This from wane.com: INDIANAPOLIS — A new batch of evidence that has never been seen outside of a courtroom was filed Monday as part of Richard Allen’s efforts to reverse his conviction in the murders of Abby Williams and Libby German.
The two best friends were slain near a hiking trail in Delphi in 2017, and their killer remained a mystery until Allen was arrested in 2022 and convicted one year ago this week.
The newly-filed evidence came at the request of Allen’s appellate team, which indicated it needed the evidence pursue the appeal.
It was a massive blow to Allen’s defense strategy when Judge Fran Gull ruled that his attorneys could not introduce any evidence during the jury trial that pointed towards another suspect in the killing. His defense team had planned to try and convince a jury that several practitioners of a religion known as Odinism had killed the girls in a ritualistic sacrifice.
Judge Gull ruled there was not enough “nexus” or connection between the supposed third-party suspects and the crime.
The 1,200 pages of material released Monday are from the Franks hearing held in September 2023, and they contain loads of evidence related the Odinism theory along with several depositions of key investigators.
Many of the exhibits are posts made by a man named Brad Holder, who is a confirmed Odinist and was looked into by investigators. Holder’s son was a friend of Abby Williams.
Some of the exhibits include a photo of a large branch covering two people, which is similar to the layout of the crime scene.
Also included is a painting Holder did that resembles the way one of the girls’ bodies was posed and several posts of symbols made with sticks. Allen lawyers claim sticks at the crime scene were deliberately placed on the girls’ bodies to make Odinist symbols.
“Remember, they thought it was two people and they released sketches of two people, and they asked the entire nation to identify those two people, neither of whom was the eventual defendant,” Defense Attorney John Tompkins said.
Tompkins has followed the case closely, and recently told FOX59/CBS4 that be believes challenging Judge Gull’s decision to not allow any of that evidence will be the strongest argument for Allen’s appeal.
“The jury needs to understand this was not a single perpetrator theory, and this guy was not the first guy that you wanted to arrest,” Tompkins said.
