Richard Allen Appeal: The Other Suspect, the Bullet and the Sketch

The Delphi appeal now asks the Indiana Court of Appeals to examine not only what the jury heard about Richard Allen, but what Judge Frances Gull kept out. Defense attorney Bob Motta joins Tony Brueski for a combined look at the Brad Holder alternate-suspect argument, the unfired cartridge evidence, William Tobin’s excluded expert testimony, and Betsy Blair’s missing sketch.

Holder was investigated during the original 2017 Delphi murders investigation and has never been charged. At the September 21, 2026 oral argument, Allen’s appellate lawyer Mark Leeman said police later learned of a rune-like marking Holder posted on his hand and social-media content the defense believed resembled aspects of the scene where Abby Williams and Libby German were found. Gull excluded that theory from trial under Indiana’s direct-connection rule. The State says Holder’s time records put him at a landfill about 25 miles away during the critical period and argues the defense never established a legally sufficient connection to the murders.

Allen’s lawyers also say the jury received an incomplete picture of the evidence pointing toward him. A State Police examiner testified that an unfired .40-caliber cartridge recovered near the girls had been cycled through Allen’s Sig Sauer. Gull did not allow former FBI metallurgist William Tobin to testify about the reliability of that comparison. The jury also did not see the sketch created with witness Betsy Blair, who had encountered a man near the bridge shortly before the girls arrived.

The State counters that Blair identified the Bridge Guy image as the man she saw and that Allen’s own 2017 statement placed him on the trail. Bob Motta breaks down which exclusions can support reversal, which can be treated as harmless, and why the appellate panel’s eventual ruling could turn on the difference.

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