CARROLL COUNTY, Ind. — Special Judge Fran Gull, appointed by the Indiana Supreme Court to hear the double murder case against accused Delphi killer Richard Allen, has granted a defense team motion to rescind its request for a speedy trial.
Jury selection was supposed to begin in Fort Wayne next week with the trial moving to Carroll County to be wrapped up by May 31.
Now, Judge Gull has rescheduled the trial to begin Oct. 14and run through Nov. 15.
During a 45-minute long hearing in Gull’s Allen County courtroom, Carroll County Prosecutor Nicholas McLeland told the court that he expected to call 40-45 witnesses during the trial and wrap up his presentation of evidence by May 25.
Rozzi countered that such a timetable would leave the defense team just a few days to push back on the charges that Allen killed Abby Williams and Libby German near the Monon High Bridge outside of Delphi on Feb. 13, 2017.
“You’ve invited them to put on a verbose case,” Rozzi told the judge during the contentious hearing. “How are we supposed to deal with that?”
Gull told the lawyers that by court rules she could not grant the defense request for an open-ended date by which to wrap up the presentation of evidence and that she had already told jurors their service would be concluded by the end of May.
“It’s not my job to micromanage the defense,” she said, expressing her exasperation with Allen’s lawyers. “It’s my job to call balls and strikes. I can’t do it.”
“Can you ask to divvy up the time?” Rozzi countered.
“I expect you to be professional,” the judge answered.
While McLeland promised the court he would streamline his case, Rozzi argued back, “They can put on evidence until the cows come home.”
The attorney also told Gull that he’s never tried a case with a judge who assigned a hard end date.
“That’s a shocking realty,” the judge sharply observed.
Rozzi responded that Allen’s, “right to put on a defense is just as important or paramount to the State’s.”
“I don’t know what you want me to do,” said the judge.
Grant a five-minute recess, answered Rozzi, and Gull did.
When court was called back into session, Gull listed several cases, including the trial of Richmond Hill murder co-defendant Bob Leonard, that she concluded on time.
Rozzi asked for either a 15-day defense presentation of evidence after the prosecution would rest or a dismissal of the Speedy Trial order.
Meanwhile, co-defense counsel Andrew Baldwin announced a new motion to seek Judge Gull’s recusal from the trial, a move that has been denied in the past.
McLeland said he was “frustrated” by the defense tactics and had not yet had an opportunity to review the 24-page recusal motion.
Rozzi then announced he was withdrawing his client’s request for a speedy trial.
Gull granted the request and set new trial dates, admonishing the defense, “If you can’t try this case in a month, there’s something wrong.”
“You don’t know anything about this case,” a clearly irritated Rozzi shot back, chastising the judge for her failure to schedule pre-trial hearings to consider evidence the Allen team wants excluded and overruling virtually every defense motion that has been filed, not mentioning Gull’s attempt, overruled by the Supreme Court, to force Rozzi and Baldwin off the case.
Rozzi pointed at Allen, who was transported from a state prison cell where he is held pending trial, remarking that every day his client, “sits in that hole and new evidence is presented.”
“Are you telling me 30 days is not enough?” the judge asked about the defense request for extended trial dates, urging the lawyers to speak with the prosecution to secure sufficient time in front of the jury.
“We’re not talking,” answered Rozzi, admitting that the two sides and the judge are communicating through emails, which Gull said she would not do since her messages ended up being quoted in motions before the Court.
When Rozzi asked how much time the state would need to try its case, McLeland said he had, “no idea,” remarking that the prosecution has the burden of proving Allen’s guilt and he was not willing to set a time limit on his presentation.
Gull concluded the hearing by rescinding the Speedy Trial order, setting the fall trial dates and announcing that pre-trial proceedings would take place in Carroll County May 21-23to consider challenges to evidence, a hearing she originally expected to be called and concluded today.
The judge has not yet set a date to hear amended Franks Motions filed by the defense to toss the original search warrant of Allen’s home or his arrest warrant based on discovered items, including a bullet reportedly matching a round found at the crime scene, and alleged investigator misrepresentation.
McLeland added that Monday night he filed a motion he would prefer to be kept under seal as it is “pretty incriminating.”
Ironically, the October-November trial dates are the same ones set by Judge Gull last November when she temporarily succeeded in forcing Baldwin and Rozzi off the case for what she termed their “negligence” in mishandling evidence that was leaked by a third party to social media Delphi followers and the team’s alleged violations of a 2022 Gag Order.
The prosecutor filed a motion seeking to find the defense team in contempt, however, Judge Gull ruled last week that, “Despite this Court’s findings of sloppiness, negligence, and incompetence,” the state did not meet its burden of proof that the attorneys’ conduct was willful and intentional beyond a reasonable doubt.
When Gull appointed a pair of Fort Wayne attorneys to represent Allen, over his objection, she stayed a January 2024 trial date and gave the new defense team nearly a year to come up to speed before proceeding to trial.
Instead, in January, the Indiana Supreme Court found Gull did not have the authority to force the original attorneys off the case and ordered them reinstated, and that’s when Baldwin and Rozzi made their Speedy Trial request, which they say now has been hampered by sluggish and incomplete discovery of case evidence by the prosecutor.
Allen volunteered to be interviewed by a DNR officer, one of scores of law enforcement officials who flocked to Delphi during the early days of the investigation.
His interview was referred to the lead team of Carroll County and Indiana State Police detectives and FBI agents within days of the killings but was reportedly misfiled and undiscovered until a clean-up of the case files in the fall of 2022.
This second look occurred after a source said investigators pushed Prosecutor McLeland to consider filing murder charges against a Miami County man who was convicted of child p*rnography and exploitation charges after it was discovered he was in communication with Libby German the night before her death.
Kegan Kline is currently serving a 40-year prison sentence for crimes unrelated to the Delphi case.
The prosecution is also seeking to exclude any defense references to Odinism, a Nordic pagan religion, that was considered as a possible alternate murder motive by a trio of state investigators in an 80-page report and mention of Ron Logan, a Carroll County man on whose property the bodies were found who concocted a false alibi for his activities the day of the killings.
Logan later died of COVID after serving a jail term for violating probation for a drunk driving conviction.
