Richard Allen hugged his arms tightly across his chest, kneading them with his fingers as the court in Delphi was shown harrowing images of the double murders of which he stands accused.
Gaunt and pale eyed, Allen rocked slightly and appeared to self-soothe with the repetitive act. It was the only hint that viewing the horrific photographs of Liberty German, 14, and Abigail Williams, 13, may have evoked some kind of stress or emotion in him.
Yesterday, family members and jurors sat through an avalanche of photographs of the brutalized bodies of the teens, laying where they were found amid brush and woodland near the Monon High Bridge trail where they took their last fateful hike.
Richard Allen has been accused of murdering Libby German, 14, and Abby Williams, 13, whose bodies were found near the Monon High Bridge Trail in Delphi on February 14, 2017
Richard Allen hugged his arms tightly across his chest, kneading them with his fingers as the court in Delphi was shown harrowing images of the double murders of which he stands accused
It was the first time the court was forced to come face to face with the reality of the violent acts at the heart of these highly anticipated proceedings and, for some, it seemed almost too much to bear.
Libby’s grandmother Becky Patty who testified on the first day of the trial looked away in anguish, her husband Mike holding tightly onto her hand. Behind them a member of Abby’s family wept. Becky passed back a box of tissues.
The evidence will continue this morning as Ryan Olehy, the last of the three Crime Scene Investigators (CSIs) who processed the scene to give evidence, is due to finish the testimony he began yesterday.
Week two of the trial began Monday morning. CSI Sergeant Jason Page narrated the crime scene photographs he had taken under questioning from attorney for the state, James Luttrull Jr.
During Page’s testimony the court was shown 42 crime scene pictures including more than 20 of the girls’ bodies. They appeared in a relentless succession on a large screen positioned in front of the jury. By the time the day was over they had viewed dozens more.
The girls lay less than five feet apart, their feet angled towards each other. Libby, 14, was nude, her skin pale as porcelain, stained with blood on her hands, her thigh, her chest, throat and face.
She was covered with twigs which crisscrossed at her throat and one heavy bough that lay lengthwise across her left side.
Libby’s grandmother Becky Patty, who testified on the first day of the trial, looked away in anguish after the courtroom was shown the 42 crime scene pictures - including more than 20 images of Libby and Abbys bodies
CSI Sergeant Jason Page narrated the crime scene photographs he had taken under questioning from attorney for the state, James Luttrull Jr
State attorney James Luttrull Jr apologized but said there was no escaping the horror of the scene. In the image Libby’s eyes are blacked out, her head is turned to the left, leaves and twigs are stuck in her hair and the blood has dried where it ran heavily over her cheek, her nose, her eye. A brutal gash was clearly visible at her throat
Abigail lay to her right, dressed in a mix of her own and her friend’s garments, wearing sneakers but no socks. Her jeans, Sgt Page noted, appeared damp.
One female juror teared up. Allen looked on intently, giving no physical indication of the emotions the images might be stirring. He occasionally took notes.
At one point the image on display jumped on without warning, casting a shocking close up of Libby’s bloodied face onto the screen and provoking audible gasps from the family in the public gallery.
Luttrull Jr apologized saying he had intended to offer a lead into that picture but there was no escaping the horror of the scene. In the image Libby’s eyes are blacked out, her head is turned to the left, leaves and twigs are stuck in her hair and the blood has dried where it ran heavily over her cheek, her nose, her eye. A brutal gash was clearly visible at her throat.
Both girls, the court has heard, had their throats slit several times.
In another, Abby lies like a discarded doll, clearly lifeless her wounds are less visible as she is mostly clothed. But the awful truth is unmistakable in a close up of the younger of the two best friends which shows the livid red of the bloodstains at her throat.
The defense contended that the girls were abducted, taken elsewhere, then returned to the side of Deer Creek in the early hours of Tuesday February 14 where they were murdered PICTURED: The trail in Delphi where the girls were killed
Showing the desolate scene where the girls spent the last moments of their lives, came as a continuation of the state’s effort to present a thorough picture of the search for and discovery of their bodies.
It is part of their bid to close the door on the defense’s claim that, despite searches of the area, the bodies of the girls were not found until the day after they were reported missing because they were not there. Instead, it is the defense’s contention, they were abducted, taken elsewhere, then returned to the side of Deer Creek in the early hours of Tuesday February 14th where they were murdered.
In his opening statement for his client, defense attorney Andrew Baldwin also sought to dismiss the state’s claim that a bullet found on the scene had been ‘cycled through’ Allen’s Sig Sauer gun as junk science.
In fact, he suggested the 40-caliber bullet found on the ground on the scene was more likely dropped by one of the many law enforcement officers who, he stated, had compromised the scene.
Both prosecutor Nick McLeland who questioned the first witness of the day, Carroll County Detective Darren Giancola – one of the first officers on the scene - and Luttrull in his questioning of Sgt Page made a point of asking the officers what weapon they carried that day.
Defense attorney Andrew Baldwin suggested the 40-caliber bullet found on the ground on the scene was more likely dropped by one of the many law enforcement officers who, he stated, had compromised the scene
Giancola answered that he carried a Glock 17 which took 9mm bullets. For his part Page carried a Glock 19 which also takes 9mm bullets. The only other weapon Page said he ever carried was a 45 caliber Sig Sauer, but he told the court he only carries that when in uniform.
Later still jurors heard that officer Olehy carried neither a gun nor ammunition to the scene that day as he felt no threat and knew he would be repeatedly going up and down a hill to the scene.
As jurors returned after their lunch break, they heard how CSI Duane Datzman had spotted the unfired round ‘glinting’ under the glare of the Alternative Light Source (ALS) used by investigators to show phosphorescent trace evidence such as semen or saliva.
The bullet is key to the prosecution’s case as it may prove the only physical evidence that places Allen at the scene of the crime.
Sgt Page admitted under cross examination that there is no DNA evidence to link Allen to the girls or the scene. But he baulked at defense attorney Bradley Rozzi’s suggestion that there was a level of ‘intentionality’ in the way the sticks and branches placed over their bodies were arranged.
As jurors returned from their lunch break, they heard how CSI Duane Datzman had spotted the unfired round ‘glinting’ under the glare of the Alternative Light Source (ALS) used by investigators to show phosphorescent trace evidence such as semen or saliva
Sergeant Page admitted under cross examination that there is no DNA evidence to link Allen to the girls or the scene. PICTURED: Spectators line up to enter the Carroll County Courthouse for the trail of Richard Allen
The defense fought and failed to have their theory that the girls were killed by multiple people as part of an Odinist ritual admitted in court but, yesterday, Rozzi pushed close to it with an insistent line of questioning designed to get Page to concede that the scene was ‘odd’ and unlike any he had seen in his lengthy career.
Rozzi’s efforts fell flat as the veteran law man rejected the suggestion outright.
As Page’s colleagues Datzman and Olehy went onto take the stand the pictures that the officers took to document the crime scene were displayed.
Each photograph was grislier than the last, with images showing the full extent of the bloody scene and the girls appalling throat injuries.
Abby, the court heard, was found with her hands bunched up in fists high on her chest ‘as if in a fighter’s stance.’
She was dressed in Libby’s clothes which were damp and ill-fitting. Most of Abby’s own clothes - her jeans inside out and tangled with her underwear, a camisole and footy socks - were found sodden and caught up in roots in the creek.
Her best friend Libby’s cell phone lay beneath Abby’s body. Its purple Harry Potter case which bore a Gryffindor shield proved a poignant flash of childish innocence amidst so much dirt and leaves.
No time of death has yet been given but yesterday the court heard that the girls were cool to the touch when they were found, and that rigor mortis was pronounced and set.