13 Things To Know From The #Delphi Murders Trial Today - Nov 7
1. Jurors heard closing arguments today. Kudos to the State & Defense for not taking the full 5 hours allotted by the judge for their closing statements. Nick McLeland took 58 minutes, Brad Rozzi took 77.
2. The State went first. Prosecutor Nick McLeland methodically & chronologically laid out his case for the jury. He again showed jurors graphic crime scene photos & the enhanced Bridge Guy video captured on Libby’s cellphone as the State established its timeline of the murders.
3. McLeland said Richard Allen acknowledged being near the murder scene at the time of the crimes, wore the same clothes as seen in the Bridge Guy video & owned the gun that, according to lab tests, cycled an unspent bullet found near the bodies. All of it led to Allen’s arrest.
4. “That could have been all we had to present to you but it’s not,” McLeland the jurors, as he then discussed Allen’s many jailhouse confessions. The jury got to again hear two of the most compelling phone confessions in which Allen repeatedly stated that he killed Abby & Libby.
5. McLeland reminded jurors the incriminating phone calls were “unprovoked, unpressured & of RA’s own free will.” He also said Allen was not psychotic at the time of the confessions & shared info in some confessions that only the killer would know. Then he summarized his summary:
6. “Now all the pieces are together,” McLeland told jurors. “RA is Bridge Guy… he kidnapped them and later murdered them. He slit their throats… He stole the youth & life away from Abby & Libby.” He asked jurors to find Allen guilty on all 4 murder counts facing the defendant.
7. The Defense closing argument wasn’t as linear as the State’s but still effective.
Rozzi said he’d discuss 5 themes:
-A broken timeline
-Bumbled ballistics
-False confessions
-Digital forensics
-What the State didn’t want jurors to hear
8. Rozzi pointed to many things the State never brought up that the Defense had to introduce instead, accusing prosecutors of misleading jurors with cherrypicked evidence & testimony that lacked context & completeness. Rozzi said the State tried to hide the truth from the jury.
9. He said that truth includes faulty ballistics testing that linked Allen’s gun to the crime scene, witness descriptions of Bridge Guy that don’t match RA, & horrible prison conditions in solitary confinement that led to Allen’s psychosis-induced false confessions.
10. Rozzi saved his harshest criticism for how the State treated Allen in prison & its claims that RA wasn’t psychotic while making false confessions. He invited jurors to listen more closely to the confession calls as RA’s statements evolve from “I did it” to “Maybe I did it.”
11. Rozzi also pointed out for jurors what’s missing: NO fingerprints, DNA, digital data or trace materials linking Allen to the bloody crime scene—and NO State witnesses who saw Bridge Guy identified Allen as the man they saw on/near the bridge on the day of the murders.
12. Jurors received instructions from Judge Gull at 1:20—including a reminder that they cannot factor Allen’s decision not to testify in their verdict. Then they deliberated for 2 hrs before going back to their hotel. Deliberations continue Fri at 9:00am. 13News will be there.
13. What verdict will the jury reach? 13News legal analyst Katie Jackson-Lindsay pulls no punches when it comes to that question in tonight’s 13News #Delphi Debrief, where @EmilyWTHR & I go more in depth on Thursday’s closing arguments in Delphi. #wthrhttps://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mis_pUlOR8c
Jury begins deliberation in the Delphi Murders trial | Day 18 | DELPHI DEBRIEF
Nov 7, 2024
Closing arguments took place Thursday, Nov. 7 on Day 18 of the trial for Richard Allen, who is accused of killing Libby German and Abby Williams.
The jury has begun deliberating on the case. According to instructions, they will deliberate from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Saturday, until they reach a verdict.
@BobSegallWTHR: 13 Things To Know From The #Delphi Murders Trial Today - Nov 8 1. No verdict today. On the first full day of deliberations, jurors arrived around 8:55am & left the courthouse at 3:50pm. For...…
13 Things To Know From The #Delphi Murders Trial Today - Nov 9
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Rozzi left the jury with images of a rack used to interrogate and torture people in the medieval times. He said the current day version is solitary confinement.
He then showed the jury photos of Allen in prison, and finally a photo of a snake suffocating a rodent and said, "This is the power of the state."
Rozzi told the jury "now is not the time to return to medieval times, and acknowledge this is not the way to function."
Rozzi said. "We are asking you to set Richard Allen free and enter a verdict of not guilty."
The defense took one hour and 17 seconds to deliver their closing argument.
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