that had not been fired was found by their bodies, leading investigators to believe a gun played a role in the crime as well.
Source: independent.co.uk
