CARROLL COUNTY, Ind. — A jury for the Delphi murders case will come from Allen County.
According to court documents filed Tuesday, Judge Frances Gull determined the jury will be drawn from the northeastern Indiana county, whose county seat is Fort Wayne, with the trial still taking place in Carroll County.
On Monday, the judge said the jury could have come from either St. Joseph County or Allen County.
The judge gave the prosecutor and defense one week to agree on a county where they will select a jury and bring that jury to Carroll County in the trial of Richard Allen, who is accused of killing Libby German and Abby Williams in Delphi in February 2017.
Gull previously said it would be "difficult if not impossible" to find a jury in Carroll County. Both the prosecution and defense agreed.
In a change of venue motion, filed in November, Allen's attorneys Andrew Baldwin and Brad Rozzi cited "the extensive media attention" of the case and stated that it "could be argued that the amount of publicity that this particular case has received in the past five-plus years will make it difficult to find a jury that has not heard of this case."
Allen's attorneys wanted the trial moved at least 150 miles away from Carroll County because of publicity. They said they have statistical data "that would strongly indicate that moving the case/trial just 150 miles away would significantly reduce the likelihood of obtaining a tainted jury pool."
A bail hearing is scheduled for Feb. 17. Trial dates will be further discussed at the bail hearing. Regarding the trial scheduled in March, Gull said, "I can't see that happening."
The gag order issued in the case continues in its current form, Gull said at the initial hearing. Lawyers, police and family members can't talk about the case publicly. Legal teams are only allowed to speak with the media about procedural items.