Indiana man sentenced to the maximum of 130 years in prison for 2017 killings of 2 teenage girls

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — An Indiana man convicted in the 2017 killings of two teenage girls who vanished during a winter hike was sentenced to a maximum of 130 years in prison Friday in the case that’s long cast a shadow over the teens’ small hometown of Delphi.

Allen, 52, was convicted on Nov. 11 in the killings of Abigail Williams, 13, and Liberty German, 14, known as Abby and Libby. A jury found him guilty of two counts of murder and two counts of murder while committing or attempting to commit kidnapping.

The special judge in the case, Allen County Superior Court Judge Fran Gull sentenced Allen on two of the four murder counts and imposed the maximum of 65 years for each count, to be served consecutively. The sentencing hearing, which included victim impact statements from six relatives of the teens, lasted less than two hours.

After the hearing concluded, one of Allen’s defense attorneys, Jennifer Auger, told reporters they plan to appeal and seek a new trial.

“Thoughts and prayers to the families of the victims. What they went through was unimaginable,” Auger said. She added that the defense plans to give a more detailed statement later, “but today is not the day for that.”

The Associated Press left messages for Allen's attorneys Friday seeking additional comment on his sentence and their plans for an appeal.

Allen, who has maintained his innocence, had faced between 45 years and 130 years in prison in the killings of the Delphi teens, who were found dead in February 2017, their throats cut, one day after they vanished while hiking during a day off from school.

Allen also lived in Delphi and when he was arrested in October 2022, more than five years after the killings, he was employed as a pharmacy technician at a pharmacy only blocks from the county courthouse where he later stood trial. His weekslong trial came after repeated delays, a leak of evidence, the withdrawal of his public defenders and their reinstatement by the Indiana Supreme Court.

The case, which included tantalizing evidence, has long drawn outsized attention from true-crime enthusiasts.

With Gull's long-running gag order in the case lifted at the end of Friday's sentencing, police and prosecutors held a news conference where they thanked investigators for their work that helped with Allen's arrest and prosecution.

“There is zero doubt that justice has been served and today is the day,” said Carroll County Sheriff Tony Liggett.

He and others singled out the work of a retired state government worker who volunteered in March 2017 to help police organize tips received as part of the investigation — and who discovered a key piece of information that led investigators to Allen.

Kathy Shank testified at trial that in September 2022 she found a misplaced “lead sheet” which stated that two days after German's and Williams’ bodies were found, a man contacted authorities and said he had been on the trail the afternoon the girls went missing. His name was listed incorrectly as Richard Allen Whiteman and marked “cleared,” Shank said.

She determined the man’s name was actually Richard Allen and recalled that a young girl had been on the trail at the same location and time and had seen a man.

“I thought there could be a correlation,” Shank told the court, adding that she notified officers of her find.

Liggett thanked Shank at Friday's news conference for her crucial discovery and for bringing it to investigators' attention.

“When she would come across something she didn’t know she would always bring that to an investigator and every time she brought us something and said, `Did you know this?’ we knew it — except for the tip that she brought us that got us here today," he said.

German’s grandfather, Mike Patty, thanked the jury, investigators, prosecutors and Gull as a photo of German and Williams, grinning in winter garb, was projected onto a screen behind him during the news conference.

“Justice has been served for the girls,” he said

Gull, the special judge who oversaw Allen's trial, came from northeastern Indiana’s Allen County, as did the jury.

The seven women and five men were sequestered throughout the trial, which began Oct. 18 in the Carroll County seat of Delphi, the girls’ hometown of about 3,000 residents some 60 miles (100 kilometers) northwest of Indianapolis.

Allen's trial came after repeated delays, a leak of evidence, the withdrawal of his public defenders and their reinstatement by the Indiana Supreme Court.

The case, which included tantalizing evidence, has long drawn outsized attention from true-crime enthusiasts.

A relative dropped the teens off at a hiking trail just outside Delphi on Feb. 13, 2017. The eighth graders didn't arrive at the agreed pickup location and were reported missing that evening. Their bodies were found the next day in a wooded area near an abandoned railroad trestle they had crossed.

In his closing arguments at Allen's trial, Carroll County Prosecutor Nicholas McLeland told jurors that Allen, armed with a gun, forced the youths off the hiking trail and had planned to rape them before a passing van made him change his plans and he cut their throats. McLeland said an unspent bullet found between the teens’ bodies “had been cycled through” Allen’s .40-caliber Sig Sauer handgun.

An Indiana State Police firearms expert told the jury her analysis tied the round to Allen’s handgun.

McLeland said Allen was the man seen following the teens across the Monon High Bridge in a grainy cellphone video German had recorded. And he said Allen’s voice could be heard on that video telling the teens, “ Down the hill ″ after they crossed the bridge.

McLeland also noted that Allen had repeatedly confessed to the killings — in person, on the phone and in writing. In one of the recordings he replayed for the jury, Allen could be heard telling his wife, “I did it. I killed Abby and Libby.”

Allen’s defense argued that his confessions were unreliable because he was facing a severe mental health crisis while under the pressure and stress of being locked up in isolation, watched 24 hours a day and taunted by people incarcerated with him. A psychiatrist called by the defense testified that months in solitary confinement could make a person delirious and psychotic.

Defense attorney Bradley Rozzi said in his closing trial arguments that no witness explicitly identified Allen as the man seen on the hiking trail or the bridge the afternoon the girls went missing. He also said no fingerprint, DNA or forensic evidence links Allen to the murder scene.

Carroll County Prosecutor Nicholas McLeland speaks after the sentencing of Richard Allen in Delphi, Ind., Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

Indiana State Police Superintendent Doug Carter speaks after the sentencing of Richard Allen in Delphi, Ind., Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

Indiana State Police Superintendent Doug Carter speaks after the sentencing of Richard Allen in Delphi, Ind., Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

Mike Patty, grandfather, of Liberty German, speaks after the sentencing of Richard Allen in Delphi, Ind., Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

Mike Patty, grandfather, of Liberty German, speaks after the sentencing of Richard Allen in Delphi, Ind., Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

Spectators line up to enter the Carroll County Courthouse for the sentencing of Richard Allen, convicted in the 2017 killings of two teenage girls , in Delphi, Ind., Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

FILE - Indiana State Police Superintendent Doug Carter announces the arrest of Richard Allen for the murders of two teenage girls killed in 2017, during a news conference in Delphi, Ind., Oct. 31, 2022. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy, File)

FILE - Officers escort Richard Allen out of the Carroll County Courthouse following a hearing, Nov. 22, 2022, in Delphi, Ind. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Veering toward a midnight Friday government shutdown, House Speaker Mike Johnson is proposing a new plan that would temporarily fund federal operations and disaster aid, but punts President-elect Donald Trump demands for a debt limit increase into the new year.

House Republicans are meeting behind closed doors on next steps after Trump doubled-down on his insistence that a debt ceiling increase be included in any deal — and if not, he said in an early morning post, let the closures “start now.”

But it is almost impossible to meet Trump's last minute pressure. Johnson knows there won't be enough support within the GOP majority to pass any package, since many Republicans prefer to slash federal government rather than fund it, and won't allow more debt. Some three dozen Republicans helped sink Trump’s bill with its two-year debt limit increase in a spectacular Thursday evening flop.

Instead, Johnson has been in talks Friday with Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries whose party's support will be needed to ensure passage of any deal. Votes are possible Friday afternoon.

The new plan being floated would fund the government at current levels through March and adds $100 billion in disaster aid and $10 billion in agricultural assistance to farmers.

Gone would be Trump's demand for a debt ceiling, which GOP leaders are telling lawmakers would be debated as part of their tax and border packages in the new year.

“They haven’t made any decisions about what they’re going to bring forward yet,” said Rep. Matt Rosendale, a Montana Republican, as he exited the basement meeting.

Trump, who has not yet been sworn into office, is showing the power and limits of his sway with Congress, as he intervenes and orchestrates affairs from Mar-a-Lago, alongside his billionaire ally Elon Musk, who is heading up the incoming administration's new Department of Government Efficiency.

“If there is going to be a shutdown of government, let it begin now,” Trump posted early in the morning on social media.

Trump does not fear government shutdowns the way Johnson and the lawmakers see federal closures as political losers that harm the livelihoods of Americans. The incoming Trump administration vows to slash the federal budget and fire thousands of employees. Trump himself sparked the longest government shutdown in history in his first term at the White House, the monthlong closures over the 2018-19 Christmas holiday and New Year period.

More importantly for the president-elect is his demand for pushing the thorny debt ceiling debate off the table before he returns to the White House. The federal debt limit expires Jan. 1, and Trump doesn't want the first months of his new administration saddled with tough negotiations in Congress to lift the nation's borrowing capacity. It gives Democrats, who will be in the minority next year, leverage.

“Congress must get rid of, or extend out to, perhaps, 2029, the ridiculous Debt Ceiling,” Trump posted — increasing his demand for a now five-year debt limit increase. "Without this, we should never make a deal."

Johnson is racing behind closed doors to prevent a shutdown, but his influence has its limits. Trump and Musk unleashed their opposition — and social media army — on the original plan Johnson presented, which was a 1,500-page bipartisan compromise he struck with Democrats that included the disaster aid for hard hit states, but did not address the debt ceiling situation.

A Trump-backed second plan, Thursday's slimmed down 116-page bill with his preferred two-year debt limit increase into 2027, failed in a monumental defeat, rejected by most Democrats as an unserious effort — but also Republicans who refuse to pile on the nation's red ink.

On Friday morning, Vice President-elect JD Vance arrived early at the speaker's office at the Capitol, where a group of the most hardline Republican holdouts from the House Freedom Caucus were meeting with Johnson. The speaker has insisted on finding a way forward.

Government workers have already been told to prepare for a federal shutdown which would send millions of employees — and members of the military — into the holiday season without paychecks.

“Welcome back to the MAGA swamp,” the House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries posted.

“That is why our country is on the brink of a government shutdown that will crash the economy, hurt working class Americans and likely be the longest in history.”

Jeffries was communicating with Johnson on the path forward, according to multiple people in a closed-door Democratic Caucus meeting.

In the Senate, which is controlled by the Democrats for a few more weeks, there are talks of trying to push forward the original package, the bipartisan compromise that Johnson, Jeffries and the Senate leaders had negotiated to strike a deal earlier this week. That would be difficult, but not impossible.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called the original agreement “the quickest, simplest, and easiest way we can make sure the government stays open while delivering critical emergency aid to the American people.”

“I’m ready to stay here through Christmas because we’re not going to let Elon Musk run the government," said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., the chair of the Appropriations Committee who was instrumental in that first deal. “We had a bipartisan deal—we should stick to it.”

President Joe Biden, in his final weeks in office, has played a less public role in the debate, drawing criticism from Trump and Republicans who are trying to shift the blame for any shutdown on him.

Biden has been in discussions with Schumer and Jeffries, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Friday.

But she said, “Republicans blew up this deal. They did, and they need to fix this.”

Johnson faces an enormous task as he tries to keep government running, appease Trump — and save his own job.

The speaker's election is the first vote of the new Congress, which convenes Jan. 3, and Johnson will need the support of almost every single House Republican from his razor-thin majority to ensure he can keep the gavel. Democrats will vote for Jeffries.

As the speaker twisted in Washington, his peril was on display. At Turning Point USA’s conservative AmericaFest confab, Trump ally Steven Bannon stirred thousands of activists late Thursday with a withering takedown of the Louisiana Republican.

“Clearly, Johnson is not up to the task. He’s gotta go,” Bannon said, drawing cheers. He smiled and cocked his head at the response, “President Trump? These are your people.”

Associated Press writers Kevin Freking, Stephen Groves, Mary Clare Jalonick, Darlene Superville and Bill Barrow contributed to this report.

FILE - President-elect Donald Trump poses for a photo with Dana White, Kid Rock and Elon Musk at UFC 309 at Madison Square Garden, Nov. 16, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., talks briefly to reporters just before a vote on an interim spending bill to prevent a government shutdown, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. The vote failed to pass. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at Mar-a-Lago, Monday, Dec. 16, 2024, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)