CARROLL COUNTY, Ind. — Carroll County Prosecutor Nicholas McLeland has responded to Richard Allen’s defense team’s 136-page memorandum that not only asked for evidence collected during a search warrant to be thrown out, but laid out an alternative theory that linked the Delphi murders to a cult that “ritualistically sacrificed Abigail Williams and Liberty German.”
McLeland fired back in new court filings by calling the alternative theory “a fanciful defense for social media to devour” that isn’t supported by evidence. McLeland tore into the defense’s entire 136-page memorandum, calling the large filing “colorful, dramatic and highly unprofessional.”
Chief amongst defense attorneys’ targets was a search warrant served by investigators on Richard Allen’s home in October 2022. The defense accused Sheriff Tony Liggett of lying about key information in order to have the search warrant signed by a judge.
McLeland responded by saying Liggett did not intentionally or recklessly omit evidence or lie about evidence in the probable cause affidavit that was filed with the court in order to gain the search warrant.
The prosecutor defended the search warrant by stating that all relevant information to justify a search of Allen’s home came from interviews with Richard Allen himself along with interviews with his wife. Allen admitted on his own accord to being on the trails the day Abby and Libby were killed, the prosecution said. Allen also described the clothing he was wearing to investigators — clothing that prosecutors say matched the suspect captured on Libby German’s cell phone video.
Investigators also knew a firearm may have been involved in the murder of the girls due to an unspent .40 caliber round being found between Abby and Libby’s bodies. Richard Allen told investigators he owned a gun of the same caliber.
“Under the 4th Amendment of the United States Constitution, the evidence needed to obtain a search warrant need not rise to the statute of facts necessary to obtain conviction, the circumstances alleged in the affidavit need only lead person of reasonable caution to believe that crime has been committed,” the prosecution’s filing states.
McLeland said investigators also worried that if a search of Allen’s home was not conducted immediately, there was a risk that Allen would destroy any potential evidence.
“The investigators believed through their training and experience that there was real chance that the Defendant would destroy evidence once he knew he was suspect in the crime,” the filing said.
