DELPHI, Ind. — Murder charges against the man accused of killing two Delphi teenagers will not be dismissed.
Tuesday afternoon, special judge Frances Gull denied a request to dismiss charges against Richard Allen, who is scheduled to stand trial in May for allegedly murdering Abby Williams and Libby German in 2017.
Allen’s attorneys asked Gull to dismiss the murder charges based on a claim that the state destroyed evidence that could help prove Allen’s innocence.
Immediately after the murders, police and FBI agents began conducting interviews based on tips that came pouring into investigators. Some of the interviews were recorded at the Delphi Police Department.
But during discovery, Allen’s defense team learned some of those recorded interviews had disappeared due to what the state describes as an accident. Former Delphi Police Chief Steve Mullin testified at a recent court hearing that interviews recorded on a DVR between Feb. 14 and Feb. 20, 2017 were mistakenly recorded over and destroyed when the DVR appeared to reset itself. Mullin said the problem was not discovered until several months after the recordings were deleted.
“It was not done on purpose,” Mullin said when questioned by one of Allen’s defense attorneys.
The defense team says one of the missing recordings is with a man who they believe might be involved in the Delphi murders, and they say the now-erased interview with that individual could have provided evidence to help clear Allen. (While the man has been identified in court records, 13News is not naming him because he has not been arrested or charged with any crime related to the case.) Allen’s defense attorneys say without the recording, they are missing valuable evidence that could be used to cross-examine the other individual, and they believe destruction of the recording is therefore a violation of Allen’s rights.
In denying the motion to dismiss charges, Gull said Allen’s attorneys failed to show the missing recordings are exculpatory (relieving Allen of blame or guilt) and they did not show the evidence was destroyed negligently, intentionally or in bad faith. She instead believed the prosecutor’s argument that the recordings “were lost due to human error or were spontaneously lost due to the equipment resetting.”
The judge also said the missing interview that is of interest to the defense was conducted at a time when the other individual was not a key suspect in the case, and that the interview was memorialized in a written report provided to the defense. The defense argues a written report summarizing the interview is much different than being able to view the actual recording.
In her order, Gull said she believes Allen’s due process rights have not been violated.
The Delphi murders trial is scheduled to begin in about six weeks with jury selection starting on May 13.
13News will be in the courtroom for the Delphi murders trial, which is expected to last approximately three weeks, and will have full coverage each day on 13News and WTHR.com.