Change of venue for Delphi murder trial denied, jurors to be selected from outside county

DELPHI — On Friday, the man charged with murder stemming from the deaths of Abby Williams and Libby German in Delphi returned to court.

WRTV was in attendance, but were not allowed to record the hearing in any manner due to a decorum order issued for the hearing.

Richard Allen entered the court shackled in a jumpsuit and mouthed to people in the courtroom that he loved them.

Topics covered included a gag order, a change of venue request and discovery items surrounding witnesses in the case.

The change of venue request made by the defense was denied by Gull, but came with a caveat.

Gull explained in the hearing that finding a jury within Carroll County would be difficult, so jurors for the case will be found from a different place within the state. Those jurors will be transported to Carroll County for the trial.

Involved parties have one week to agree on where jurors will be selected from.

Special judge Fran Gull ruled that the gag order that was preliminarily put in place on Dec. 2 will remain in place.

This means all of those involved in the case are not allowed to publicly discuss the facts of the case. However, attorneys involved are allowed to publicly speak to logistics of the case — such as what is the next steps.

Gull plans to take the motion for discovery from the defense — which includes thousands of pages of documents — under advisement.

Richard Allen will be back in court on Feb. 17 in Carroll County for a discussion of bail.