Delphi murders: Convicted killer Richard Allen sentenced to 130 years

Convicted Delphi, Indiana, killer Richard Allen was sentenced on Friday to 130 years in prison for the 2017 murders of two teenage girls as the victims’ families spoke out in court.

Allen was given 65 years for each murder, to run consecutively.

Allen, wearing an orange jumpsuit, a gray sweatshirt and ankle chains, looked over at the courtroom seats reserved for his family, which sat empty. None of his relatives attended the sentencing.

He showed no reaction to his sentence.

Last month, a jury found Allen guilty on all charges in the double homicide: felony murder for the killing of 13-year-old Abigail “Abby” Williams while attempting to commit kidnapping; felony murder for the killing of 14-year-old Liberty “Libby” German while attempting to commit kidnapping; murder for knowingly killing Abby; and murder for knowingly killing Libby.

A gag order prevented the families of Abby and Libby from commenting during or after Allen’s trial.

Libby’s grandmother, Becky Patty, broke her silence on Friday, saying at sentencing, “I can never change my choice to let Libby and Abby go to the trails that day.”

“I hope he lives with the same fear he caused Abby and Libby in the last hour of their lives,” she said.

Libby’s mom, Carrie Timmons, said Allen’s decisions created a “path of destruction.”

“I was blind that such evil existed,” she said.

Timmons said she suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, guilt and anxiety.

She said Libby would be 22 years old now, but the family has stopped celebrating her birthday because it’s too difficult.

“You could’ve taken accountability,” Libby’s grandfather, Mike Patty, said to Allen. “You need to stand up and not appeal.”

Abby’s grandmother, Diane Erskin, said, “This is a day of great sadness for our family. We won’t be going home to celebrate with champagne.”

Nearly eight years since her granddaughter’s murder, Erskin said, “I’ve watched her friends graduate college and wonder how many great grandkids were murdered that day, too.”

Erskin said Abby’s last words in Libby’s phone were “don’t leave me up here,” so the grieving grandmother didn’t let herself leave the trial even during tough testimony.

Indiana State Police Lt. Jerry Holeman called the crime “brutal,” telling the judge Abby and Libby were stalked, kidnapped, humiliated and “treated like animals.”

“I can’t imagine their fear,” he said.

He called Allen “manipulative and persuasive” and said he has a “lack of remorse.”

Judge Fran Gull said to Allen, “I’ve spent 27 years as a judge and you rank right up there with the most heinous crimes in the state of Indiana.”

“You rank right up there in the extraordinary impact on family, including the generational impact,” she said. “These families will deal with your carnage forever.”

“You sit here and roll your eyes at me like you rolled your eyes at me through this trial,” she said.

At a news conference after the sentencing, Carroll County Prosecuting Attorney Nicholas McLeland thanked Abby and Libby for helping catch their own killer.

Libby had the “wherewithal to pull out her phone … to know that something wasn’t right” and record the suspect as he walked across the bridge, McLeland said, calling it “arguably the biggest piece of evidence that we had — that recording.”

He praised Abby for hiding the phone from the killer so law enforcement could find it.

Indiana State Police Superintendent Doug Carter stressed that anyone who shares the leaked crime scene photos of Abby and Libby should be held accountable.

“The crime scene photos are still out there,” McLeland said, urging anyone who receives the photos to delete them to avoid revictimizing the families.

McLeland has filed a motion to keep the crime scene photos, autopsy photos and Allen’s mental health records confidential.

Carroll County Sheriff Tony Liggett apologized to the families for the case taking eight years to reach a conclusion.

“There will never be any closure in this case,” the sheriff told reporters. “A form of justice was served, but it does not bring Abby or Libby back. These families will live every day without two of the most important people in their lives. They’re missing milestones because a low-life coward decided to take their innocent lives.”

Abby and Libby were walking along a Delphi hiking trail when they were attacked on Feb. 13, 2017. Their throats were slit and their bodies were dumped in the nearby woods.

Moments before the murders, Libby posted a photo of Abby on Snapchat showing her on the Monon High Bridge. After crossing the bridge, the girls saw a man behind them — who became known as “bridge guy” — and Libby started a recording on her phone, according to prosecutors.

As police looked for the suspect, they released footage from Libby’s phone to the public: a grainy image of “bridge guy” and an audio clip of him telling the girls to go “down the hill.”

Allen, a husband and father who worked at the local CVS, was arrested in 2022.

“He developed photos with no remorse and he didn’t blink,” Becky Patty said in court on Friday.

Allen admitted to police he was on the trail that day, but he denied being involved in the crime.

The prosecution’s key physical evidence was a .40-caliber unspent round discovered by the girls’ bodies. Police analysis determined that unspent round was cycled through Allen’s Sig Sauer Model P226, prosecutors said.

Another major focus of the trial was Allen’s multiple confessions in jail and his mental health at the time. The defense argued Allen was in a psychotic state when he confessed numerous times to his psychologist, corrections officers and his wife.