Delphi defense team wants police interview thrown out

Apr. 16—DELPHI — "We have experts that say that's you on the bridge, and that's your voice on the video."

"The prosecutor and the other investigators, they want to see you, lock you up and throw away the key."

"Do you realize the death penalty is on the table for this?"

That's just some of the "intimidation" the legal team for accused Delphi murder suspect Richard Allen says law enforcement used during an Oct. 26, 2022, interview with Allen inside the Indiana State Police Lafayette Post.

The defense claims it came a few days after Allen voluntarily sat down and spoke with investigators in Delphi in hopes of "assisting" with the investigation.

And while the defense argues the first interview is fine, the one that occurred on Oct. 26 should be inadmissible in court when Allen's jury trial kicks off next month in Carroll County, per a recent motion to suppress filed by defense attorneys Bradley Rozzi and Andrew Baldwin.

It was Feb. 14, 2017, when the bodies of Williams and German were located along the banks of Deer Creek near the Monon High Bridge area, after being dropped off the day before but not returning to their pick-up location.

Five years later, on Oct. 31, 2022, investigators announced they had arrested Allen on two felony counts of murder.

During an interview with police, Allen reportedly stated he was on the bridge the day the girls went missing, but he did not see them.

Along with the alleged intimidation during the interrogation, which reportedly lasted over two hours, Rozzi and Baldwin also claim the interview itself violated Allen's Constitutional rights because Miranda Rights never appeared to have been read.

"A key portion of the videotaped interrogation provided to the defense is missing," Rozzi and Baldwin wrote in their motion to suppress. "The missing portion of that video is the beginning of the interrogation when Miranda should have been read."

The defense claimed this reported violation of Constitutional rights was either due to the camera being turned on minutes into the interview, after those rights would typically be read, or the camera was recording the whole time, and the beginning was edited out before being turned over to the defense earlier this year.

"In the 70-plus years of experience between co-counsels, this is highly unusual," the defense argued, "especially on a high-profile case of this nature."

Allen's legal team went on to argue that those Miranda Rights were never read or alluded to by law enforcement during the rest of the interrogation either.

In addition, per Rozzi and Baldwin, Allen was reportedly never told he would be sitting for questioning on Oct. 26, and he was also reportedly never told he would be videotaped.

According to the defense, Allen believed he was driving to Lafayette to pick up his vehicle that had been seized since his Oct. 13 interview with investigators, the motion indicated.

Instead, Rozzi and Baldwin stated, Allen's vehicle was not returned, and Allen was arrested that day.

A large part of the defense's motion also focused on a particular exchange between Allen and a law enforcement officer named Jerry Holeman, one of the key investigators on the Delphi case.

During the interrogation, per the defense, Holeman reportedly told Allen the evidence "clearly" indicated Allen's involvement in the case, a piece of the interview Rozzi and Baldwin called more "accusatory" instead of "exploratory."

In one portion of the interrogation, Holeman was heard telling Allen "you can't get past this," "you're involved in this," and "you're guilty of something, and I'm going to f— — prove it," the defense's motion states.

Allen's trial, which is expected to last three weeks, is tentatively set to begin on May 13.

Court officials state jury deliberations are expected to be conducted in Fort Wayne, with the remainder of the trial being held inside Carroll County Circuit Court.