Day three of the Delphi murder case pre-trial hearings with final arguments

 

UPDATE: Right before adjourning court today, Aug.1, Judge Fran Gull did grant the defense's motion to vacate Richard Allen's safekeeping order.

This means Allen doesn't have to stay in prison anymore awaiting trial, instead he's now in the custody of the Carroll County Sheriff, who wouldn't share where he's taking him.

She didn't rule on any other motions yet.

The defense today, tried to prove third-party motivation in the Delphi murders because of the prosecution motion to limit witnesses at trial.

Allen's Attorney's Baldwin and Rossi, got deeper into their theory that this was a ritualistic killing done by multiple people, we've heard their suspicion of Brad Holder, a known Odinist, and today we heard from his ex-wife.

Amber Holder testifying that Brad said his buddy Patrick Westfall and others killed the girls, but he had to keep his mouth shut otherwise they would kill him too.

A former ISP investigator said that he always thought there had to be multiple killers and the defense tried to revisit another former suspect Keegan Kline.

But with each witness, the prosecution kept going back to how none of the alleged Odinists nor old suspects can be placed at the crime scene at the time of the murders.

Another thing the defense wants included at trial is cell phone data that shows roughly 15 messages popping up on Libby German's phone at 4:33 a.m. the morning of Feb. 14 2017.

The thinking is her phone, which was found under one of the bodies, had been somehow turned on by someone.

The first witness of the day was an expert on ritualistic symbols and sacrifice, and testified quote, " this was a textbook ritual killing."

Specifically, she believes one of the trees at the crime scene was intentionally marked to make an Odinist symbol.

So near the end of the day the prosecution, calling their own expert, a crime scene investigator from LaPorte County, who testified that that mark on the tree was likely from Libby's own hand after she was injured. 

That expert, explaining how Liberty German had been moving around while she was injured, standing and sitting, and that she had been dragged.

Abby Williams, meanwhile, staying in the same spot, the blood saturating her gray hoodie. 

ORIGINAL: CARROLL COUNTY, Ind. -- It's day three in Delphi, for the pre-trial hearings of Richard Allen, with final arguments for the defenses motion to suppress alleged prison confessions made by Allen. 

It seems the defense tried to show Allen's incrimination was just a product of his psychosis yesterday, with his psychologist Dr. Minica Walla testifying that she had no doubt that Allen suffered a serious mental illness, including brief psychotic disorder during a four-month period in 2023, which coincides with when Allen started confessing to the murders.

The defense wanted those statements thrown out of the jury trial in Oct.

The prosecution, however, stated Allen's rights were not violated and that he chose to make those statements, with Dr. Walla even having said to him not to talk about his case. 

Judge Gal, taking all this under advisement, with the next hearing kicking off right after the defense, had to defend the relevance of some witnesses to the case because of the prosecutions motion to limit.

Defense Attorney Andrew Baldwin and his opening statements say his witnesses can show the murders had to have been done by more than one person, and this is where the Odinism, or Norse Paganism theory came back. He weaves the web of men he believes to be both oldest and connected to the murders. After all, he explains that there were ritualistic markings at the crime scene.

Baldwin calls his first witness, Dawn Perlmutter, the Director of the Symbol Intelligence Group, who testified that quote, " This was a textbook ritual murder".

They go through common indicators of ritual killings and Perlmutter explains how symbols at the scene could be indicators. 

The prosecution, quickly trying to discredit her in cross examination, said she didn't have all the evidence, just what the defense "spoon-fed" to her.

There are still several more witnesses under this motion.