The stepfather of Delphi murder suspect Richard Allen was reportedly caught snoring during testimony linking his stepson to the scene of the brutal murder of two teenage girls.
On Friday, jurors endured more than seven hours of dense, technical testimony from Melissa Oberg, a former Indiana State Police forensic firearms examiner, who explained how she determined that an unspent bullet had been found near Abby’s bodies Williams, 13, and Libby. German, 14, was linked to a gun found at Allen’s home.
Allen’s stepfather was heard snoring and closed his eyes during the dry argument despite being nudged awake. The Daily Mail reports this.
Oberg explained that she shot and cycled through several rounds of the 40-caliber Sig Sauger pistol recovered from Allen’s home during a search in October 2022.
She concluded that the “tool marks” left on the bullets she fired were similar to those on the unused cartridge found at the crime scene.
Allen’s attorney, Bradley Rozzi, tried to cast doubt on the jurors’ minds about the accuracy of the firearms evaluation during his cross-examination.
He also pointed out that Oberg came to her conclusion by comparing the bullet to spent bullets, not unused bullets that had merely cycled through the gun without being fired.
Prosecutors alleged Allen followed the teenage girls as they hiked near their hometown of Delphi on Feb. 13, 2017, before forcing them at gunpoint off the Monon High Bridge Trail into the woods, where he slit their throats.
Defense attorneys have maintained that Allen is innocent, arguing that there is sufficient reasonable doubt in the prosecution’s evidence.
The 52-year-old was hit with two counts of murder in the kidnapping of the girls, and faces up to 130 years in prison if convicted on all four charges.
