Wife of convicted Delphi murderer Richard Allens chilling five-word response to guilty verdict

The wife of convicted Delphi murderer Richard Allen gave a chilling response after an Indiana jury unanimously declared he was guilty in the brutal killings of Liberty German, 14, and Abigail Williams, 13.

Allen, 52, who was arrested in connection with the 2017 murders in October 2022, sat emotionless as the verdict was handed down Monday afternoon, after spending the past two years in solitary confinement in Indianas Westville Correctional Facility and Cass County Jail.

The verdict marks the culmination of a high-profile three-week trial and one communitys seven-year-long wait for justice. 

Allen now faces a maximum sentence of 130 more years behind bars on charges of two counts of murder and two counts of felony murder - which is murder committed in the at of another crime, in this case kidnapping. 

But his wife, Kathy Allen, told WTHR this isnt over at all as she left the courtroom.

Kathy Allen, the wife of convicted Delphi murderer Richard Allen, argued this isnt over at all as she left the courtroom

Allen was convicted of killing best friends Libby, 14, and Abby, 13, after they went on a hike outside their hometown of Delphi, Indiana, in February 2017

Prosecutors had argued that Allen killed Libby and Abby after they went on a hike in their hometown of Delphi on February 13, 2017, which Nick McLeland described as a day this community will never forget.

Abigail Williams and Liberty German went to the trails for a walk and never returned. The day that both of them were murdered by Richard Allen, he said during his closing arguments on Thursday. 

McLeland went on to say law enforcement and locals who joined in the first frantic search for the girls werent under the assumption theyd stumble into a horrific crime scene.

They werent looking for two bodies, they were looking for two girls, he said, Nobody thought anything bad had happened to Abby and Libby. That doesnt happen round here.

He had argued at the onset of the trial that the case centered around the so-called Bridge Guy, and said in his closing arguments that Allen had repeatedly damned himself through his own words by placing himself on the bridge at the time of the girls abductions and through his multiple prison confessions.

It was Allen who put himself on the trail between 1.30 and 3.30pm, Allen who told investigators he had gone out onto Monon High Bridge, Allen who described the outfit he wore and Allen who made a string of prison confessions that included details that only the killer could have known.

Allen now faces a maximum sentence of 130 more years behind bars on charges of two counts of murder and two counts of felony murder

McLeland also showed jurors a video Libby recorded at 2.13pm that day, which he claimed showed the moment the girls were kidnapped.

The shaky footage showed Abby making her way across the bridge as the bundled-up figure of a man walked with purpose behind her.

Guys, down the hill, echoed through the silent room along with a startled chirp from one of the girls and the horrified words, That be a gun.

McLeland described the feeling of this scene to the jury: You can hear the fear in their voice. You can see the fear in Abbys face.

He reminded the jurors of the eyewitnesses who were adamant that the person they saw that day was Bridge Guy. He reminded them of the digital evidence gleaned from Libbys phone which, he said, showed it stopped moving at 2.32pm and never moved again.

McLeland recalled volunteer Kathy Shanks chance find of the lead sheet in 2022 – something that hadnt been followed up at the time - recording a man who self-reported being on the trails between 1.30 and 3.30pm. 

He told them investigators knew all indications pointed to that man being Bridge Guy, and that man was Allen.

Indeed, when officers searched his home on October 26, 2022, McLeland said they found a Bridge Guy starter kit, - a Carhartt jacket, a Sig Sauer P226 and an unspent 40 caliber Smith and Weston cartridge held in a hope box in Allens bedroom.

They also seized numerous electronic devices but the only one that was missing was the phone Allen used in 2017 at the time of the murders - a device he had never let law enforcement inspect.

Prosecutors had said the case revolves around the so-called Bridge Guy who was seen walking behind the girls before they disappeared

The prosecutor went on to tell jurors that Allen was familiar with the area. He had frequently visited the Monon High Bridge alone and with his family. 

See how the pieces are starting to fall into place? he urged.

McLeland reminded them that the state presented evidence that the cartridge found between the girls bodies had been cycled through Richard Allens gun. 

That could have ended the case, he asserted. But then he starts to confess.

He had made multiple confessions both in phone calls to his mother, Janice, and wife, Kathy, as well as in person to the corrections officers tasked with watching over him on suicide watch, his prison therapist Dr Monica Wala and his prison psychiatrist Dr John Martin.

McLeland played one of Allens calls from April 3 he made to his wife where he said, I just wanted to apologize. I did it. You know I did it. I killed Abby and Libby.

The call was, McLeland said, unprovoked, unpressured and made of his own volition.

Later that month, Allen confessed on April 26 that he had stolen a box cutter that he used to kill the girls and then threw in the trash at the CVS where he worked.

He made his most detailed confession yet to Dr Wala when he told her he had intended to rape the girls but had seen a van, got scared and killed them instead.

Quoting Allens own words, the prosecutor said: He continued living his life after time had passed because he hadnt been caught.

Prosecutors also said he had confessed to the murders while in solitary confinement 

Taking the jurors back to February 13, 2017, McLeland said: That day started out like any other day. The day that Bridge Guy stole the youth and the life away from Liberty and Abigail. The state has shown you Richard Allen is Bridge Guy.

For five years he has lived amongst us. He didnt realize he left behind a cartridge from his gun, and he also left behind Libertys cell phone.

But Bradley Rozzi, who delivered the defenses passionate closing statements, argued the state had proved nothing.

He described their timeline as broken, their ballistics evidence as bungled and the confessions as false and cherry-picked to present only a fraction of a far more complicated, troubling truth.

The one thing that speaks the truth he insisted was something the state hadnt told jurors about at all – raw data gleaned from Libbys cellphone which showed that at 5.45pm on February 13, 2017, somebody had plugged headphones into the phone and, at 10.32pm, someone had removed them.

The state sought to dismiss this as a technical glitch caused by dirt or water damage.

Rozzi also reminded jurors that there was no DNA evidence, no trace evidence, no clothing and no digital data or communications that connected Allen to the crime scene or either of the girls.

The magic bullet is nothing more than a tragic bullet. It is the catalyst that landed Rick in that prison, the defense attorney said of Westville Correctional Facility in Westville some 76 miles outside Delphi.

Allens defense said the conditions he was held in caused an already fragile egg to become mentally ill - to the point of developing Major Depressive Disorder with Psychosis 

The defense had claimed that the conditions in which Allen was held caused an already fragile egg to become seriously mentally ill and develop Major Depressive Disorder with Psychosis.

The confessions were nothing but the product of his psychotic mind and should be dismissed entirely and given no weight, they insisted.

The conditions in which he was held were tantamount to torture. A picture of a medieval rack popped up on the large screen behind Rozzi, followed by a picture of a thumbscrew, which the attorney claimed were medieval devices to interrogate people. 

As a society, weve evolved…to a more subtle form called solitary confinement, he said. Whether intentional, reckless or negligent somebody should have spoken out. Where was the moral compass? You are the moral compass.

Hammering his point home, Rozzi displayed pictures of Allen in open court, taken from prison video that has, to this point, been shielded from public view and seen only by the jury.

In one photo he lies naked, curled up in the fetal position on the floor. In one he is naked against a wall, and in another, he wears a suicide smock with a white spit hood over his head.

Thats the power of your state, he said, pointing to the screen behind him. A picture of a python crushing its prey followed next. Now is the time to step up and recognize this is not how we function.

Rendering a verdict of guilt would be endorsing this process and you should not do that. Were asking you to set Richard Allen free.