Prosecutors in Indiana have filed new charges — including murder — against a suspect in the brutal murders of two Indiana teenage girls seven years ago.
Richard Matthew Allen, 51, the man accused of killing 14-year-old Libby German and 13-year-old Abby Williams while they were hiking near their hometown of Delphi in 2017, had new kidnapping and felony murder charges filed against him Thursday. , according to reports.
Allen had previously been charged with two counts of murder following his arrest in October 2022.
A new filing by Carroll County Prosecutor Nicholas McLeland with the Indiana Supreme Court claims the new charges “more precisely align the charge information with the probable cause findings and affidavits.”
In the state of Indiana, murder is defined as knowingly or intentionally killing another human being.
If the prosecution can prove Allen kidnapped or tried to kidnap the girls, he could be charged with two counts of felony murder because he would be linked to the murders — even if they can’t prove he was the actual killer.
Prosecutors are pushing to charge accused teenage killer Richard Allen with two additional counts of murder and kidnapping. Carroll County Circuit Court
Judge Fran Gull has yet to rule on the motion.
Thursday’s filing came the same day the Indiana Supreme Court heard arguments to allow the reinstatement of Allen’s original court-appointed attorneys, Andrew Baldwin and Brad Rozzi, after the accused killer petitioned to have them reinstated.
The Supreme Court also denied a request from the defense to remove Gull as a judge for the trial during Thursday’s hearing and ruled against the defense’s attempt to have the trial begin within 70 days.
Allen was previously charged with two counts of murder following his arrest in October 2022. Indiana State Police
The two lawyers withdrew from the case in October 2023 after Gull found that they had been “grossly negligent” following the leak of court documents – which included gruesome crime scene photos – from Baldwin’s office.
Gull has issued a gag order in December 2022 for everyone involved in the case — including the girl’s family members — given the strong national interest in the murder.
The trial was scheduled to begin on January 8, 2024, before Baldwin and Rozzi withdrew.
Attorneys Andrew Baldwin (L) and Brad Rozzi (R) have been brought back to defend Richard Allen after they withdrew from the case late last year. WTHR
Their surprise withdrawal comes just a month after the duo revealed their bizarre defense claims that the girls were “ritualistically sacrificed” by a racist pagan cult and not by their clients.
The accused killer of the teenager allegedly confessed to the murder several times through prison phone calls to his wife and mother, according to previous court documents.
However, his lawyers claim their client was “monitored, intimidated, and mentally abused” at the Westville Correctional Facility by correctional officers who were Odinists — the same cult Baldwin and Rozzi claim were the teenager’s real killers.
Libby German (L) and Abby Williams (R) were killed on February 14, 2017, while hiking near their hometown. Facebook
The killings haunted the small town of about 3,000 people until Allen was arrested last year.
The bodies of the two girls were found in rugged terrain near a hiking trail on February 14, 2017 — a day after they went missing during the school holidays.
The eighth-graders have been documenting some of their journey on Snapchat, and crude footage taken from a German phone shows a man walking on a bridge near where the girl was last seen.
The photo was taken from the German phone of the Delphi murder suspect shortly before the teenager was killed. Indiana State Police
An audio recording was also released of a man, believed to be the suspect, saying, “Down the hill.”
Allen was charged after analysis concluded a .40-caliber round found between the bodies of Williams and German came from the gun he owned.
He now faces four counts of murder but will only be sentenced for two counts of murder if found guilty of killing the teenager.
Flowers are placed on the Monon High Bridge Trail in Delphi, Ind., on Oct. 31. 2022, near where Liberty German and Abigail Williams were last seen. AP
Although the four murder charges are different, each carries the same possible sentence of 45 and 65 years in prison.
If convicted of kidnapping, he also faces an additional three and 16 years in prison, according to Indiana law.
Allen has pleaded not guilty to the two original murder charges following his arrest.
It remains to be seen whether the new charges will affect the proposed trial date set for October 2024.
With Postal wire
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
