Delphi murders trial: Jury sees videos of Richard Allen while he was being held in Westville prison

DELPHI, Ind. -- Jurors in the double murder trial of Richard Allen on Saturday were shown more than a dozen videos of Allen while he was being held in the Westville Correctional Facility.

Allen is charged with killing Libby German and Abby Williams while they were out on a walk in Delphi, Indiana on February 13, 2017.

The state objected to the videos being shown in court, the defense argued only the jury should be allowed to see them due to the "dignity" of the people involved. The defense said the video were explicit in nature.

Judge Frances Gull ruled the videos could be shown to the jury, while the monitor showing the videos were pointed away from the courtroom gallery where the media and public were sitting. Allen couldn't even see what was being shown.

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The defense shared two exhibits, camcorder video and a master sheet for the video. The master sheet included a "contains nudity" category.

The 10 videos were taken during April 2023 and didn't contain any audio.

While watching the videos, reporters in the courtroom noted one of the jurors raised their brows and looked at Allen. Several jurors were taking notes. The juror with a background as a psychologist appeared "extremely interested."

Allen looked down at his coffee mug at points during the morning. Libby's family appeared "exasperated" while the videos were played. Libby's grandmother Becky Patty had told prosecutor Nick McLeland during a pretrial hearing that people were unlikely to see these videos showing Allen, but the public would be shown gruesome crime scene and autopsy photos of Libby and Abby.

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Video #10 seemed to invoke the most emotion from those who could see it. Defense attorney Jennifer Auger appeared deeply concerned watching it. Auger held her head in her hand at one point, covered her mouth during another, and then eventually looked away.

The defense also called Indiana State Police Superintendent Doug Carter. He says he played a support role and that dozens of law enforcement agencies were involved in the investigation at first. Those included the FBI, Homeland Security, U.S. Marshals, and the ATF.

Carter said the decision for the FBI to leave the case was made in August 2021. The FBI agents working on the case turned over all their investigatory materials.

Carter was on the stand for less than 10 minutes.

The jury was then shown five more videos before the day concluded. Again, they were played for only the jury, prosecution, and defense. The screen was turned away from the public and media.

Libby's grandmother left the courtroom during the break. She was visibly upset that the videos were not being played for the public, while everyone saw the graphic autopsy and crime scene photos of Libby and Abby. Allen's wife Kathy was also notably missing from court Saturday.

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