The Carroll County Court was scheduled to hold three hearings in the case of Richard Allen, the man accused of the murders of Abby Williams and Libby German in Delphi in 2017, this week with the jury trial being postponed to begin Oct. 14, but a ruling by Special Judge Frances Gull led to the cancellation of the hearings with no reschedule date set.
According to an order issued on May 8, Gull ruled to postpone the trial dates for Allen’s case with hearings set for Tuesday, May 21, Wednesday, May 22 and Thursday, May 23 to discuss motions from the defense in regard to the case.
The order signed on May 7 and filed on May 8 stated that Defendant Richard Allen appeared in person with counsel, attorneys Bradley Rozzi, Andrew Baldwin and Jennifer Auger, with the state appearing by Prosecuting Attorney Nicholas McLeland and Deputy Prosecuting Attorneys James Luttrell and Stacey Diener for the pre-trial hearing to discuss motions from the defense.
The hearing was held on the Defendant’s motion for a pre-trial hearing filed on April 30 to discuss the Defense’s motion for continuance, and according to the court documents, “Defense counsel report to the Court that the scheduled trial dates of May 13 – 31, 2024, are inadequate for trial.” The documents showed that Allen waived his speedy trial and moved for a continuance for the case.
Documents showed that the State objected to the motion as they stated that the prosecution was prepared for trial with the scheduled dates in May, and the State reportedly left the decision to the Court’s discretion.
Gull granted the Defense’s motion, granting the continuance for the jury trial to be set for Oct. 14 through Nov. 15 at 9 a.m. in the Carroll Circuit Court instead of the set dates in May to allow for the Defense to gather further information and examine the discovery and evidence materials, documents report.
Gull also ruled to set hearing dates for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday this week to discuss and rule on numerous motions from the Defense and the State, including:
- Defendant’s Motion to Compel and Request for Sanctions
- Defendant’s two pending Motions to Suppress
- State’s Motion in Limine
- State’s Motion for Ruling on Admissibility
The hearings were set to commence on Tuesday, but Gull ruled to reverse her decision regarding the pretrial hearings as she initially denied the Defense’s request to postpone the pretrial hearing prior to the filing of a new motion by the Defense. Gull reversed the decision on Monday, May 20 to cancel the pretrial hearings.
In the order cancelling the pretrial hearings, Gull cited the most recent motion filed by the Defense on Friday as the major factor in canceling the hearings. According to the order Gull submitted to cancel the hearings, she cited, “as the court is now required to review and rule upon the 42-page pleading, the court is compelled to cancel the pretrial hearing previously set with counsels’ agreement.”
Documents showed that the original order pertaining to the pretrial hearings addressed the Defendant’s third and fourth Request for Franks Hearing, stating that requests “will be ruled upon and not set for hearing unless necessary.” No further information was released in regard to the status of the request.
Rescheduled dates for the hearings have not been disclosed as of Tuesday, May 21 at noon. The trial is still set to begin on Oct. 14 according to court records.
Since the new trial dates were set for the case, the court has received multiple Requests for Recording by Court Proceedings by News Media from various outlets across the state, which have all been denied for the hearings in May and the jury trial set in October.
In preparation for the hearings, the Delphi City Council enforced a temporary ordinance that orders temporary signage to be placed in the downtown area that permits the towing of vehicles that break the posted guidelines, which included not parking in the area on Monday from 3 a.m. to 6 a.m. and not parking for more than two hours in the area from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. from Monday through Friday.
Press permit parking was set to be located in the parking lot at the corner of Franklin Street and Washington Street.