cover of episode The Delphi Murders Trial. A tech mogul's stabbing. And Sean “Diddy” Combs faces new accusers.

The Delphi Murders Trial. A tech mogul's stabbing. And Sean “Diddy” Combs faces new accusers.

2024/10/17
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Dateline NBC

Chapters

The trial of Richard Allen, accused of the Delphi murders, begins with the defense suggesting a pagan sacrifice motive. The prosecution counters with evidence linking Allen to the crime scene.
  • Richard Allen charged with the 2017 murder of two eighth-grade girls in Delphi, Indiana.
  • Defense suggests pagan sacrifice, prosecution links Allen to a bullet found at the scene.
  • Gag order in place, limiting information disclosure.

Shownotes Transcript

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Everyone, is Andrew a canning back with the latest episode of date line, true crime weekly episodes drop first thing every thursday morning, and you can also find them by searching for the deadline true crime weekly feed so give us a listen and follow the show wherever you get your podcast .

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victims. They testified against them at the trial.

SHE makes some cookies. He suspects that those cookies were poison.

Welcome to date line true crime weekly. I'm Andrew. A canning is october seventeenth, and here's what's on our docket. The last minutes of attack, mongols life, the prosecution and defense paint to a very different picture of what happened the night bobbi was murdered as the trial of his accused killer gets under way.

The hobbies were past. There were reporters running out to go to their life hit. There's into the patient that's been building around .

this in date line, rounded up a special appearance by our brand new date line correspondent blame Alexander Shawn comes is facing six new lawsuits, plus we have the latest on the manana s brothers saga.

Give them the opportunity to live the rest of their lives free from the shadow of their past.

And if you started binging ing key new podcast yet, it'll be here to talk about the man in the black mass.

And the question throughout this whole by guest is how much what was true and how much was fantasy.

But first we're after rural in inDiana, where the trial has just begun in a bizarre and grew some double murder that has hung over the small town of delphi for seven years on valentine ine's day twenty seventeen, the bodies of two eighth grade girls were found near the banks of dear quek, inDiana. They had been brutally stabbed to death for years. The investigation went nowhere until twenty twenty two.

Nbc nightly tly news reported a huge jump date tonight, a major break in the murder mystery of two teens in delphi in inDiana, and the rest has been made. Richard Allan, a local man, was charged with the murder. He pleaded not guilty and has been in custody ever since because of a gag order.

We don't know much about the prosecution case against Allen, but the defense team has not been so quiet, filing a bomb shell motion suggesting the victims were actually murdered in some kind of pagan sacrifice. Deadline producer mariano donal's here to bring accept to speed on what to expect in court over the next few weeks. Hi, marian.

Thanks for being here. sure. absolutely. So you have been reporting on this for a very long time. You've made a number of trips to delphi. What have you learned about these girls in what happened to them?

Well, they were really close friends, classmates libby german, fourteen, and Abigail Williams, thirteen. And they had the day off from school, and they decided to go to a spot that attracted many people. IT was old railway bridge.

They wanted to take photos. And what are the girl sisters dropped them off, and they were supposed to show up that around three, thirty two get picked up, but they never did. And about a day later, the bodies were found in the woods below the bridge.

This was, agree, some crime scene. Marine, horrible.

Just the description in court documents. Um the girls were IT appears, stabbed to death and just left there in the woods. What makes .

this case so chilling is that one of the girls captured a video on her phone.

Yeah SHE catches the sight of a man walking towards them and he has a presence of mind to turn on the camera of her phone. Then you hear what sounds like a man's voice saying, guys, down the hill. So obviously, that image was circulated after the bodies were found, police convinced that was the killer.

But can you really get a good look at the man in the video?

no. And that's really been, I think, what's puzzled so many people. It's very hard to say exactly what is features are. And I think that's what kind of LED police, to a certain extent, on a bit of A A goose chase.

five years go by. How do they finally zero in on Richard Allen.

days after the girls were found, an officer spoke with a man who identified himself as Richard Allen and who said, oh yeah, I had been at the bridge on that day and around that time that I was believed the girls to last seen, after all those years of looking, beating the bush for some other guy. Police went back to the records, and somehow they found this officer's note of that encounter had been overlooked all those years. And they went way to second. We need to check this guy out.

There is a bullet found at the crime scene that the police believe is connected to Richard Allen, right?

And really, this is what leads to his arrest. They go to his house. They find gun. They test that gun. That gun, they say, matches a single bullet, not fired bullet, that must have been ejected near the bodies. This is a key piece of evidence for the cute american.

The big question is, can you even connect this bullet to the crime if the girls were stabbed?

Um I think that's an excEllent question. I think what we're going to see is the defense argue that the testing is not sufficient enough to say that bullet came from our client gun. Allen's defense .

attorney has made the point after the murder, he never left the area or try to throw away his clothes. They're saying that's hardly the behavior of a guilty man.

More than that, they're saying there's no way one man in the middle of the day could have ordered two girls off a bridge into the words killed them both without anyone hearing a sound. They say IT just doesn't add up, and certainly not to their client who was a husband and a father and who worked at a local cbs right there in town.

And there was something very unusual about the way that the bodies were found. Can you set that up for us? correct.

One of the girls is naked. The other, oddly, is dressed in. The other girls close. The defense is really been saying, look, the girl who sacked has sticks on her body that are placed in such a way as to suggest ruin characters that seem to come from an old north religion, sort of called, in this case, what they called organism and VISA characters that are apparently sending a message that suggest this was a sacrificial killing.

The state police early on looked into that angle to see if that was a possibility. They rolled out the defense, said, oh no, that's what this was all about. Richard done had no ties to any cult.

Someone else, maybe a group linked to this cult, they were the people who killed these girls. That was their defense. And now it's really not because the judge has said, uh, you cannot enter that as a defense unless you can point to a person and prove that person was in that vicinity at that time mariann.

The judge has also ruled against the defense on another key motion because, well, Ellen has been in custody, he has confessed to the murders multiple times, not only to a prison psychologist, but on calls to his wife. This is, according to the prosecution, the defense, of course, one of those statements thrown out.

the defense fought bitterly to keep those confessions out. And the reason they said they should be excluded was because alan was under extreme rest. But the state has said, no, no, no, he really gave those statements without any coxing from anyone. And the judge agreed, this is going to be interesting .

for you merian. Because you've covered the story for so and their husband such a lack of information, you're going to start seeing all these things come out.

absolutely. There has been a gag order placed the case very soon after the arrest of Richard d. island.

So you're going to be hearing things coming out from the investigators that have not been disclosed before, and the families of the victims will be there. You know, they've been stealing. They've been, you know, Grace under pressure, but I can imagine what that's gonna like for them.

Alright, marian, we look forward to your updates on this.

Happy to keep you posted .

when we come back. Another long way to trial began this weekend. Thanks, Frances o. The trial of the man accused of murdering a silicon valley executive in twenty twenty three, he says he can explain everything.

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On monday, a sin franco jury heard opening statements in the trial of nimo mani. He's charged with the murder of bob lee, a silk and valley tech executive who cofounded cash shop. Nima stabbed bobb to death in the early hours of April fourth, twenty twenty three.

His defense team is not disputing that. The question is why the da says IT was premeditated, but na says he was acting in self defense and has pleaded not guilty. The judge isn't allowing cameras in the courtroom, but deadline associate producer Kelly moody, who first came on the show few weeks ago to talk about the case, is here now to give us an update. Kelly, think you are racing over from the courthouse to talk to us.

quite literally, racing. You're very welcome.

So the case has received a lot of attention, both in the bay area and nationwide. Did you feel that walking court today?

Yeah, the hobbies were packed. There were reporters running out to go due their live hits throughout the day. Plenty of local press, everyone was there. And there's been such a long lead up to this case with so many delays that there's a live in as a patient that's been building around this.

So tell us about the prosecutions opening statements. Dramatic.

a very dramatic decline that the prosecutor used was, ladies and gentleman, you are seated to in court with a murdered indicating lima mani and he called him a coward who stabbed an unarmed man three times.

So what did you hear from the prosecution that was new? Because you haven't had all the details up to this point about how the prosecution plans to go after him.

One of the big things that we got was an outline of a motive. Before the murder actually happened, new sister catharine was at a friend's apartment using drugs, and apparently SHE blacked out. Bob, who knew, because our socially had been at that apartment earlier in the day, but had left by the time that this happened, the prosecution says that nima got mad at bob, and they ended up on a face time together. And nima was asking if there was any sort of a ability that his sister had been sexually assaulted while he was under the .

influence of drugs. Something knew that the prosecution is alleging was nime's state of mind that night, and that is coming from some text messages that they got their hands on.

Yet the prosecution is claiming that protects between gazala and nima brother and sister that nima may have been high on cocaine the night of the murder cause. R says, cinema, that quote, blow messed up your kind. And what the prosecution is saying is that kind actually was supposed to say, mind IT was a typo and makes you act like a lunch. That's the quote that we were shown.

And prosecutors told the jury that video will show me a stabbing bb three times.

right? This was right near the bay bridge, and there's multiple different surveilLance cameras that show some sort of an altercation OK.

So the defense also presented its case in opening statements. And this was really your first chance to hear more about the self defense theory.

And we haven't heard a lot of specifics about how they're interpreting this until today. So their theory is that IT was actually bob who attacked nima. And the defense said that they had proof that I was bob who was high after barely sleeping over a ninety one hour period of time. They claimed that he only had six hours of sleeping that window and was also high on various drugs, primarily cocaine. The defense argued that bob was on a cocaine bender and could have been paranoid, ed, aggressive and possibly even violent.

So how does the defensive explain the surveilLance video that the prosecution is saying shows nima .

lunging at bob? They say IT actually shows nima defending himself, and they say he actually used his background in martial arts to redirect the knife back at bob. After bob had lunch at him, they're saying that they have medical experts who will eventually testify to show that that what happened by looking at the pattern of bobs wounds.

the videos happened out there in some media outlets. Can you tell IT all when you look at IT is IT to dark and grainy to telephus defending himself?

It's Greeny and is open to interpretation. I think the more vivid videos are after the fact when you see bob stumbling away, and those are pretty clear where you can see him holding his wounds, struggling.

And then that now pared with what we heard for the first time the nine one one phone call um was pretty daring IT was definitely difficult for everyone in the courtroom to hear bobs say help forty seven times trying to get some serve assistance as he was bleeding out basically on the street. It's really sad. It's hard to hear bob's brother, bob's father, bobs from my wife, Christine. They were all in the audience for that. And IT was definitely difficult to watch them listen.

yeah. And his children were there as well.

One of the children is sixteen. The other is, I believe, nineteen, they were there. They did not hear the nine one one call when I was played in court. They were there for the first part of the prosecutions opening statements and were clearly overcome with ocean as well. So they ended up leaving a bit early.

So how long is this trial supposed .

to last only until mid december? So we're going to IT is with all the holidays, there are some delays here and there. There's no court on fridays. So the story Better strap in.

yeah. okay. Kelly will. Thank you. We will look forward to talking to simple as that continues.

definitely. Thank you.

Up next date lines, blame Alexander will be here for date line round up we'll talk about the latest and the mananan z brothers had to get out of prison and the new accusers to step forward against music mogul Shawn comes plus Keith will join us to talk about his latest podcast series, the man and the black mask.

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Welcome back to the show joining me for this week, rounded up as deadlines new correspondent plain Alexander blame, welcome to your first episode of date line through crime weekly. Well, thank you so much. I appreciate you having me.

Yes, we're glad you're here. Okay, let's dive right into our first story. We're heading back to los Angeles last week.

We talked about how the Mandanas brothers, they've been making big headlines again. The L A. County das office recently announced IT would review the brothers sentence thirty five years after killing their parents. And we got more news in that story.

and so many of those been following this case for decades. So a number of family members gathered for a press conference in downtown L. A, along with the brother's defense attorney and T.

V. Personality rosio dottle. And all of them were there because they're trying to push for the release .

of those brothers so many years as I struggled with what happened to my sister s family. But as details of leon erick's abuse came to light, IT became clear that their actions wild gic, with the desperate response of two boys trying to survive. It's time to give them the opportunity to live the rest of their lives free from the shadow of their past.

The L. A, county D. S. Office noted a decision regarding the man and his brothers has not yet been made.

When did you hope to have a decision? I .

am hope of the in the court. So this is a story we will keep our eyes on for our next story. We're back to the suburbs of washington, dc.

For an update in a complex double murder case. We've talked about this one on the show before. A pair, Juliana paras muggles and brenden benfield, her employer turned lover, are accused in a double homicide plot.

Brendan is charged with the aggravated murder of his wife Christine, and both are charged in the death of an unsuspecting stranger they allegedly lord to the scene of the crime. blame. What is the latest in this case?

Investigators found that Juliana was in contact almost every day with both brinton and his mother to rest and field, and that included phone as well as texting and emAiling from a tablet, according to a search warn affidavit that was obtained by nbc news. For investigators think that brindle's mother may have been helping pass messages onto Juliana.

Those kind of messages, as we know on date line, would be monitored by by the jail or absolutely so and and brendon.

his mother, both told Juliana, don't talk about these alleged crimes because the calls were, as you said, very likely being recorded.

Investigators were also suspicious that Julian's defense attorney was passing messages between the three. Absolutely right. So investigators then did a search of Julie on a cell, but her defense attorney says they didn't find anything to indicate the passing of messages. But the nearly daily calls, they seem to point to a very close relationship between Julian and trees, a band field.

So the prosecution noted at brand and band fields born tearing that Teresa band field is actually paying for july honest defense, and the prosecution said that this was, quote, controlling the ability of the co defendants to CoOperate.

And we should say Juliana's defense attorney declined to comment on the prosecutions reMarks from the bond hearing. This will not play the last time will be talking about this case as IT gears up for trial.

Lots more to talk about here, Juliana. Trial is expected to start on november twelve.

So our final story, we're back in new york where music mobile shanti comes, is facing yet another set of accusations against him.

That's right. So this monday, six additional complaints were filed against comes by attorney tony buzzby. y. It's a name that you've heard before. You talked about him on the podcast last week.

What do we know about these new accusations?

These new accusers are two women and four men, and one of whom alleges that they were a minor at the time of the alleged assault. Now all six of the new alleged incidents happened where in new york, either in new york city or IT comes property in the hamptons, and tooth accusers say that they were actually assaulted at one of combs infamous White parties. You've heard a lot about them recently there.

These big parties filled with a celebrities that are just very fancy, happened over labor day weekend. Now, a comb's legal team, of course, responded to the lawsuits filed on monday and called them part of a reckless media circus. I'm quoting here and said that buzbee press conference and hip hot line are, quote, clear attempts to garner publicity .

comes has denied all of the accusations against both criminal and civil and last week his legal team made some accusations of their own yeah .

so this dates back to that video that came out. You, of course, remember this, that shows him in a hallway beating his then girlfriend. The singer who goes by the named casey after that o came out, comes issued a statement on social media apologizing for his behavior in the video.

Well, now comes the team is alleging that the prosecution leaked that video and other information to the media, hoping to cue public opinion against comes prosecution, of course, has denied leaking anything. But the judge now on the case is considering a gag order. And that's something that would actually stop both sides from talking to the media.

Comes remains in federal jail and rocklin, after a judge denied his third request for bail last week. Will keep you up data on the story as we learn more playing. Thank you so much for joining us and will have you back on again soon.

absolutely. I look forward to IT.

For our final story this week, we've got a real treat for you. Keh Morrison is here to talk about his new .

original podcast series, the man in the black mask kih .

even Better. Um alright, so we don't want to give away too much, so just give us a quick preview of the case.

Well, you will hear about a couple of for a walk who encounter a man rushing to them and falling down in front of them and apparently you know injured and terrified and then another guy runs along and after him and his, he's wearing this black mass.

And IT was just a instant bad feeling. IT was like everything in my body just tense up. I felt bad. This is a bad situation. I knew right away something was wrong.

And that is how the story begins. Where he goes there is well, complicated.

by the way, you had me right out of the gate with the scene of, you know, a man being chased by another man in the hockey mask. So this is connected to an up and coming filmmaker in edmonton, canada.

This is that, yes, a filmmaker who wanted to specialize in horror movies, he kept notes about what a hora movie plot might be, about what sort of devious, terrible things the villain might do to his victim. He wanted to be a major movie, uh, producer, and he was on his way. And the question throughout this whole podcasts is how much what was true and how much was fatally? Y.

yeah, like, was IT a publicity stunt IT for something for his movies?

Well, wouldn't you you think so?

H, so the suspected killer, in this case had a dark fascination with the show decks store, which is a show that I have seen from beginning to end. For anyone who has been seen, dexter is a show about blood, Better expert turned serial killer who kills the guilty criminal. So we start of an anti hero.

Did there are a number of fans of dexter in this podcast, and they love to take a part in the sect part by using that expression, just about every scene in the series we are.

I mean, there's something about whatever is happening in the world now that people seem to be fascinated by real killers .

is strange is that um I couldn't figure out out for the longest time but but now I sort of join them in their fascination. I think probably there a is a tiny percentage of human beings who have absolutely no conscience once forever and really a set out in life to do harm. But, uh, they are clever. They want to commit bad deed, and they want to get away with that and commit some more keys.

I would imagine that you have, say, which stories that you want to turn into podcast, because their big efforts to do this. Why this one right now IT was um .

the kind of story were when you tell them on television, you wish you had six episodes to tell the whole thing. Guess what? We have six episodes of a podcast. We can live in IT. We can understand that a lot Better.

And the way you tell that, you really make the listener feel like we're there, which is what I love about how you do this.

But here.

thank you. So two episodes are already published. I can't wait to listen to the whole series. So again, one and two now and three and four are available .

to subscribers. Bs, I shouldn't do a pitch, should I? But I just seem like the right thing. You tried, you get the episodes early and you don't have to listen to those basic commercials.

I agree with you, one hundred percent subscribed now to our date line channel. Yes, thank you for your time key.

Thank you.

That's IT for this episode of deadline through crime weekly. If you want to find out more about the cases we discuss this week, had to our website at date line through crime weekly dot com. Coming up this friday on date line, Karen read in her own words, the woman accused of murdering her boston police officer boyfriend tells us what he remembers about that night.

I didn't know what the help. What the hell happened. how? How did the night end up like this? I felt like I was living in a nightmare that's on my new two hour mystery, the night of the norry serb earring this friday at nine eight central on nbc, or stream at saturday on p.

cock. Thanks for listening. Date line through crime weekly is produced by friend Kelly and kate ferguson.

Our associate producers are carson commons and Caroline casey. Our senior producer is liz Brown. Coral off production in fact checking helped by Sarah adea.

Veronica m. Maza is our digital producer. Ryan is our sound designer. Original music by Justin magni brice and barns ahead of audio production. Paul ryan is executive producer and lisa al as senior executive producer of date line. Alright, thanks, everybody.

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