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    • Updates on Delphi murders as Richard Allen’s trial continues November 6, 2024
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    Updates on Delphi murders as Richard Allen’s trial continues November 6, 2024

    Harry Posted on

    In a surprise move, Richard Allen’s defense team rested its case just after proceedings began Wednesday at the Carroll County Courthouse in Delphi.

    Hours later, around 2:15 p.m. Wednesday, prosecutors wrapped up questioning their final evidentiary witness, and court was adjourned for the day so both sides could prepare their closing arguments. Starting at 9 a.m. Thursday morning, the state’s attorneys, and then Allen’s, will spend hours piecing together all of the evidence they presented before jurors begin deliberating to reach a verdict.

    Allen, 52, is accused of killing two teenagers who went missing on Feb. 13, 2017, and were found dead the next day. He was arrested in 2022 and faces two counts of murder while kidnapping and two counts of murder in the deaths of Abigail “Abby” Williams and Liberty “Libby” German.

    journalists Indianapolis Star And Lafayette Magazine and Courier The case will be handled as it progresses through the judicial system.

    5 November 2024: Delphi murder trial jurors hold their seats on Election Day.

    This story will be updated throughout the day.

    During cross-examination of the State of Indiana’s final rebuttal witness, defense attorney Bradley Rozzi played a portion of the video showing Allen motionless, strapped into a wheelchair for a medical examination.

    The video, which Rozzi had previously hidden from the courtroom audience to protect Allen’s dignity, was released on June 20, 2023, to Dr. It was filmed a month after John Martin said Allen was apparently out of psychosis. Martin said that during a meeting earlier the same day, Allen was communicative and spontaneously told Martin that he wanted to apologize to Abby and Libby’s families.

    But even Martin doubted that Allen had left his psychotic state as shown in the 10:52 a.m. video, which he had not previously watched.

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    Rebuttal witnesses take the stand at the trial of Richard Allen in the Delphi murders

    Richard Allen’s defense team rested the case on Wednesday.

    Dressed in a white T-shirt and bright orange pants, a frail-looking Allen is strapped into a wheelchair as guards and doctors surround him in the examination room. Allen stares forward and barely moves as doctors measure his blood pressure and scan him with a stethoscope. Worryingly, Martin testified that Allen lost 50 pounds in prison.

    Allen couldn’t bear to watch this past version of himself in the courtroom. He put his hands over his eyes and lifted his head to look over his right shoulder at his family in the first row seat. His wife, sister and mother bowed their heads to avoid watching the video while crying silently. Allen began to shake and his eyes filled with tears. Allen’s attorney, Andrew Baldwin, squeezed his client’s bicep and then draped his arm over his chair.

    “Does this video cause you to question your diagnosis that Mr. Allen was no longer in a psychotic state on June 20, 2023?” Rozzi asked Martin.

    “Yes,” said Martin.

    But Martin told prosecutor Stacey Diener that the video did not cause him to doubt that he remembered the conversation with Allen that day.

    In a transcript of Martin’s June 20 conversation with Allen, the doctor wrote that Allen’s face showed several self-inflicted injuries. He wrote that Allen “claimed to be suicidal” but was “in much better shape overall and did not appear to be psychotic.”

    Although he was in prison uniform during the session, Allen chose to wear only a T-shirt and boxers. Martin wrote that Allen’s eye contact was poor and his voice soft, but “he spoke coherently and without loose associations or flight of ideas.” “It was focused on the person, the place, the time of day, and the situation.” He was getting enough sleep and eating most of his meals.

    But Allen still spoke little. But according to Martin, he said he was worried about his wife and “wanted to apologize to the families of his victims.”

    Martin argued that Allen entered the prison with underlying conditions such as depression and anxiety. By May 2023, he believed that Allen, with the help of antipsychotic medication, had recovered from the psychosis that began in April and had returned to his initial level of depression. He gave Allen three monthly doses in April, May and June to make sure he didn’t relapse.

    “I continued to observe him,” Martin said, “and for seven weeks there was no evidence of psychosis.”

    In response to the jury’s question, Martin said it was possible to go in and out of psychosis on the same day. Jurors also asked Martin about Dr. Allen’s therapist, whom he met with in prison. He asked whether the video led her to believe that Allen was faking her condition, as noted in Monica Wala’s earlier statement.

    “No,” said Martin, “I don’t think so.”

    Prosecutors attempted to clarify the defense’s position that Allen was suffering from long-term psychosis when he confessed to killing Abby and Libby.

    Their rebuttals focused on two witnesses whose testimony was intended to undermine the harsh confinement conditions defense attorneys presented to jurors and to establish that Allen’s psychosis was not consistent.

    Brian HarshmanThe Indiana State Police veteran, who listened to hundreds of Allen’s calls from prison, testified that Allen had been in a solitary cell for most of the last two years since his arrest. On: Westville PrisonHe was allowed to rest and had the opportunity to communicate with his neighbors from his cell. Conditions of imprisonment were the same Wabash Valley PrisonAbout a year later he was transferred to Westville.

    The Cass County Jail, where he is being held during his trial, has a small break room and a table.

    Dr., a psychiatrist in Westville. John Martin was also called in to find that although Allen showed signs of psychosis, the symptoms eventually subsided after he was given antipsychotic medication. Allen also confessed to his crimes at times when he was mentally healthy.

    Martin testified that he first saw evidence of psychosis on April 13, 2023, when he found Allen lying naked in his cell with feces smeared on his body. Allen was then injected with antipsychotic drugs.

    Martin said he saw improvements in Allen’s mental state by April 25, 2023. Martin stated that he had no symptoms of psychosis as of May 2, 2023. Psychotic symptoms reappeared on 8 and 9 May 2023, but disappeared soon after. Martin testified that he saw no signs of psychosis when he met with Allen on May 23, 2023, and again a week later.

    On June 20, 2023, Martin said he decided to stop prescribing antipsychotic medication after meeting with Allen again and finding no evidence of psychosis.

    “He said to me that day: ‘I want to apologize to Abby and Libby’s families,'” Martin testified.

    Seven minutes after proceedings began Wednesday morning, Richard Allen’s defense recanted its plea.

    The startling turn of events occurred less than a week after Special Judge Frances Gull began calling witnesses for the defense, which had been somewhat brought to its knees by her refusal to allow them to present their alternative theory that the girls were killed in a sacrificial ritual by the Odinites.

    Once the panel of 12 people selected from Allen County reaches a decision, proceedings will now turn into jury instructions.

    At 9:15 a.m., the jury was excused as the state and defense discussed instructions to the group. Whether Allen would testify was a moot point, as was his “previous inconsistent statements.” Gull said his instructions to the jury included that Allen would not testify.

    After a half-hour of deliberation outside the courtroom, prosecutors returned and said they had no problems with the instructions.

    Brad Rozzi, one of Allen’s attorneys, requested that the jury submit a proposal by the end of the day on how to evaluate Allen’s “incriminating statements.” Gull gave them until the end of the working day.

    Closing arguments will be two to two and a half hours.

    The new rules were announced at the beginning of Wednesday’s hearing.

    People will no longer be allowed to line up for courtroom seats before 7 a.m. The case attracted international attention from the media and true crime fanatics, including YouTube and podcast personalities. Many either lined up or had people lined up as early as midnight in hopes of finding a seat.

    Media accused of speaking during the hearing were moved to the back of the courtroom. The courtroom was warned that speakers would be removed.

    Richard Allen’s family now sits with the media in the front row of the courtroom, prompting Libby German’s grandmother, Becky Patty, to say “this is bullshit.”

    Libby’s family continues to sit in the second row.

    The number of seats available to the public also decreased from 24 to 18.

    Harry
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