Families of Delphi murder victims speak out at Richard Allen sentencing: 'Time for your life to be a living hell'

DELPHI, Ind. (WXIN) – Richard Allen, the man convicted in the Delphi murders, learned his punishment Friday.

Special Judge Fran Gull sentenced Allen to 130 years for the murders of Abby Williams and Libby German, whose bodies were found in February 2017. Friday's proceedings also included victim impact statements.

Allen had faced between 45 years and 130 years in prison. He was given two 65-year sentences to be served consecutively, for a total of 130 years.

The sentencing hearing comes more than a month after a jury found Allen guilty on four counts of murder. The verdict followed 17 days of testimony in the high-profile case.

Prosecutors said Allen put himself on the Monon High Bridge — near where the girls' bodies were found — on Feb. 13, 2017, the day of the murders. They also said they linked him to the murders through an unspent cartridge found at the crime scene. A forensic firearms expert testified the cartridge had been cycled through Allen’s Sig Sauer P226, a firearm recovered by police during an October 2022 search of Allen’s home.

While in custody, Allen confessed to the murders dozens of times. Gull allowed the confessions — and the bullet evidence — to be admitted at trial over the objections of Allen’s defense lawyers, Andrew Baldwin and Bradley Rozzi. The attorneys argued Allen's confessions were the result of mental duress he suffered while being held in isolation for months.

The special judge, appointed to the case by the Indiana Supreme Court after the original judge recused himself, stymied the defense’s efforts to present its alternative murder theory in court. Allen’s attorneys blamed Odinists, members of a Norse pagan group, for killing the girls as part of a ritual.

Allen's attorneys filed a motion this week maintaining his innocence and saying they would not present evidence at Friday's sentencing hearing. They plan to move forward with an appeal.

The trial began with jury selection in Fort Wayne on Oct. 14 before the proceedings shifted to Delphi on Oct. 18. The state and defense delivered closing arguments on Nov. 7, putting the case in the jury’s hands. Jurors delivered their verdict on Nov. 11.

During the sentencing hearing, Allen responded to a handful of questions from Gull. It was the first time he’d spoken in court. He provided his name, answered a few questions and declined to speak on his own behalf. Gull advised him he had the right to appeal.

Friday’s proceedings

Six family members described the impact of the girls’ murders on their lives and admonished the defense for its handling of the case. They were upset about the release of crime scene photos that stemmed from an evidence leak in 2023. The photos forced them to relive their nightmare over and over, they told the court.

Lt. Jerry Holeman, an Indiana State Police investigator who handled the case for years, said police “poured our hearts and souls” into the case for nearly eight years and called the murders “very brutal.” He said no one can imagine the fear the girls encountered that day and noted that Allen went on to live a normal life like nothing had happened.

Holeman interrogated Allen in October 2022. The interview ended with Allen daring Holeman to arrest him. Holeman obliged.

Kerry Timmons, Libby German’s mother, couldn’t adequately explain the “path of destruction” Allen left in his wake. She told the court she couldn’t process how Allen, a husband and father, could’ve done something so heinous.

German would be 22 years old and should be here, Timmons said, and the family was “cheated” out of her life, leaving them with “massive grief” and a “hole in my soul.”

“I’ll never understand how you were able to get away with this for so long,” she told the court.

“Please put me on your visitors’ list. I’ll listen,” she said, alluding to Allen’s desire to apologize to the girls’ families from one of his confessions.

Josh Lank, a cousin of German’s, said she was one-of-a-kind, and that Allen took “so much away from those girls.”

He said God had no place for him but “the devil has a place for him.”

“This man has made my family’s life a living hell,” he said. “Now it’s time for your life to be a living hell.”

He suggested Allen was a “dead man walking.”

Abby Williams’ grandmother, Diana Erskin, called the sentencing hearing a “day of great sadness.”

Williams brought so much joy to the family, she said. She wondered how she would ever erase the memories of the autopsy and crime scene photos.

“Sleep is not an escape,” she said, adding she seldom sleeps through the night without waking up.

“I will never be the same person I was before Abigail’s murder,” she said. “[Allen] took Abby’s life on earth but she had already given her heart to God.”

Williams' grandfather, Eric Erskin, also took the stand. Like other family members, he said the murders were difficult to process and likened Abby’s death to “losing a limb that will never grow back.”

He called the murders a “horrific and senseless” act. What he saw at the trial only “affirmed he worst nightmares” about what his granddaughter and her friend went through.

“You will never take away our memories and their legacy,” he said.

He criticized Allen for failing to set the record straight when he had the chance.

Becky Patty, German’s grandmother, appeared angry on the stand. She had previously delivered emotional testimony during the trial. She said Allen was lying in wait and drank beer for “liquid courage” before he “viciously and heartlessly” killed the girls.

She called him a coward and noted he’d developed photos for German’s funeral as part of his job as a pharmacy technician at the local CVS. This proved he showed no remorse, she told the court.

“He robbed us all,” she said. “The world was robbed.”

Patty then set her sights on Allen’s defense attorneys. Their actions, she said, had twisted the knife over and over, with crime scene photos still being shared online to this day, victimizing the families and the girls.

She described the “deafening silence” at home and the grandchildren who would never come into their lives.

“Their lives mattered,” she said. “He is the one responsible for all of this. This sentence needs to reflect the murders and each day [the girls] would have lived.”

She told the court she hoped he ended up in the general prison population so he could have the “human interaction he desperately craves.”

Patty also said she hoped Allen’s “relationship with God” will compel him to stop the case from going forward.

“I live with my choice to let them go to the trails that day,” Patty said. “What about you, Richard Allen?”

Mike Patty, German’s grandfather, also addressed the court. He called out the podcasters and YouTubers who suggested the family and police were corrupt. He reminded the court that the family received crime scene photos and noted Allen had showed no remorse and no regret.

Like other family members, he said he couldn’t imagine the fear the girls felt once they encountered Allen on Feb. 13, 2017. He asked for a harsh sentence.

“This is a man who, if allowed out, will kill again,” he said. “He’s a dangerous man.”

Once the victim impact statements were over, Gull asked Allen if he wanted to address the court.

“No, your honor,” Allen answered.

Gull said she has been a judge for a long time and presided over some hideous cases. The Delphi murders ranked “right up there,” she said. The impact on the families was “astonishing” and they had to deal with Allen’s “carnage.”

Gull then addressed Allen directly.

“You sit here and roll your eyes at me as you have rolled your eyes at me throughout this trial,” Gull said. It was a telling moment, given that media and court observers couldn’t see Allen from their vantage point to gauge his reaction to various happenings in court.

With her role in the case at its end, Gull lifted the gag order that had been in place for more than two years. The proceedings concluded with a contentious exchange between defense attorney Jennifer Auger and McLeland.