Jurors in Delphi were told that the “mechanical imprint” left on an unused cartridge found between the bodies of murdered teenagers Liberty German and Abigail Williams could not have been left by the gun seized from the man accused of shooting them. have killed.

As Richard Allen’s highly anticipated Indiana trial entered its sixteenth day at the Carroll County Courthouse, the court heard extensive expert testimony presented by the defense.

Allen, 52, was charged with four counts in connection with the murders of his best friends Libby, 14, and Abby, 13, two of murder and two of felony murder, murder committed during the act of ‘another crime, in this case kidnapping.

If convicted on all counts, he faces a maximum sentence of 130 years in prison.

The only physical connection between Allen and the crime scene in the woods near the Monon High Bridge Trail where the girls were hiking from which they would never return on February 13, 2017 was an unspent cartridge found in the dirt near Libby’s foot.

Richard Allen. 52, faces murder charges for 2017 deaths of teenage best friends Libby and Abby

Allen is accused of killing his best friends Libby, 14, and Abby, 13, after they took a hike outside their hometown of Delphi, Indiana, in February 2017.

According to the state, which called its own firearms inspector during its case, the scratches and imprints found on the cartridge are compelling evidence that, although it was never fired, it was ” recycled”, Allen’s Sig Sauer P226 40 caliber which was seized from his home. before his arrest on October 26, 2022.

But today the defense fought back by calling in its own expert.

Dr. Eric Warren took the stand Tuesday afternoon to say he found no “individual features” on the cartridge matching the marks made by the ejector, extractor or chamber of Allen’s gun.

In fact, the state’s expert, Michelle Oberg, was only able to repeat the marks found on the unused cartridge by firing test rounds from the gun. Cycling alone did not produce sufficiently salient scores for analysis.

According to Warren Oberg, this was “comparing apples to oranges” and should have used unused cartridges for comparison.

The suspect was first spotted in footage captured on the cellphone of one of the girls before they were killed.

For 13 months, Allen was held in the most secure unit at Westville Correctional Center, in solitary confinement and often on suicide watch.

Prosecutor James Luttrull Jr sought to undermine the doctor’s testimony during an aggressive cross-examination during which he established that Warren produced no expert report and never examined the cartridge himself, instead relying on a “handful of photographs” from which he drew his conclusions.

Later, forensic computer analyst Stacy Eldridge took the stand in an effort to cast doubt on the state’s timeline, largely gleaned from evidence taken from Libby’s cell phone that they said stopped moving at 2:32 p.m. on February 13, 2017 and never moved. Again.

According to Eldridge, she had found evidence that the phone had been in and out of the reception area while Libby was known to be walking the trail, then exited the reception area starting at 5:45 p.m. on February 13 to reconnect to the cell tower at 4:33 the next morning. , when several text messages, voicemails and missed calls suddenly filled the phone.

Eldridge suggested that the lack of reception could only be explained by an external factor such as the phone – which was found under Abby’s body – being in a metal building or someone using a monitoring device. signal blocking.

Family members of Liberty German and Abigail Williams listened to the announcement from Indiana State Police Superintendent Doug Carter during a news conference in Delphi, Indiana, Monday, Oct. 31, 2022 .

At the beginning and end of that period, Eldridge said he identified a time when someone plugged in the jack on a wired headset and unplugged it.

According to the defense, this means the phone was “handled by human hands” at a time when Allen could not be placed at the crime scene.

But under cross-examination by prosecutor Nick McLeland, Eldridge’s confidence crumbled and she was forced to admit that water damage or even dirt could have caused an erroneous recording of “activity » of the audio output.

She also admitted that the most likely explanation for the phone going in and out of reception was that it had simply interrupted service, as it had intermittently throughout the day, due to the remote, wooded place in which he had been found.

The defense focused heavily on the conditions in which Allen was held while awaiting trial.

For 13 months, he was held in the most secure unit at Westville Correctional Center, in solitary confinement and often on suicide watch.

The abandoned Monon High Bridge outside Delphi, Indiana, where Abby and Libby were murdered

The two best friends were last seen alive during their fateful hike to the Monon High Bridge in February 2017.

This is part of a concerted attempt to convince the jury that the multiple confessions made by Allen during this period cannot be relied upon but rather were the product of a man suffering from major depressive disorder accompanied by psychosis in due to the stress of his situation.

This morning, they hit the nail on the head again with the testimony of Dr. Stuart Grassinan, psychiatrist and isolation specialist at Harvard.

According to Grassinan, the bizarre behavior Allen displayed primarily between April and June 2023, which included smearing his own feces on his cell and eating it, were “classic” examples of environmentally induced psychosis or delirium. “extremely lonely” and “toxic.” environment of prolonged detention in solitary confinement.

The defense should rest tomorrow.