Giant Indiana county for jury choice in slain teenagers trial

A jury for the trial of an Indiana man accused of killing two teenage women almost six years in the past will probably be chosen from a northern Indiana county of over 300,000 individuals, on-line courtroom filings on Tuesday confirmed.

Jurors will probably be picked out of Allen County, which incorporates town of Fort Wayne, and later this 12 months will hear a case relating to Richard Matthew Allen, 50, who was charged in October with two counts of homicide within the 2017 killings of Liberty German, 14, and Abigail Williams, 13.

Allen lived and labored in Delphi, the women’ hometown of about 3,000 individuals, which is a part of Carroll County. Delphi is situated round 60 miles (97 kilometers) northwest of Indianapolis. Allen County, simply over 100 miles (160 kilometers) northeast of Carroll County, has greater than 388,000 residents.

Choose Fran Gull, additionally from Allen County, was assigned to the case after the judge for Carroll County recused himself last year.

At a listening to earlier this month, Allen’s attorneys and the county prosecutor agreed the jury should come from a different location after protection attorneys in November requested the trial location be moved from Carroll County due to intense public scrutiny and media attention surrounding the case.

Gull stated within the listening to that the trial ought to be performed in Carroll County as a result of family and friends members of the events are located in Delphi however {that a} jury ought to be chosen elsewhere. Drawing from a county bigger than Carroll County, which has about 20,000 residents, can be a profit to assembling an neutral jury pool, Allen’s attorneys argued.

When the trial happens, these jurors will probably be transported from Allen County to Carroll County for the proceedings, that are scheduled for March however unlikely to happen earlier than the autumn, Gull stated on the listening to.

A bail listening to for Allen is scheduled for Feb. 17.

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Arleigh Rodgers is a corps member for the Related Press/Report for America Statehouse Information Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit nationwide service program that locations journalists in native newsrooms to report on undercovered points. Observe Arleigh Rodgers on Twitter at https://twitter.com/arleighrodgers

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