DELPHI, Ind. – Convicted Delphi murderer Richard Allen will learn his punishment Friday.
Special Judge Fran Gull will sentence Allen for the February 2017 murders of Abby Williams and Libby German near the Monon High Bridge. Friday’s proceedings will include victim impact statements.
Allen faces between 45 years and 130 years in prison.
The sentencing hearing comes more a month after a jury found Allen guilty on four counts of murder. The verdict followed 17 days of testimony in the high-profile murder case.
Prosecutors said Allen put himself on the bridge on Feb. 13, 2017—the day of the murders—and linked him to the crime scene through an unspent cartridge found at the crime scene. A forensic firearms expert testified the cartridge had been cycled through Allen’s Sig Sauer P226. Police recovered the firearm during an October 2022 search of Allen’s home in Whiteman Drive.
While in custody, Allen confessed to the murders dozens of times. Gull allowed the confessions—and the bullet evidence—to be admitted at trial over the objections of Allen’s defense lawyers, Andrew Baldwin and Bradley Rozzi.
The special judge, appointed to the case by the Indiana Supreme Court after the original judge recused himself, stymied the defense’s efforts to present its alternative murder theory in court. Allen’s attorneys blamed Odinists, members of a Norse pagan group, for killing the girls as part of a ritual.
Allen’s attorneys filed a motion this week maintaining his innocence and saying they would not present evidence at Friday’s sentencing hearing. They plan to move forward with an appeal.
The trial began with jury selection in Fort Wayne on Oct. 14 before the proceedings shifted to Delphi on Oct. 18. The state and defense delivered closing arguments on Nov. 7, putting the case in the jury’s hands. Jurors delivered their verdict on Nov. 11.
