DELPHI, Ind. – A clinical psychologist who examined Richard Allen while he was in custody described her interactions with Allen during his time at Westville Correctional Facility, including his account of the day of the murders.
Allen is charged with four counts of murder in connection with the deaths of Abby Williams and Libby German near the Monon High Bridge. State police announced his arrest in October 2022. His trial started earlier this month.
On Day 10, jurors watched two videotaped interviews with Allen from October 2022. One involved current Carroll County Sheriff Tony Liggett and Carroll County Prosecutor’s Office investigator Steve Mullin. The second involved ISP investigator Jerry Holeman and ended with Allen’s arrest.
The jury also heard from a warden and several corrections officers about “confessions” Allen made regarding the Delphi murders. At one point, Allen said he killed the girls with a box cutter and disposed of it in a CVS dumpster. Guards testified that Allen displayed odd behavior while in custody.
Day 11 testimony
On Day 11, Dr. Monica Wala took the stand. She was employed as the lead psychologist for the Indiana Department of Correction and was technically a contractor. She primarily worked at Westville and provided services to Allen while he was in custody.
Wala took on Allen because of the high-profile nature of his case. She first saw him in November 2022. He was frequently on suicide watch, which meant corrections personnel had to keep him on close observation.
Wala didn’t initially discuss the Delphi murders with Allen and discouraged him from talking about the case with others.
In an April 5, 2023, patient complaint, Allen said, “I killed Abby and Libby. I’m sorry.” He said he made sure they were dead so they didn’t suffer and believed they were deceased by the time he left.
He was back on suicide watch at the time.
He became tearful and said he committed the murders by himself. According to Wala’s account, Allen said his intentions were “sexual” in nature and he alluded to having a sex addiction. He believed the girls were older—perhaps 18 or 19—although he also thought they could’ve been as young as 11.
He also said he was an alcoholic and had been both a victim and perpetrator of child molestation.
He wanted to apologize to the girls’ families.
Allen told Wala he was glad he didn’t kill himself and expressed appreciation for being housed and clothed at the facility. He told her he slept with his Bible and had committed himself to God.
His thought process was “all over the place” at times and his emotions were “up and down.”
During a May 2 report, Wala noted that Allen said he killed the girls, asked if it was “okay” for him to kill himself and added he didn’t want to die because he was “too much of a coward.”
He had trouble staying on topic but Wala noted that he didn’t appear psychotic. She believed he had “situational psychosis,” meaning he would have episodes of psychosis at times and then go into remission.
Allen recounts Feb. 13, 2017
On May 3, Allen wanted to call his wife and recounted the events of Feb. 13, 2017.
He said he saw his mother in the morning in Mexico, Indiana. He was offered an invitation to go out for lunch but declined. He told Wala he drank three beers and then went to the trails.
He saw Abby and Libby walking on the trail and followed them. He said he did “something” with his gun and that’s when the bullet fell out. He ordered the girls “down the hill” with the intent to rape them.
By his account, he saw something—either a man or a van, it was unclear in court—that startled him. He ordered the girls across the creek, cut their necks and then covered their bodies with tree branches. He walked to his car, which he’d parked at a nearby building.
Wala noted that Allen seemed “relieved” after the admission
Allen continued to live his life as normal after the killings, he said.
Allen's conversation with wife
On May 5, Allen was at a high risk for suicide, leading guards to watch him closely.
On May 9, he said, “I just want to sign my confession.” Wala suggested he talk to his attorneys. Allen talked about planning his “last meal” and killing himself. He exhibited no evidence of psychotic symptoms, Wala noted.
On May 10, Allen had trouble with his prison-issued tablet. He was able to call his wife.
During that conversation, he mentioned the electric chair and asked if his family still loved him.
“I didn’t do everything I said I did, but I killed Abby and Libby,” he said during the conversation.
His wife hung up on him.
On May 11, Allen said he wanted “closure” by apologizing to the girls’ families, adding that he needed to “forgive himself.”
After a break in the proceedings, Wala discussed Allen’s bizarre behavior and said she believed he was “faking symptoms.”
In an April 10 report, she mentioned that papers were “strewn all over the place” in his cell. She believed the documents were from discovery material from the case.
She said it appeared he received those materials around the time he started confessing to the Delphi murders.
In an April 13 report, Wala said Allen’s behavior became stranger, with him lying in and consuming feces. She believed he was having an “emotional breakdown from guilt” and believed the behavior surfaced after he saw discovery evidence.
An Aug. 3 report noted that Allen said he “wanted to go to heaven” but was afraid of dying. He was “confused” and “not rational anymore.”
Rozzi's cross-examination
During cross-examination, defense attorney Bradley Rozzi tore into Wala on the stand, questioning her credentials and her interest in the Delphi murders case.
Wala told the court she’d followed the case through podcasts and social media and even engaged with posts about it. As the investigation developed, she said she became more involved and used the IDOC database to search for information the public didn’t have access to.
She followed podcasts and online chat rooms, contributed information and told people where to go for more information. She became even more interested in the Delphi case after Allen’s arrest.
She shut her accounts down after someone pointed out she was following the case so closely. She didn’t disclose her interest in the case to her employer.
“[You] never disclosed to employer you were following [the case] so closely?” Rozzi asked.
“We discussed it when we learned he was coming into the facility,” Wala said. She told the court she never made a formal report.
When Rozzi asked her if she would stop following the case if she had it to do all over again, she replied, “Probably.”
She testified that she sometimes shared information with Allen about what she saw online.
She said Allen’s psychiatric history involved major depressive disorder and said it was “possible” he demonstrated characteristics of dependent personality syndrome.
When Rozzi asked if Allen was a “fragile man” while in IDOC custody, she answered, “He was.”
Rozzi asked about his cell conditions and said the lights were always on. Wala told the court she believed he could dim them. Allen had no privacy in the cell and Rozzi suggested he was more secure or restricted than other inmates.
He couldn’t “mingle” with other inmates, Wala told Rozzi.
After lunch, Wala continued to be pressed by Rozzi and admitted to traveling to the Monon High Bridge to visit the area of the crime. She told the defense attorney that she followed true crime in general, not just the Delphi case.
During conversations with Allen, she allegedly told Allen at points to "maintain hope" by stressing that he had "supporters out there."
Wala spoke further on Allen's mental decline while in prison, specifically in April 2023. She noted "fatalistic delusions," "hopelessness," "insomnia" and "suicidal ideations."
"Did you discover he had a grave disability?" Wala was asked.
"Yes," she responded.
This led to Allen's first dose of involuntary medication on April 13, 2023. On May 11, he received his second injection of Haloperidol, a drug used for mental disorders. Wala stated how Allen continued to show signs of self-harm, such as bruising from banging his head, which led to another involuntary injection on June 5.
Wala agreed when asked if Allen met the criteria for serious mental illness. She also agreed that it was reasonable to believe that being kept in solitary negatively affected his mental health.
In a May 2024 statement, Wala stated she began questioning whether or not she believed Allen was faking his symptoms.
Wala stepped down from the witness stand at 3:10 p.m.