Delphi Murder Trial: Day 8 Live Blog – Indianapolis News | Indiana Weather | Indiana traffic

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) – Day eight in the trial of Delphi murder suspect Richard Allen begins Saturday morning at the Carroll County Courthouse in Delphi.

Allen, 52, is charged with murder and murder in commission or attempted kidnapping in connection with the deaths of 13-year-old Abigail “Abby” Williams and 14-year-old Liberty “Libby” German. The girls’ bodies were found near the Monon High Bridge near Delphi on February 14, 2017, a day after their disappearance.

Allen was first investigated in 2017 and again in October 2022. After a second police interview he was taken into custody.

The trial began on October 18 and was expected to last until mid-November. Sixteen Allen County residents are serving as jurors in the case.

Day 8 of the Delphi murder trial was scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. Saturday.

Tune in to News 8 and follow our live blog throughout the day for the latest developments.

NOTE: The times listed in the blog headers are the times the entries were added. Specific times for court events will be listed in the listings when available. These notes are compiled from photos of written notes provided by reporters in the courtroom and emailed to the WISH-TV newsroom.

For a quick recap of Day 7 in the Delphi Murders Trial (Friday), scroll to the bottom of the page.

Click here to view all of our previous trials.

9:00 a.m.: Saturday’s court session begins

Brief recap of day 7 in the Delphi murder trial

At 9:05 a.m., the state called its first witness to the stand: Melissa Oberg, an operational data analyst for a clinical asset health management company. Oberg previously worked as a forensic firearms analyst for the Indiana State Police but resigned in 2013.

Oberg explained to the jury the process of analyzing a firearm, the different impressions created on bullets, the gun’s parts and more. The state then showed images of an unspent .40-caliber bullet, or “miracle bullet,” found near the bodies of Libby German and Abby Williams near Deer Creek. Oberg identified the bullet as a .40 caliber Winchester cartridge that contained no biological substance. She also noted possible firing marks and compared them to the firing marks of a Glock 22, another .40 caliber weapon.

After a brief break, Oberg showed the jury a presentation that concluded that the gun collected from Richard Allen’s home in 2022 had circulated the cartridge found near the bodies. She compared the tool markings on the unused cartridge and a test cartridge and said, “Several markings matched sufficiently.” Finally, Oberg confirmed that the cartridge found at the crime scene had not been fired.

Oberg previously said that tool marks are “features imparted to an object by the contact and force exerted by a tool.”

The court took a lunch break and returned on Friday around 1:15 p.m. News 8’s Kyla Russell reported that an alternate juror did not return from lunch and was excused, leaving only 12 jurors and three alternates remaining.

Oberg continued to testify as the defense began cross-examination. Defense attorney Brad Rozzi asked Oberg to define “sufficient agreement” and discussed how PCAST ​​(President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology) has examined whether the “tool brand industry” is valid science.

Oberg and Rozzi engaged in a back-and-forth, with Oberg defining the difference between printing and firing a cartridge. She reaffirmed that the markings on the cartridge helped her determine that it matched Allen’s gun. Rozzi asked Oberg if it was possible that an unspent cartridge had flowed through multiple firearms; she agreed.

After a short break, Oberg presented exhibits and answered questions from the jurors. Questions included one about the bicycle-transported bullet found near the girls’ bodies and others about the bullets taken from Allen’s home and bicycle-transported as part of Oberg’s testing.

Oberg concluded: “The results of these tests did not produce an exact match.”