By Amanda Redman
cometeditor@hurdmedia.com
The state has filed its response in the appeal of Richard Allen, urging the Indiana Court of Appeals to uphold two
murder convictions against him.
Allen was convicted by a jury on Nov. 11, 2024, in Carroll Circuit Court of the deaths of 14-year-old Liberty
German and 13-year-old Abigail Williams. The girls went missing Feb. 13, 2017, near the Monon High Bridge trail
in Delphi and were found the next day in a wooded area north of the trail. On Dec. 20, 2024, Allen was sentenced by
Special Judge Fran Gull of Allen County to two consecutive 65-year terms.
In the 94-page appellee brief filed Wednesday, the Office of Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita argues Allen’s
convictions should stand, maintaining that evidence and multiple confessions were properly admitted at trial. Rokita,
Ellen Meilaender, supervising deputy attorney general, and Jodi Stein, deputy attorney general, signed off on the
brief as counsel for the appellee.
According to the state’s filing, evidence presented at trial showed Allen encountered the girls on the trail, forced
them “down the hill” at gunpoint and ultimately killed them in a secluded area, citing witness accounts and ballistic
evidence linking an unspent cartridge at the scene to Allen’s handgun.
The brief also points to Allen’s numerous confessions, made to prison staff and family members, arguing they
were voluntary and not the result of coercion.
The attorneys general also addressed Allen’s efforts to point to other possible suspects, including those identified
through third-party theories. The state argues that evidence presented at trial regarding those individuals did not
undercut the case against Allen. One purported suspect, Brad Holder, was shown to have a confirmed alibi. Another,
Patrick Westfall, had no credible connection to the murders beyond conjecture, the brief states.
“The trial court properly excluded Allen’s proffered alternate-suspect evidence pertaining to Brad Holder and
Patrick Westfall. Allen was permitted to present evidence challenging the quality of the police investigation and their
long-term suspicion that more than one individual had been involved in the crime,” the brief states on Page 81.
In his appellant brief filed Dec. 18, Allen’s attorneys challenged the validity of a search warrant, the admissibility
of his statements and several rulings. The state counters those claims as either waived or without merit, asserting the
warrant was supported by probable cause and that any alleged errors were “harmless,” given the weight of the
evidence.
“Any of these alleged errors, individually or collectively, is harmless given the powerful independent evidence of
guilt,” the brief states on Page 85.
The filing asks the appellate court to affirm Allen’s convictions in full.
Indiana Court of Appeals will now review the issues raised by both sets of attorneys before affirming, reversing or
remanding the conviction.