INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) -- Richard Allen, the man convicted of murder in the 2017 Delphi Murders case, was sentenced to 130 years in prison on Friday.
The family of Liberty "Libby" German, one of the two girls murdered in 2017, provided victim impact statements following the sentencing.
Your Honor,
I've struggled for weeks over writing this. Because, I honestly am not sure how to explain the path of destruction left in the wake of the decisions made by Richard Allen on February 13, 2017. That day changed all of our lives, in so many ways, forever. Libby was always my go to for advice. She somehow would have known exactly what to say in this situation. And I have no doubt that she is currently holding my pen. I had no problem getting the word out when he was just "bridge guy" and had not been identified. But I honestly don't know how to process the fact that a husband and father is capable of the horrendous acts of brutality inflicted upon our beautiful children! I was totally blind to the fact that such evil actually existed. I don't know which is worse, knowing or not knowing.
The last 2,867 days (as of 12/20) have been absolute hell for Libby and Abby's friends and family! Next week, we should be celebrating our birthdays together (12/25 and 12/27). Libby would be 22. She should be here! I quit celebrating after her 14th and my 39th. I can't help but to see her grin at that. Understanding the anxiety that she knew I had about turning the dreaded 40...
As Libby's mom, I am left with so many what ifs? I'm left without memories of her growing up.
Getting her driver's license and first car. Her first job. She didn't get to graduate and go on to college. We were cheated out of seeing her be the best auntie. She doesn't get to fall in love, get married and have babies! She was robbed of the opportunity to experience life and fulfill all of the dreams and aspirations she already had at such a young age.
I can't even put into words what it feels like to see other parents and their children get those things. For their lives to go on, makes no sense to me. I shouldn't be jealous of them, but I am. I can't understand how life managed to go on for everyone else, while mine stopped.
Instead of those memories and milestones, I am left with this massive grief. A literal hole in my soul. Broken relationships, shattered hearts and broken dreams. I struggle daily with guilt, crippling anxiety, complex PTSD and severe depression. But, I have continued to persevere in a world that I don't want to live in without her.
My daughters were robbed of their big sister, their childhood, their innocence and life as they knew it. They had to grow up through so much turmoil. Alexis turned 11 just three days after her sister's body was found, on my grandmother's birthday, Birthdays are hard around here.
I'll never understand how he was able to get away with it for so long. How can such evil hide in plain sight? Continuing to walk down streets lined with his picture. Making a mockery of law enforcement, the families, the community and especially Libby and Abby for nearly six years!!
Only Richard Allen has those answers. He has claimed remorse and a need to apologize. I won't hold my breath waiting, but I do deserve those answers! Libby and Abby deserve the whole truth to come out. And I am all ears.
While there will never really be justice or closure, and nothing will bring my daughter back, I am so very proud of her for not only exposing her and Abby's killer, but also bringing much needed attention to so many cases near and far. This tragedy hasn't completely stopped Libby from accomplishing at least one dream from beyond the grave. Her courage and strength will live on as she guides us through this lifetime. Until we meet again, she is my sunshine.
Honorable Judge Fran Gull: We appreciate your firm, fair guidance and direction, your ability to thwart off all the unnecessary noise and acts that were deployed during this process, thank you for standing firm and staying focused on what needed to be done. I request you provide the maximum sentence allowed by our justice system and whatever that sentence is, would also have no possibility of parole. There is no parole available to our girls. For this I will never forget sury: did wot ReAd - NoT present We appreciate your time spent here; and being away from your families.
You've had to see and hear things in our society should not be so, but unfortunately due to the acts of the convict this what needed to be done.
Being able to absorb and look at things objectively thru an unfiltered lens and delivering the verdict, thank you. For this I will not forget.
Prosecution: We appreciate your willingness to stay on task, putting in numerous hours, putting this case above many of your personal needs. The result speaks for itself but wanted to share our deepest gratitude. For this I will never forget.
Investigation Team: We appreciate you determination and grit to stay on this for so many years. I have observed from the outside while you investigated so many tips that many have no idea about. All to deliver proof and get to the bottom of this case.
Never once did I hear we are out of options, there was always a full court press to bring justice in this case. For this I will never forget.
Family: I am so blessed to have such a loving and welcoming family; Only wish I could have prevented any of this from happening and wish I could have protected everyone from having to go thru this. Our family is strong, and we will march forward and continue to grow. For this I am grateful.
Defense: I understand the role you needed to play, but I cannot connect the ways of our legal system to allow so many things to interfere with the truth and facts to simply be brought before a jury. I cannot imagine our forefathers ever envisioned the attempts to suppress and divert the facts would ever be part of our justice system. One should reflect and review their position to support Truth, Justice and the American way. Your inept ability to protect some of the most personal facts in this case, the crime scene photos. And making statements that you really didn't care they were out there. My family will forever have to explain how these are available for people to search. What do I say to my kids, grandchildren, great grandchildren? What will you tell your grandkids, I hope you tell them the truth, I surely will. For this I will never forget
Convict: I will never understand how you could have conducted such an atrocity. You killed my granddaughter nearly 8 years ago and have only thought of yourself.
Your attempts of self-preservation are a result of how you really are. Once you committed this crime you could have been a man, stood up and taken accountability, but you didn't. At any time during these proceedings, you could have stood up and taken responsibility, but you didn't and were only concerned about yourself and tried to get away with murder. Actions always speak louder than words. By being so selfish you continued to punish and hurt my family. For this I will never forget.
Your act of murder has tested my faith, l am still not ready to provide forgiveness, when I am able to it will be for my own faith and conscience not yours. For this I will never forget.
I have never felt such hatred and should not be this way, towards another human being, what you have done has impacted so many people lives. We will heal with the help of our Pastor. I'm lucky to have a great family and will enjoy the rest of my life helping and watching all of them grow from our kids to our great-grandchildren. This is something you will not get to take away, and you will never get to experience such joy and love as what my family has.
Lastly, hope the rest of your days are spent in as much fear as the girls had to experience the last part of their lives, and hope those moments haunt you the rest of your days, you deserve no better.
Now is the time to stand up and take accountability, put a stop to any future attempts to appeal, so we can let Libby rest in peace.
Where does one start? How does one explain the effect of how one choice a person makes has on an entire family for generations to come? I don't think one can really explain and do it justice. There are not enough words in our language that begins to paint the picture of the grief we live with each and every day.
Richard Allen was an adult, and he should be held accountable for the choices he made on February 13, 2017. He chose not to go to lunch with his mom and sister instead chose to drink beer for liquid courage. He chose to lay in wait for his victims, to order them down the hill. He had the opportunity to let Libby and Abby go when that white van drove by - but he chose not to do so. Instead, he chose to take them across the creek where he viciously murdered them, making sure they were dead before he went home and continued his life. Richard Allen viciously and heartlessly stole the choice to live from Abby and Libby that day! He was a coward and didn't want to be held accountable for his heinous choices and actions - so he just killed them and went home. I guess in his eyes he was nice enough to make sure they were dead before leaving so they wouldn't suffer. A few days later he developed photos for the family that would be used at Libby's funeral. He stood there watching the family members as they struggled to keep their composure while dealing with insurmountable grief and preparing for the unthinkable that lay ahead - not blinking an eye - with no remorse. I wonder what he was thinking?
Our lives turned upside down that day, never to be the same again. Abby and Libby - two young teens with their entire futures ahead of them. They never got the opportunity to make their marks in the world - he stole that from them. Libby never got to go to prom, graduate, go on dates, go to college, get married, or start a family. She never got to be the best aunt ever. He robbed us all - the world was robbed of what could have been. All the while - he went on living his life. He was able to walk his daughter down the aisle and give her away at her wedding - I wonder, did he think of the girls at all while walking her down the aisle? Our families will never get the privilege of watching Libby or Abby walk down that aisle. He took that away from us.
The impact of Richard Allen's choices made that day has haunted our families for almost eight years and continues even now. Because of choices he made and subsequent arrest - he was appointed two lawyers to defend him. Those lawyers have done nothing but twist the knife around and around in our wounds Richard caused that day. Because of one lawyer's sloppiness - sealed crime scene photos of Libby's naked and mutilated body were left unattended - allowing images to be taken and spread around to people on the internet. As recent as this week - those crime scene photos were still being shared on the internet for no good reason or entertainment by many. Sharing those photos changes nothing! It doesn't solve the crime; it doesn't bring the girls back! So now - because of Richard Allens choices that day and his lawyer's sloppiness - the impact has now become generational for us. One day when Libby's nieces or nephews decide they want to learn more about their Aunt Libby - they may be faced with those horrible crime scene photos that were so carelessly taken care of. I wonder if his lawyer would have been so careless with those photos if they were photos of one of his children? Would he still have felt no accountability because he was
"snookered"? And then you have the other lawyer who sat in the Judge's chambers and stating he really didn't care that the photos had been leaked. I wonder if he would have been so callous and uncaring if those were photos of his child's naked and mutilated body being shared. Would he still not care? No - these professionals are allowed to claim no accountability for their actions and move on to the next case - disrespecting and devaluing the next victim and their families. Meanwhile, our families are left picking up the pieces because of their choices and actions. In the end - all these choices made by the defense team - the fallout our families now have to live with falls directly on the head of Richard Allen because of the choices he made on February 13, 2017.
I could go on and on about what we lost that day, but it would change nothing.
The deafening silence in the house, the milestones missed, the grandbabies never to sit on our laps, the impact Libby and Abby would have had on so many lives.
Talking about it won't bring them back to us. Nothing in this world can change the outcome of that horrific day. No matter how hard we wish or pray them back - they are gone forever. Only Richard Allen making a different choice that day could have changed it. Their lives were in the balance - He chose - to kill Abby and Libby. Their Lives Mattered!!
HE is the one responsible for all of this. All I can hope for now is that Richard Allen will be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law for what he did that day. His sentence needs to reflect not only of murdering the girls, but also serving time for each day of life those girls still had in front of them, for every feat they may have accomplished. I feel he should serve one day behind bars for each future day he robbed from those girls. I hope he is not held in a single occupancy cell since his attorneys feels it would be detrimental to his health. I hope he is ordered to reside in general population so he can have the human interaction he so craves and needs. Last of all - I hope he lives each day of the rest of his life living with the same fear he bestowed on Abby and Libby the last hour of their lives. I hope the choices he made on February 13, 2017 come back to haunt him - giving him no peace. I realize I should not feel this way - but I can't stop these feelings! I hope God can see my heart and can forgive me.
I hope Richard Allens new relationship with God will finally compel him to do the right thing and to stop this nightmare from continuing any longer. Not only for our families - but his as well. He needs to do what he knows God would want him to do. I hope he finally gives the girl's the respect they deserve - give them back the dignity he so callously took from them.
Richard Allen took so much from our families and the world that day - but what he will never take from us is our memories we have of Libby and Abby. We will forever keep them alive - even if it can only be in our hearts.
I live every day with the burden of the choice I made that fateful day - I can never change the results of my choice of letting the girls go to the trails - and I take responsibility for that. What about you Richard Allen? Will you ever own up and take responsibility for the choices you made that day? Only you can stop this nightmare for all the families - you - can make that choice.
When does it ever stop - as recent as yesterday the defense continued playing their games. They know law enforcent investigated the ir 3rd party theories with never being able to place any of those people at the trails that day.
They continue their charades at the expense of abby + Libby! we don't even want to go there talking about Hardsipes caused to family- Richard Allen is not the victim!
I would like to start off by thanking the prosecution team and all of the law enforcement who was involved in this case. For the countless hours of your guy's time that was dedicated to this case, and I can't thank each of you enough. You can tell from the beginning that this case was very important to them, and they did everything they could to find justice for these two beautiful girls. I would also like to thank our little community. You guys have been so kind to our family with the love and support you have shown us. From painting the town teal and purple to feeding us every day throughout the trial. I seriously can't thank you guys enough. Our town may be little, but this goes to show that in time of need, our community pulls together.
Libby was my ]* cousin, but the bond we had together was a brother and sister bond that nobody could break. When we were younger, we were together almost every day. It was always Kelsi, Libby, my brother, and I. We would ride the bus to my grandmas after school and you would never know what kind of trouble we would get into. Libby was one of a kind. She would give the shirt off her back to someone she thought needed it more than her. She was always trying to find ways to help people and make things easier on everyone. She truly was going to do great things in life!
I will forever remember Libby by the amazing memories we made and not how Richard Allen left them on February 13th, 2017. He took so much away from both of those girls. They had amazing lives ahead of them. The pain he has put both of our families through could never be forgiven or forgotten. The things we had to see we will never be able to unsee. All because of HIM!
This man has made my life and my family's life a living hell for the past 8 years. Now it's time for his life to be a living hell, 23 hours a day, no communication, isolation from everyone, that is what this man's life is going to be like until he dies. Richard Allen took two amazing little girls with so much life ahead of them from my family and the Williams family way to soon. And for his action, I hope and pray he lives the rest of his life thinking of the mistakes he made that day.
-I would like to leave you with this, God doesn't have a place for sick, twisted minded individuals like Richard Allen. The devil has a special place in hell for him and I hope the prison community can get him there quicker than the sentencing. He is a Deadman walking!
Judge Gull I ask that you take in consideration the max sentencing with no parole. There should be no way this man has a chance to get out of prison and be able to have the ability to do what he did again. Granting him no parole will solidify that.