State wants alleged Delphi confessions admissible, defense disagrees
Apr. 25—DELPHI — When the jury trial for Delphi murder suspect Richard Allen kicks off next month, what role will Allen's alleged jail house confessions from 2023 play?
That question was the topic of separate motions filed earlier this week in Carroll Circuit Court, both by the prosecution and defense.
According to Carroll County Prosecutor Nick McLeland, Allen made several confessions while behind bars, including that he reportedly killed 13-year-old Abby Williams and 14-year-old Libby German in February 2017.
Allen reportedly made those confessions to his wife via telephone while he was at the Wabash Correctional Facility between March and June 2023, per McLeland, and it's believed the prosecutor is set to use those confessions as part of the evidence phase of Allen's upcoming trial.
However, defense attorneys Bradley Rozzi and Andrew Baldwin argue those confessions don't match the evidence they've gathered in the case.
Those confessions were also reportedly made under severe duress and therefore not given voluntarily, according to the defense's most recent motion to suppress the statements from being introduced in front of a jury.
Rather, according to the defense's motion, Allen made those alleged jailhouse statements after he "slipped into a state of psychosis plagued with grossly disorganized, delusional, paranoid and highly dysfunctional behavior."
The defense went on to detail that "psychosis" in their motion, claiming Allen went through "periods of not sleeping for days," as well as times where he'd strip off his clothes, cover himself with and eat his own feces and drink toilet water.
Rozzi and Baldwin also argued in their motion that prison officials had inmates posted at Allen's cell door at WCF, requiring those inmates to log all of Allen's statements, behaviors and actions during his time at the facility.
Some of those inmates asked Allen questions about the case, per the defense, in what Rozzi and Baldwin described as a "form of interrogation, one that lasted more than five months before he was finally broken."
But according to McLeland, those inmates were actually "suicide companions" meant to monitor Allen's behavior, and they were "deemed necessary by mental health personnel."
In a separate motion filed this week by the defense but regarding the same topic, Rozzi also argued that allowing a jury to hear Allen's alleged confessions would be a violation of his constitutional rights because he did not have an attorney present when those comments were reportedly made, adding the statements were likely coerced and should be deemed inadmissible.
Allen's jury trial is slated to run from May 13-31.
It was Feb. 14, 2017, when the bodies of Williams and German were located along the banks of Deer Creek near the Monon High Bridge area, after being dropped off the day before but not returning to their pick-up location.
Five years later, on Oct. 31, 2022, investigators announced they had arrested Allen on two felony counts of murder.
During an interview with police, Allen reportedly stated he was on the bridge the day the girls went missing, but he did not see them.
