Indiana prosecutors have filed new charges, including murder, against a suspect in the brutal murders of two Indiana teenagers seven years ago.
Richard Matthew Allen, 51, accused of killing 14-year-old Libby German and 13-year-old Abby Williams while hiking near their hometown of Delphi in 2017, faces new kidnapping and murder charges Thursday. was charged with a felony. , according to the report.
Allen was charged with two counts of murder after his arrest in October 2022.
A new filing with the Indiana Supreme Court by Carroll County Prosecutor Nicholas McClelland claims the new charges “more closely match the indictment information to the finding of cause and probable cause affidavits.” are doing.
There are murders in Indiana. defined Intentionally or knowingly killing another human being.
If prosecutors can prove that Allen kidnapped or attempted to kidnap the girls, that would implicate Allen in the murders, even if they can't prove that he was the actual killer. , could charge him with two felonies.
Judge Fran Gall has not yet ruled on the motion.
Thursday's filing came on the same day the Indiana Supreme Court heard arguments for Allen's reinstatement after his first state-appointed attorneys, Andrew Baldwin and Brad Lozzi, filed a motion to reinstate Allen. .
The Supreme Court also denied the defense's request to remove Gall as trial judge during a hearing Thursday and ruled against the defense's attempt to start the trial within 70 days. .
The two lawyers withdrew from the case in October 2023 after Gul admitted to “gross negligence” after court documents containing gruesome crime scene photos were leaked from Baldwin's office. was pulling.
Given the high level of national interest in the murder, Gul had issued a gag order in December 2022 against everyone involved in the case, including the girl's family.
The trial was scheduled to begin on January 8, 2024, before Baldwin and Rozzi withdrew.
The shocking retraction comes just a month after the pair announced bizarre defense claims that the girls were “ritually sacrificed” by a racist pagan cult rather than their clients. It was conducted.
The teenage killer allegedly confessed to the murders multiple times in prison phone calls to his wife and mother, according to previous court documents.
But his lawyers claim their client was “surveilled, intimidated and emotionally abused” by Ordinist correctional officers at Westville Correctional Facility. This is the same cult that Baldwin and Lozzi claim is the real culprit behind the teenage boys.
Until Allen's arrest last year, murders plagued the small city of about 3,000 people.
The bodies of the two girls were discovered in a rugged area near a hiking trail on February 14, 2017, a day after they went missing on a day off from school.
The eighth-graders recorded part of the walk on Snapchat, and the gruesome, grainy footage taken from German's cellphone shows the girls near where they were last seen. A man was seen walking on the bridge.
An audio recording of a man believed to be the suspect saying, “Go down the hill,” was also released.
Mr. Allen was charged after analysis concluded that a .40 caliber bullet found between Mr. Williams and Mr. German's bodies came from a gun he owned.
He currently faces four murder charges, but if he is found guilty of killing the teens, he will only be sentenced on two counts.
Despite the four different murder charges, each could carry the same sentence of 45 and 65 years in prison.
Under Indiana law, if convicted of kidnapping, he faces an additional three years and 16 years in prison.
After his arrest, Allen initially pleaded not guilty to the two murder charges.
It remains to be seen whether the new charges will affect the trial date, scheduled for October 2024.
with post wire
