DELPHI, Ind. – After the prosecution closed out its case in the Delphi murders trial, the defense delivered its closing argument.
Richard Allen faces four counts of murder in the February 2017 deaths of Abby Williams and Libby German near the Monon High Bridge. State police announced his arrest in October 2022. Allen spent two years in custody awaiting trial.
Rozzi’s closing remarks
Attorney Bradley Rozzi delivered closing remarks for the defense. He noted there have been 17 days of testimony over the course of four weeks.
His argument for exonerating Allen revolved around four points: the state’s “broken” murder timeline, the “bungled” ballistics, “false” confessions and digital forensics.
“Time and time and time again,” Rozzi said of investigators, “we had to do their job.”
He pointed out that investigators refused to do a height analysis on the “Bridge Guy” video and lost “hours and hours” of interview videos. When it came to Allen’s Ford Focus SE, he noted the state didn’t know how many models of that car were in Carroll County in 2017 until they “did a BMV search in the middle of the trial.”
He said some witnesses were only able to present part of their accounts in court, with some of them unable to “tell you the whole story.” He recalled contentious cross-examination with Sarah Carbaugh, with whom the defense sparred over her use of “muddy” and “bloody” in different interviews with investigators.
“Got to take a breath before I talk about her,” Rozzi said.
He recounted Carbaugh’s varying descriptions, including an interview in which she said “Bridge Guy” had a tan jacket but later said it was blue after seeing the “Bridge Guy” photo that was released to the public.
“You are the judge of the credibility of witnesses,” Rozzi said, casting aspersions on Carbaugh’s testimony. He said the state didn’t call David McCain, a photographer on the Monon High Bridge on Feb. 13, 2017, because his account “didn’t fit their narrative.”
Botched investigation
He was critical of Steve Mullin, the former Delphi police chief who became an investigator for the Carroll County Prosecutor’s Office, for trying to put Allen on “the route they wanted.”
He said the fact that Brad Weber, who owns property near the crime scene, made contradictory statements about whether he went straight home after work on the day of the murders. Rozzi asserted that Weber’s gun had not been excluded, although Prosecutor Nick McLeland later said it had been tested.
He railed against the state for failing to mention that the investigation parted ways with the FBI and wondered why the state didn’t want to mention that.
He brought up the sticks and branches left on the girls’ bodies, which he said the defense had brought up.
For more than a year, Rozzi said, Allen sat in an isolated cell. The state, he said, only wanted to tell the jury what he said after six months of little human contact.
“You must ask yourself why they don’t want you to see the truth,” he said.
Rozzi pokes holes in state’s case
He referred to the cartridge found at the crime scene as the “magic bullet.” It was the catalyst for Allen’s arrest—Rozzi referred to his client as “Rick” during the proceedings—and said Melissa Oberg, the lab technician who determined the bullet had been cycled through Allen’s gun “drew a conclusion [and] you should just believe her” because that’s what “the prosecutor wants.”
He mentioned perhaps the defense’s biggest revelation in court—that their digital expert found data logs indicated something was inserted into the auxiliary port on Libby German’s phone at 5:45 p.m. and removed about five hours later.
“They didn’t tell you about that either,” Rozzi said. He also pointed out the state offered no explanation for why notifications and messages suddenly pushed through the phone at 4:33 a.m. on Feb. 14, 2017.
“You should question the credibility of this investigation,” Rozzi said.
He again brought up the white van that became central to the case and pointed out the state was “just recently” trying to fit that into its narrative.
He suggested the “desperation” of investigators to solve a murder case that had gone cold for more than five years led them to arrest Allen.
Other gaffes Rozzi mentioned included waiting more than seven years to do a search on Ford Focus models in the area and testing DNA found in Abby Williams’ hand just as the trial started. The hair belonged to Libby German’s sister, an analysis found.
When the headphone data came up in court, the state’s experts turned to Google for an explanation. Rozzi characterized that as “absolute desperation.”
More than one killer?
He said Dr. Roland Kohr, the pathologist who performed the autopsies, concluded there may have been more than one murder weapon used but changed his mind.
After his deposition, Kohr “walked into his garage and ta-da, it may have been a box cutter.” His change of heart, Rozzi said, came after he met three times with the prosecution.
He said the state’s timeline depended on two people and suggested it “would not be unreasonable to wonder if Carbaugh saw anything.” Betsy Blair’s description of “Bridge Guy” wasn’t consistent with Allen.
Several witnesses from Feb. 13, 2017, didn’t see or hear anything suspicious, Rozzi said.
He said the state “completely ignored the theory of multiple actors” in the girls’ deaths. Kohr testified multiple weapons could’ve been used. Former Carroll County Sheriff Tobe Leazenby said investigators believed more than one person was involved.
The defense has tried multiple times to introduce its alternative murder theory, but Special Judge Fran Gull said Allen’s team had produced no admissible evidence.
Rozzi said the state suggested that 5’5” Richard Allen killed the girls and didn’t leave a trace.
“The prosecutor asked you to use your common sense and now is that time,” Rozzi said.
Allen came forward himself
He said Allen came forward in 2017 to offer information to police after the murders. He cooperated in his first interrogation in October 2022 and went back for questioning a second time even though he knew he was likely a suspect at that point.
Rozzi said Allen was confronted with lies and proclaimed his innocence. He lived in Delphi for five years, worked at CVS and had a chance to leave at any point but didn’t.
Rozzi returned to the “magic bullet.” He reminded the jury that five bullets cycled through Allen’s gun and none were good enough for comparison. The state then compared a test-fired bullet to the unspent round, calling it an “apples-to-oranges” comparison and buttressing his argument with testimony from the defense’s ballistics expert, Dr. Eric Warren.
Rozzi described firearms examination as “a dangerous business” and a “subjective game.” He suggested Oberg was essentially saying, “You should just believe me” and reminded the jury that Warren believed the comparison work was poorly done.
Rozzi said the state relied on Libby’s iPhone 6s to establish its timeline and pointed out that phones have no personality, feeling or emotion. They just “generate raw data.”
He said it was a “simple conclusion” that someone was using the phone between 5:45 p.m. and 10:32 p.m., which would devastate the state’s timeline.
No trace evidence was found on items from Allen’s home, Rozzi said, suggesting that the use of a box cutter in the murders “seems like a retrofitting” by the state.
Questionable expert and confessions
He also questioned the involvement of prison psychologist Dr. Monica Wala, who was “infatuated” with the Delphi murders case, didn’t recuse herself and treated Allen at Westville Correctional Facility anyway. She testified in court about Allen’s confessions, including a more detailed account central to the state’s case.
Rozzi mentioned the night search for the girls on Feb. 13 and Feb. 14, 2017, and said search parties looked at both sides of the creek and found nothing. He contended visibility was good and search teams had lights.
No one identified Allen as “Bridge Guy,” Rozzi told the jury. There is no DNA or digital evidence linking him to the crime scene and no association between Allen and the girls. Investigators found no trace evidence in his car or on his personal items.
He attempted to poke holes in the strength of the state’s confession evidence, pointing that he believes Allen’s confessions were false. His client was a “fragile egg” who was held in solitary confinement at a state prison and treated “just like the rest of the convicted murderers and child molesters.”
He said no human could endure the conditions Allen lived in without breaking down and reminded the jury that a defense expert testified about the damaging effects of solitary confinement.
“The evidence is firm that eventually you’re going to break,” Rozzi said.
He accused the state of “cherry picking” Allen’s statements and regarded it as “insulting” that the prosecution didn’t want the jury to see videos of Allen in custody. A state witness, Dr. John Martin, changed his opinion during rebuttal testimony after seeing video of Allen, Rozzi said.
He said Allen’s admission included the phrase “I think I did it,” which a defense expert testified was an indication of false confessions.
Rozzi’s final comments
As he summed up the case, he referred to the “magic bullet” as the “tragic bullet” and said the totality of the evidence “make it impossible that Richard Allen is the killer.”
He punctuated his closing argument with a photo of a medieval torture device and showed several pictures from Allen’s cell, some of which show him lying down naked in a hood.
He was held in conditions no man or woman should endure, Rozzi said.
“We’ve asked you to set Richard Allen free and find him not guilty,” the defense attorney said.
He ended his closing arguments around 12 p.m. The court broke for lunch. The state will have a chance for a final rebuttal before the case goes to the jury.
