Oct 24, 2024
DELPHI, Ind. (WANE) - It was a spirited day of testimony Thursday as the prosecutin spent the sixth day of the Delphi murder trial focused on connecting Richard Allen to the crime. Allen is accused of killing Abby Williams and Libby German— two teen girls from Delphi, Ind.—  in 2017. Their bodies were found near the Monon High Bridge on Feb. 14, 2017, a day after they had gone missing. Five people testified Thursday and attorneys from both sides were objecting to questions more than they have any day prior. Afte the lunch break, the first thing Defense attorney Andrew Baldwin said was an accusation of the witness lying to the jury. Richard Allen was also the most animated he had been so far. He wrote emphatic notes and messages to his attorneys and shook his head "no" multiple times throughout testimony from several people. Enhanced bridge video An enhanced version of the video Libby German took on the bridge on her cell phone at 2:13 pm February 13, 2017 was played in court during Sheriff Tony Liggett's testimony. The video is of Abby on the bridge and shows a man behind her. The original video had already been played in court as well as enhanced audio of the last few seconds. The video played Thursday had been stabilized and made to keep the frame in the same orientation. At one point in the original video, Libby lowers the phone and the video flips sideways. Liggett testified that he’s listened to and watched the video hundreds of times and he testified what he thinks all the audio says: Abby: “Is he right here?”Abby: “Don’t leave me up here.”Libby: “See this is the path.”Libby: (whispers) “That be a gun.”Libby: “There is no path here. We have to go down here.”Male voice: “Guys.”Libby: “Hi.”Male voice: “Down the hill.” While police released audio of the male voice saying “Down the hill” early in the investigation, this was the first time someone has said what they think the rest of the audio is. The man seen on the bridge behind Abby has been referred to as “bridge guy.” Most of Thursday’s testimony centered on making a case that Richard Allen is also “bridge guy.” Found Files Kathy Shank, retired from working with the Department of Child Services, was a volunteer who helped with administrative work in the Delphi case. She was in Florida in 2017 when the girls were killed, but came back to start helping on March, 1 2017. Her first job was as a receptionist, taking tips and giving that information to detectives. At the time, headquarters was in the old REMC building because an estimated 50 officers were working on the case and the Delphi City Building was too small. She then started receiving tips via email, which she would file into a database. She estimated on the stand that she has entered at least 14,000 tips while working half days. She eventually took on more responsibility and was tasked with taking several boxes of reports and filing them. She testified that she'd put the person's name on a file folder, put the papers inside, and then put them alphabetically into file cabinets. She filled five standard metal drawer filing cabinets. When that was done, she was tasked with entering narrative summaries into a computer database. Those summaries were the officer reports of the results of following up on a lead. In Sept. 2020, Shank started to scan all the documents she had filed in the years prior into the database. That took two years to complete. By this time, the investigation headquarters were back at in the city building, but the filing cabinets moved there too. "They were my filing cabinets. I was very protective of them," she said on the stand. When an investigation headquarters move was happening again in 2022, she discovered a box in her desk with handwritten tip numbers. It was September 21, 2022. The specific date was memorable to her because it was her late husband's birthday. Shank testified that she didn't write those handwritten tip numbers and she didn't know who did. She wanted to make sure the numbers matched the ones that had been put into the database to ensure nothing had been missed. In that box she found a lead sheet from "Richard Allen Whiteman." It was dated Feb. 16, 2017— two days after the girls' bodies were discovered. It said that "Richard Allen Whiteman" had self-reported being on the trails between 1:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. on Feb 13— the day the girls went missing— and had seen girls on the trail. Shank went to her filing cabinets, and under "W", found the Richard Allen Whiteman file.There was a narrative summary inside and a tip that was marked, "cleared." She did fix the name to say Richard Allen. Shank testified that when looking more closely at the tip, it said, "Richard Allen of Whiteman." She knew Whiteman to be a street name in Delphi. So, she concluded the mistake of putting the street name as a last name on the top of the form. In 2017, she wasn't reading the documents she was filing. She just looked at the name at the top of the lead sheet and put that name on the file folder. After finding the file in 2022, because of the location, date and mention of seeing girls, Shank took the information she had found to Tony Ligget, who was one of the investigators on the case at that time. On cross examination, Richard Allen's defense attorney Andrew Baldwin asked Shank if she knew which came first: the summary report or "cleared" marked on the file. Shank said she didn't. He also asked if she recalled any tips about a man in his 20s with brown, fluffy hair. That is a description a previous witness had given of "bridge guy" to police in her initial statement. "Sir, I had so many," Shank said on the stand. "To ask me about a specific one?" She also couldn't specifically recall a tip about a man "muddy and bloody" walking on a nearby road. Prosecuting attorney Stacey Deiner then asked to clarify if tips received by law enforcement at roadblocks would make their way to her. Shank said no. The tips she got came through email. Previous testimony by the woman who gave the tip about a "muddy and bloody" man walking on the road said she stopped at a police roadblock to report it. First interview with Richard Allen Capt. Dan Dulin with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources (DNR) helped investigators follow up on leads in 2017. Sometimes he'd do an initial contact, write a summary narrative, then hand it off to a detective. Other time he would be instructed to follow a lead as far as he could. On Feb. 18 2017— four days after the girls were found— Dulin was given the Richard Allen lead sheet. Dulin testified that he prefers to meet with people at their home or at a law enforcement office. He said, however, that Allen wanted to meet in a grocery store parking lot. While Dulin was explaining this, Allen emphatically wrote a note to defense attorney Andrew Baldwin. Baldwin showed his partner Bradley Rozzi. Dulin testified that Allen met him in the parking lot and they spoke for around ten minutes. He did not record the interview, but took notes on the back of the lead sheet. He confirmed that his name was Richard Allen, not Richard Allen Whiteman. Dulin testified that Allen told him he was on the trails between 1:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. the day the girls went missing from the Monon High Bridge Trail. He parked at what is the old DCS building to the east of the Hoosier Heartland Highway. Dulin said he incorrectly wrote the "Farm Bureau" building in his report. But, based on the conversation with Allen about which building it was, he's confident it's the old DCS building. Dulin testified that Allen told him that he accessed the trails using the trailhead using the Freedom Bridge and walked toward the High Bridge. He said Allen continued by saying he saw three girls near the Freedom Bridge, but he didn't see anyone else. Dulin also testified that Allen said he was looking down at his phone monitoring the stock ticker. Dulin said he collected Allen's cell phone information, including the MEID number— a specific identifying number for each cell phone. Dulin said he typed up his notes, adding Allen's drivers license and DMV photo and submitted the packet to detectives. He was not assigned to do a further follow up. More than five years later, in Sept. 2022, after Shank had given Ligget Allen's file, Ligget called Dulin. Dulin searched his computer and found his original summary report on Allen. He also said he decided to see if he could find more information through DNR databases, particularly searching hunting or fishing licenses. He said in court that a fishing license for Allen purchased on April 1, 2017 had his height changed from 5' 4" to 5' 6" and his weight decreased by about 15 lbs. "I thought it was uncommon for an adult to increase their height by two inches," Dulin said on the stand. However, on cross examination, defense attorney Bradley Rozzi argued that previous fishing licenses had listed Allen's height at 5' 6". Then it was 5' 4" in 2016 and changed back to 5' 6" in 2017. Dulin explained from the stand that when printing old licenses, the most recent demographic data is on the top. Printing a license from 2005 in 2017, for example, would list his height as 5' 6" in the header information because that's the 2017 entry. His report showed the most recent year-to-year, Dulin said. And that is what showed the change. Rozzi also said Dulin can't know for sure who did the data entry or who paid for the license. Dulin testified that he thinks it was Allen based on the credit card used, the email address, and the IP address from which the transaction occurred. Dulin could not recall what username was used to get the license. Rozzi also focused on what "between 1:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m." means. Dulin testified he took that to mean that Allen was on the trail for that entire timeframe. Rozzi argued Dulin did not know exactly what time Allen was on the trails and that 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. was just a window. While Rozzi asked these questions, Allen was shaking his head a lot. Rozzi questioned Dulin on why he threw out his handwritten notes after he typed his Word document report. During that questioning, he referenced a deposition he had done with Dulin several times. Rozzi also asked about Dulin searching the woods on Feb. 17, 2017— the day before he met with Allen in the grocery store parking lot, and three days after the girls were found. Dulin testified that he found a pile of sticks with blood on them and reported what he saw to investigators. The sticks were then collected. But, Rozzi's line of questioning about the commonality of finding ammunition in the woods garnered a lot of objections. Carroll County Prosecutor Nicholas McLeland made a total of ten objections during Rozzi's cross examinations. Judge Gull sustained nine of them. "If you're going to impeach him, impeach him properly," Judge Gull said to Rozzi about Dulin being on the stand. A juror asked Dulin if he remembered what Richard Allen's hair was like in 2017. He said he didn't recall. McLeland also had Dulin point out Richard Allen in the courtroom as the man he spoke to in 2017.
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