The murder trial resumes Thursday in Indiana against accused child killer Richard Allen, following testimony regarding his alleged confessions.
On Wednesday afternoon, a warden and prison guards discussed confessions they claim Allen made and over the past two years while behind bars.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, Libby German, 14, and Abby Williams, 13, were walking on the Monon High Bridge in Carroll Coubty when they were murdered and left in the woods on February 13, 2017.
Allen, arrested five years later in 2022, has pleaded not guilty to the murder charges.
His defense contended that the confessions were coerced and that jail conditions triggered a mental health crisis.
“I killed those two girls, so I have to kill myself,” Raymond Smith, an officer at Westville Correctional Facility, testified, referring to Allen’s 2023 confession.
The statement was one of several documented by correctional officers tracking Allen’s behavior in prison.
Two weeks later, former Westville officer Brandon Fisher testified that on April 29, 2023, Allen confessed that he intended to rape the Delphi teens but panicked and killed them instead.
Fisher also testified that Allen said he used a box cutter for the murders and discarded it in the trash, Indy Star reports.
Defense attorney Bradley Rozzi questioned the guards about Allen’s conditions, arguing that being locked in a small cell and hearing taunts from inmates significantly harmed his client.
Later, officer Jason Bedwell from Wabash Valley Correctional Facility reported that Allen expressed remorse earlier this year, acknowledging he killed the girls.
During cross-examination, Rozzi argurf that Bedwell’s account of Allen’s alleged confession had more details than his initial log entry, implying that the log was inaccurate.
John Galipeau, the former warden of the Westville Correctional Facility, testified that in March 2023, Allen began admitting to the murders.
He also stated that Allen said he threw a box cutter into a dumpster.
The trial continues. Check back for updates.
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[Feature photo: Abby and Libby/Handout]
