Delphi murders case’s defense attorneys want to call judge to testify
DELPHI, Ind. (WISH) — The defense attorneys for the suspect in the Delphi murders wants to call the special judge in the case to the witness stand at future hearings.
Richard Allen, 51, of Delphi, was arrested on Oct. 28, 2022, for the February 2017 murders of 13-year-old Abigail “Abby” Williams and 14-year-old Liberty “Libby” German near the Monon High Bridge in Delphi.
The defense attorney say they learned May 31 about a contradiction of information from the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office and the special judge in the case, Judge Fran Gull of Allen County. The contradiction involved a Westville Correctional Facility inmate, Robert Baston, who was asked to attend a June 2023 hearing.
Baston was said to have information about Allen’s treatment in the state prison. Allen is being held in a state prison because the sheriff said that Carroll County didn’t have the proper facilities to hold Allen while he awaited trial.
A report from the Sheriff Tobe Leazenby says the judge said Baston didn’t have to attend the June 2023 hearing if he did not want to do so.
The judge in a May 31 order wrote that it was a sheriff’s deputy’s decision not to take Baston to the June 2023 court hearing, not hers.
In reply to the judge’s May 31 order, the defense attorneys filed their response Tuesday, and said they plan on “issuing subpoenas and calling Gull to the stand at future hearings and at trial to testify that she never directed CCSO (Carroll County Sheriff’s Office) to ignore a valid subpoena and also never advised CCSO to leave Robert Baston behind if he (Baston) did not want to attend” the June 2023 hearing.
The defense attorneys’ response also repeated something that the defense attorneys have previously sought: the judge to recuse herself from the case.
The defense attorneys also noted that the judge has failed to admonish the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office “for filing a report that contains such a flagrant falsehood” and attempting to cover it up.
Allen’s trial has been set to start Oct. 14. It had previously been set to begin May 13. Plans call for a jury from Allen County to hear the case in Delphi at the Carroll County Courthouse.
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