The defense team for Richard Allen, a Carroll County man accused in the February 2017 deaths of Delphi teenagers Abby Williams and Libby German, filed a “motion in limine” earlier this week asking the judge to dismiss key ballistics evidence in the case.
It’s one of several motions that Judge Frances Gull is expected to rule on during a 10 a.m. hearing Thursday inside Carroll Circuit Court.
According to The Law Dictionary Website, a motion in limine is a pretrial motion asking that certain evidence be found inadmissible in court, and that evidence also cannot be offered or referred to in a trial setting.
While the specifics of the motion in Allen’s case are still under seal, online court records indicate that it relates to the ballistic evidence that was reportedly found near the girls’ bodies and at Allen’s Carroll County residence.
Per a probable cause affidavit filed in November 2022, Williams and German were found a few feet away from the banks of Deer Creek, along with their nearby clothes and a .40 caliber unspent round less than two feet away from their bodies.
Investigators later obtained a search warrant for Allen’s home and reportedly located several jackets, boots, knives and firearms, including a Sig Sauer Model P226 .40 caliber pistol, court documents indicated.
Subsequent analysis of that firearm appeared to show that the unspent round found next to Williams and German reportedly cycled through it, the affidavit indicated.
That same firearm was allegedly purchased by Allen in 2001, according to investigators, and Allen reportedly told investigators that he never let anyone borrow the firearm and also didn’t have an explanation for why the bullet was found near the girls.
There was also video taken from German’s cell phone the day the girls went missing, which appeared to indicate one of the girls saying, “gun,” before a male’s voice was heard saying, “Guys, down the hill,” according to the probable cause affidavit.
The video then cuts off as the girls reportedly proceeded down the hill.
It was Feb. 14, 2017, when the bodies of Williams and German were located 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 released they had arrested Allen on two felony counts of murder for his alleged connection to the case.
During an interview with investigators, Allen admitted to being on the Monon High Bridge around the time the girls went missing, but he said he did not see Williams or German that day.