May 7—FORT WAYNE — After a fiery back and forth between themselves and Judge Fran Gull, the legal team for Delphi murder suspect Richard Allen withdrew their right to a speedy jury trial during a hearing Tuesday in Allen County Superior Court.
The defense’s reasoning behind the move?
Adequate time to present a strong and thorough case to the jury, they said.
It was Feb. 14, 2017, when the bodies of Williams and German were located along the banks of Deer Creek near the Monon High Bridge area, after being dropped off the day before but not returning to their pick-up location.
Five years later, on Oct. 31, 2022, investigators announced they had arrested Allen on two felony counts of murder.
During an interview with police, Allen reportedly stated that he was on the bridge the day the girls went missing, but he did not see them.
The trial — originally scheduled for May 13-31 — will now take place from Oct. 13 to Nov. 15 inside Carroll Circuit Court.
The defense’s decision Tuesday to waive the motion for a speedy trial came after several minutes of what appeared to be compromises put forth by Allen’s defense team to keep the original May trial dates, such as splitting trial time equally between the prosecution and the defense and asking jury members if they could stay past May 31, if needed.
“I don’t want the back end of the trial to end on a certain date,” Rozzi told the court. “It ends when it ends. … I have never been involved with a court telling us it (the trial) is going to end on this date. … I’m still not sure how we would present our case if the state’s case goes longer.”
But Gull argued she’s legally bound to the jury questionnaires that were sent out last month, which specified the dates for the jury trial.
“You’re asking me to do something I cannot do,” Gull told Rozzi, adding she would have granted the defense team’s request for a longer period of time to present their evidence had they approached her sooner. “… I cannot ask jurors to extend indefinitely. I believe three weeks for a trial is adequate. I’m now being told it’s not adequate?”
Gull went on to state Rozzi’s idea of an “open-ended trial” was “shocking.”
Rozzi responded to Gull’s line of questioning and comments by saying the defense needed “15 business days” to present their case.
And that’s something he believed would have been impossible within the limits of the May 13-31 dates previously allotted.
As for the state’s side of the issue, Carroll County Prosecutor Nick McLeland told the court he believed the prosecution will call roughly “40-45” witnesses during their evidentiary phase of trial, but he said he was uncomfortable putting forth an exact timeframe.
“We’ve done what we can to streamline our evidence and witnesses,” McLeland told the court Tuesday. “We tried to cut the fat.”
But Rozzi argued cutting that “fat” could still leave little time for the defense to argue their case.
“We’re looking for a practical solution,” he said. “… I don’t think we can do this in that short of time.”
Thus the defense team ultimately had no other choice but to withdraw their motion for a speedy trial, Rozzi noted.
Another line of contention Tuesday dealt with what Rozzi referred to as a lack of communication between McLeland and the defense.
“We’re not talking,” Rozzi said, his arms raised in the air as he looked toward McLeland.
But the defense team — who filed another motion Tuesday to have Gull disqualified from the case — also noted an apparent lack of communication between Gull and both legal teams has made the case’s scheduling difficult too.
That led to an exchange that seemed to create a few subtle gasps Tuesday from the courtroom’s gallery.
“You don’t know anything about this case,” Rozzi told Gull, before proceeding to tell the judge she hasn’t read through any of the discovery made by either side or looked through their witness list. “How can you possibly know?”
Gull responded quickly.
“I have 27 years on the bench,” she quipped.
And though Allen’s jury trial has been moved, Allen is still due back in court this month.
From May 21-23, Gull has scheduled a series of hearings inside Carroll Circuit Court to address several motions that were recently filed in the case, including McLeland’s motion to ban the defense from mentioning anything in the trial about alleged third-party involvement in the girls’ deaths.