Defense Attorneys Quit Delphi Murders Case After Shocking Leak Of Crime Scene Photos
Defense attorneys for a man accused of killing two Delphi, Indiana, girls in 2017 abruptly resigned from the case Thursday after photographs of the gruesome crime scene were leaked.
Minutes into a much-anticipated hearing expected to address the leak, the judge said that court-appointed attorneys Bradley Rozzi and Andrew Baldwin, who had represented Richard Allen since his 2022 arrest in connection with the deaths of eighth graders Abby Williams and Libby German, had withdrawn. The announcement came just hours after David Hennessy, an attorney representing Baldwin, had argued in a court filing that disqualifying either Baldwin or Rozziwould “greatly prejudice” Allen’s rights to counsel and a timely trial. His trial, currently scheduled for January, will most likely be postponed, the judge said, so that Allen’s new representation can review the voluminous case files.
Allen has pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and kidnapping in the case.
Abby Williams, 13, and Libby German, 14, were found dead near an abandoned railroad bridge that they had been hiking across in 2017.
The stunning development comes on the heels of an explosive and bizarre 136-page memorandum filed by Rozzi and Baldwin in September alleging that Abby, 13, and Libby, 14, were killed in a ritual sacrifice by Odinist cult members who painted a tree with one victim’s blood. That memo — in which the attorneys argued that Allen had been arrested based on an illegal search warrant — claimed to reveal shocking and previously undisclosed details about the crime scene that strict gag orders had prevented others from divulging. Details outlined by Allen’s now-former attorneys — including that the girls’ throats were cut and one body was nude — have not been corroborated.
After the September filing, previously unreleased photos of what people believed to be the crime scene began circulating via tabloids and social media, including of the tree that Allen’s attorneys said had been painted with blood. Then “Murder Sheet” podcasters Áine Cain and Kevin Greenlee, who have closely followed the case, said that on Oct. 5, they received “graphic crime scene photos of the Delphi case” and immediately contacted authorities. They declined to share any more details about the images, citing their respect for the families and the case.
Hennessy, in his court filing hours before Thursday’s hearing, said that evidence had been taken from Baldwin but said that Baldwin had been “betrayed” by a friend — not someone in his staff or office — who “surreptitiously [purloined] ... information” and disseminated it without his permission or knowledge. Three people unrelated to Allen’s defense, Hennessy said, had shared the evidence, adding that one of them killed himself after authorities began investigating the leak.
As he argued for Baldwin and Rozzi to remain on the job, Hennessy said that the leaked evidence could have been revealed as soon as January if the trial had gone forward as scheduled.
“It should be considered that nothing has been disclosed that won’t be disclosed at trial or hearings,” Hennessy said. “It should also be considered that there have been volumes of information disseminated by law enforcement and/or others not at all linked to the defense team.”
Officers escort Richard Allen out of a courthouse following a hearing on Nov. 22, 2022, in Delphi, Indiana.
Authorities have revealed few details about the circumstances of Abby and Libby’s killings since first announcing that their bodies had been found in February 2017, saying they don’t want to jeopardize the prosecution. The girls’ cause of death has never been officially released, and law enforcement officials have not given any potential motive for the killings.
Over the five years leading up to Allen’s arrest, the case gained notoriety as authorities sought the public’s help in identifying the killer, who was believed to have been captured in a video filmed by Libby just before she died. The video shows a man approaching the girls on an abandoned railroad bridge and ordering them to go “down the hill.” One of the girls can be heard saying he had a gun. Their bodies were found the next day about half a mile from the bridge. Later, in a heavily redacted probable cause affidavit for Allen’s arrest, authorities claimed that Allen placed himself at the scene of the girls’ kidnapping in a statement to a law enforcement officer in 2017, and that an unspent bullet found between the girls’ bodies matched a gun he owned.
For Thursday’s hearing in Fort Wayne, Allen was transported more than 100 miles from the maximum security prison where he is being held, but he did not appear in the courtroom because he no longer has representation, NBC affiliate WTHR reported. His defense had previously sought to have him transferred to another facility, claiming that his physical and mental health were deteriorating and likening his conditions to those of a “prisoner of war.”
Prosecutors have said that Allen confessed to the killings “no less than 5 times” in calls he made to his wife and mother from prison. Allen’s now-former attorneys acknowledged that he made “incriminating” statements but countered that they were unreliable because of his mental health issues.
The next hearing in the case is scheduled for Oct. 31 — exactly one year after authorities announced Allen’s arrest.
