ALLEN COUNTY, Ind. — Special Judge Fran Gull has canceled the pretrial evidence hearings that were scheduled to begin this week in the high-profile Delphi murders case.
The hearings were meant to address several pivotal motions including the possibility of barring certain evidence from being presented during the trial — which is currently scheduled to begin in October.
Last week, Richard Allen’s defense team asked Gull to postpone the hearings as they pushed for more time to depose a psychologist assigned to Allen during his stint at Westville Correctional Facility. Allen is accused of murdering teen girls Abby Williams and Libby German in Delphi in February 2017.
Gull initially denied the defense team’s request to push back the pretrial hearings, which were scheduled to begin on Tuesday, before suddenly reversing course on Monday and canceling the pretrial hearings outright.
In Gull’s order to cancel the hearings, she cited the defense team’s latest effort to remove her from the case as her reason for delaying the pretrial hearings. In filing for the judge to disqualify herself, Gull is now required to review and rule upon the 42-page motion.
At this time, the pretrial hearings have not yet been rescheduled.