Last Updated 3 days by Amnon J. Jobi | Amnon Front Page

FRANKLIN, Ind. (WISH) — Following convicted killer Richard Allen’s sentencing in the Delphi murders case and the lifting of a years-long gag order, his defense team is speaking to News 8.

The gag order had long prevented anyone involved in the case from making public comments about the trial. Following Allen’s sentencing on Dec. 20, the order was lifted.

After nearly eight years since their deaths, Allen was sentenced to 130 years in prison for the murders of Carroll County teens Abby Williams and Libby German near the Monon High Bridge on Feb. 13, 2017. The 12 person jury, brought to Caroll County from Allen County, found him guilty after one a nearly month-long historical trial.

Allen’s attorneys, Andrew Baldwin and Jennifer Auger, sat down with News 8’s Kyla Russell at Baldwin’s Franklin office on Friday.

The jury deliberated for nearly 19.5 hours and with each passing hour, the defense team became more confident the jury would not reach a guilty verdict.

“It was crazy that we think this is going to be not guilty, because there were so many pitfalls in this case along the way,” Baldwin said. “For example, the confessions, these so called confession. How were we even thinking that we’re in the ball game? Brad, it’s crazy that we’re thinking that this is going to be not guilty, yet, we did.”

During deliberations, the jury asked to review video of Allen’s interviews with police and the well known “Bridge Guy” video. The defense attorneys were present in the Carroll County courtroom as the jury rewatched.

Auger said many of them appeared very engaged, some even listening with their eyes closed. She said she became more concerned about exactly where their decision process was at that point.

Allen confessed to the murders dozens of times beginning a few months after his arrest, while in solitary confinement at Westville Correctional Facility.

The jury heard recordings of those confessions through phone calls to his family and employees on his unit. Throughout the trial, the defense worked to prove each of those confessions were made while Allen was experiencing psychosis.

When asked how they hoped the jury would reconcile those confessions, Baldwin said, “for starters, Richard Allen confessed to molesting his granddaughter. He didn’t have a granddaughter. Richard Allen confessed to killing other people that weren’t relative.”

The recordings were just a few of the key pieces of evidence the jury saw throughout the trial. The defense team had advocated for the admission of more evidence to support the theory Williams and German were killed as a part of an Odinistic ritual.

The defense says it was investigators who first explored the possibility the murders were connected to the third-party suspect.

Gull did not allow the admission of the evidence, because she did not believe the defense had established enough of a connection.

The two composite sketches of the possible killer released to the public in 2017 and 2019 were also not admitted as evidence. The defense says that decision left them unable to argue that investigators once believed there was more than one killer involved.

“Police and Unified Command said it was always two to three people, or as many as, I think, five or six people, always,” Baldwin said. “They never talked about it being one person, because, you know, the evidence is it can’t be one person.”

“We also couldn’t cross examine Doug Carter about that because it undermines the investigation,” Auger said. “Had we been able to cross examine him about, ‘Ok, first you said it was this person, now you say it’s that person,’ you know, sketch 2 is not sketch 1. It’s not the same person. So, that line of cross examination was taken from us … In testimony it’s hard for the jury to come back to that. It’s hard for them to remember. People generally are visual learners, and not auditory learners. So, if those composite sketches were so indicative of the fact that Bridge Guy was not Richard Allen, right? That those sketches look nothing like Richard Allen, they look nothing like each other. That was strong visual evidence from these witnesses that were used by the state to investigate. That these witnesses gave their seal of approval, that ‘yes, that looks like the person I saw.’ So, to have those visual sketches to come back to, I think would have been incredibly important.”

Both attorneys were asked a few questions about the evidence and testimony presented.

“Brad Weber, he testified and he was subpoenaed by you on the stand there. Do you view him as a suspect?” News 8’s Kyla Russell asked.

“There’s an appeal going on and I don’t want to comment on that,” Baldwin said.

Baldwin and Auger say they plan to help in supporting the appellate attorneys assigned to Richard Allen and confirmed he does plan to try to reverse his conviction. The two maintained they believe Allen is factually innocent.

The two attorneys said more evidence has come to light that they believe could be used in the appeal process.

They also both spoke on their belief Allen was unfairly treated while incarcerated before the trial, especially as it relates to the cameras fixed on Allen both inside his cell and while he was moved.

“Who has asked the Department of Corrections Superintendent why was there a camera watching these guys talk to their client?” Baldwin asked.

Several of those videos were played for the jury to see, most of them shown on a screen turned away from the courtroom’s gallery.

When asked about the scrutiny they’ve received for shielding the videos from the courtroom, while the crime scene photos and autopsy photos of Williams and German were not shielded, they said weren’t asked by Carroll County Prosecutor Nick McLeland if the crime scene photos could be kept private to the jury. Had they been asked, they would have agreed, they said.

Allen was recently moved back to Westville as he begins to serve his sentence.

Many of the victim impact statements at the sentencing came from Williams and German’s family members. They largely centered on the impact the leaking of the crime scene photos had on their families.

Baldwin explained chronologically how the leak happened in the full interview below.

“The fallout from it for everybody is awful, the family itself,” Baldwin said. “I have to sit here and I get upset and did I cry about the thought that those photos are out there? I can get upset about it as we speak right now. Okay. And people say, “Oh, that’s just you doing it for the camera or whatever.’ But it is not. Anybody who knows me, knows that.”

Following the victim impact statements, Auger walked up to McLeland and began speaking to him inside the courthouse.

When asked what she told him, Auger said she was disturbed by the allegations that the defense had any hand in leaking the photos and felt their reputation was being called into question.

Baldwin and Auger were asked if they have been contacted by any jurors, they said no, but they’d like to hear from them.

To watch the entire interview, click here.