DELPHI — “It almost left more questions than answers."
The probable cause affidavit for the Delphi murder case is now available to the public.
This comes after Special Judge Fran Gull overruled objections from the prosecutor's office and released the redacted version Tuesday.
“How much am I not getting? Or how much have I not heard? Or is this what the state has?” Criminal Defense Attorney Benjamin Jaffe said.
Jaffe says if it seems like pieces of information are left out, that could be intentional.
“As long as they put enough information in the probable cause affidavit to validate the arrest and charges such that a judge would hold a person that they meet that minimum threshold, they can choose to leave certain information out for public consumption," Jaffe said.
According to the court documents, investigators found a single unspent bullet near the bodies of Abby Williams and Libby German in 2017.
Ejection marks on that bullet show it had been "cycled through" a handgun found in suspect Richard Allen's home.
WRTV spoke with former FBI Agent Doug Kouns about the information.
“The bullet puts him there. He admitted that it was his gun. He’s had it since 2001 and that he hasn’t loaned it to anybody," Kouns said.
He says it’s important to remember the documents do not include the victims’ cause of death.
“It’s not saying that they were shot by the same kind of bullet that was matched to the same kind of gun. They’re just saying that the spent round was there," Kouns said.
So what comes next?
Jaffe says from a defense attorney’s perspective, there’s going to be a strong effort to challenge the forensic evidence and witnesses’ ability to identify Allen.
“Are there real faults in the way this was pursued? Are there problems with the way these identifications are being made? Those are questions that have to be asked to really develop whether or not they have the ability to challenge this," Jaffe said.
On Tuesday, Allen’s attorneys requested his trial be moved outside of Carroll County. They said doing so would reduce the likelihood of jury bias.
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