ALLEN COUNTY, Ind. – The trial of Delphi murder suspect Richard Allen has been delayed until mid-October.
During a Tuesday hearing inside an Allen County courtroom, Special Judge Fran Gull granted the wishes of the defense to vacate a May 13 trial date. Attorneys Andrew Baldwin and Bradley Rozzi had previously requested a speedy trial, which led Gull to move the proceedings up to May.
Trial pushed back to October
The new trial dates are Oct. 14 through Nov. 15 in Carroll County, Gull said Tuesday. There will be three days of pretrial evidence hearings on May 21 through May 23 in Carroll County.
Allen’s defense attorneys claimed they have not had enough time to prepare their case and the court had not granted the defense enough time to present their case during the trial itself.
Allen faces four counts of murder in the February 2017 deaths of Abby Williams and Libby German near the Monon High Bridge. Indiana State Police announced his arrest in October 2022, leading to much legal maneuvering between the prosecution and defense.
Another call for Gull to rescue herself
The defense also filed another motion to have Gull disqualify herself from the case. During the contentious hearing on Tuesday, Gull told Rozzi that she couldn’t understand why Allen’s team couldn’t defend their client during the time allotted for the trial.
Rozzi argued that “you don’t know anything about this case,” citing a lack of pretrial hearings to debate potential evidence.
The defense previously asked the Indiana Supreme Court to remove Gull, which the state’s highest court declined to do, and filed an earlier motion asking her to recuse herself from the proceedings. Gull refused to do so.
Gull earlier attempted to have Baldwin and Rozzi removed from the case, citing an evidence leak and expressing concerns about their ability to defend Allen. But the Indiana Supreme Court reinstated the attorneys on Jan. 18, 2023.
Carroll County Prosecutor Nick McLeland then asked the court to hold Baldwin and Rozzi in contempt, citing a pair of evidence leaks and a press release they sent to media before a gag order went into effect.
Last week, Gull ruled that the attorneys were “sloppy” and “incompetent” in their handling of evidence but said their actions fell short of being “willful and intentional.” She did not hold them in contempt.
In motions filed in court, the defense accused prosecutors of failing to turn over discovery evidence in a timely fashion. The attorneys also accused investigators of lying or omitting information in order to implicate their client.
Tuesday’s planned hearing
Tuesday’s hearing in Allen County came at the request of Allen’s defense attorneys, who had worried that the prosecution, with more than a hundred witnesses to call and nearly a hundred exhibits to show, would dominate the proceedings.
The defense indicated its witness list included 71 names. Baldwin and Rozzi wrote in their motion for a pretrial hearing that logistical challenges for the trial — including an out-of-town jury, Allen’s daily transportation to and from court and their own commutes to Carroll County — could also throw off Gull’s timeline.
Allen was moved from Wabash Valley Correctional to the Allen County Jail ahead of Tuesday’s hearing.
The state filed a motion in limine last week asking the court to bar the defense from presenting its alternative murder theory — that members of a local pagan group killed the girls in ritualistic fashion — during the proceedings. The state argued raising the issues could create confusion or prejudice the jury.
The prosecution sought to bar the defense from mentioning “cult or ritualistic killing” and other terms from the trial, as well as a list of names of several people previously linked to the case in one way or another.