Source: Donnie Burgess / WIBC News
CARROLL COUNTY, Ind. — Charges should not be dismissed against Richard Allen, says the Carroll County Prosecutor. Allen’s defense team cannot prove evidence was purposefully lost or would free Allen from his charges in the 2017 Delphi murders case.
That’s the argument from the State of Indiana, represented by Prosecutor Nick McLeland. In a Monday motion, Prosecutor McLeland states that the State has not acted in any way that could be considered “bad faith”, untimely or uncooperative. Allen’s defense team has long argued that Odinists in the Delphi area committed the 2017 double murder of Abigail Williams and Liberty German, and that one man in particular is a viable third-party suspect.
The man is named in court documents but will not be named here for legal purposes. In some cases, he will be referred to as “third-party suspect” or “(name).”
Attorneys Andrew Baldwin and Brad Rozzi have pointed to lost police interviews with that man, previously acknowledged by the State, as proof of police negligence and that those interviews could have material within them that would clear Richard Allen of any charges. The defense says they have transcripts with conflicting information that would be useful in proving Allen’s innocence and pointing the finger at this third-party suspect.
The State continues to fight that idea, writing in Monday’s motion, “further there is no exculpatory evidence and/or potentially useful evidence that the State has not turned over or is missing or that the State destroyed. Finally, (name) is not a 3rd party suspect and there is no evidence tying (name) to the murder of the victims in this case.”
However, there is an issue.
The State has acknowledged and cited in numerous court filings that some police interviews and transcripts related to the double murder case were either recorded over or lost due to technological error since Abby and Libby were found in 2017, yet still stands firm that there just isn’t any evidence the defense can produce to prove itself.
The defense argues they could prove themselves if the interviews were not mishandled by police.
The State does acknowledge there was a 2017 Indiana State Police interview conducted with (name), and they were not aware of it. Once they became aware of it, they learned that the detectives did not make a formal report or record the interview. Even without actual tangible evidence, the State still says, “neither is there any evidence that the (name) interview at Logansport Police Department resulted in any potentially useful evidence much less materially exculpatory evidence.”
Prosecutor McLeland states that the third-party suspect named by the defense was at work during the time of the murders, therefore cannot be a viable suspect.
The State would like Special Judge Fran Gull to deny Baldwin and Rozzi’s second motion to dismiss charges, which has been done before. The State’s motion to limit evidence, such as third-party suspect theories, is still up in the air. The defense team’s motion to suppress prison statements made by Richard Allen is also undecided.
The trial begins October 14th and is scheduled through November 15th.
