DELPHI, Ind. — Richard Allen was back in a Carroll County courtroom Friday.
Allen is accused of killing Libby German and Abby Williams in Delphi in February 2017.
Earlier this month, Allen was in court for three days of pretrial hearings, in part to determine what evidence a jury will hear about at trial, set to begin in mid-October.
Friday’s hearing was scheduled as a status hearing, with the first half set to be closed to the public and later open up after a recess.
Thirty minutes into the closed hearing, Carroll County Sheriff Tony Liggett came out into the hallway and told members of the public, including family members of the victims and Allen, there would be no public hearing, saying, “That’s all I can tell you.”
Richard Allen arrived at court around 12:30 p.m. Friday.
The closed-door hearing with Judge Frances Gull began at 1 p.m. and lasted 35 minutes.
When it was over, Carroll County Prosecutor Nick McLeland came out of the courtroom and went into another closed-door meeting with investigators and family members of the victims.
Defense attorney Brad Rozzi also came out, but would not say what happened in the closed hearing. Rozzi briefly spoke with Allen’s family members who were sitting outside the courtroom.
At one point, Allen’s wife Kathy could be seen wiping tears from her eyes.
Because Friday’s hearing wasn’t open to the public, the transcript of what happened and what was said is also not available.
Both sides are still also under a gag order and can’t talk about the case, but both the prosecution and defense filed new motions Friday.
The prosecution filed two motions to try and prevent the defense from deposing a handful of people, including former Carroll County Sheriff Tobe Leazenby. The state says the defense deposed Leazenby last year and doesn’t need to do it again.
They also don’t want the defense to depose the state’s expert witness on the pagan religion Odinism and two other people the defense believes were involved in the murders instead of Allen.
The defense believes German and Williams were murdered in a ritualistic sacrifice tied to Odinism that has ties to white supremacy.
Gull hasn’t decided yet whether she’ll allow the defense to tell a jury about that alternate theory or those alternate suspects. Until that happens, the state says deposing those other people isn’t relevant to any issues in the case.
Allen’s defense team filed its own motions connected to Richard Allen’s psychologist who treated him while he was held for more than a year at the Wabash Correctional Facility.
Dr. Monica Walla testified earlier this month in pretrial hearings about treating Allen. On the stand, Walla admitted that even before Allen’s arrest, she was fascinated with the Delphi case.
Walla admitted to researching the case on Indiana Department of Correction computers, looking up information on another person, Kegan Kline, who investigators say was a suspect in the case at one point.
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She also testified she had commented on social media, recommending podcasts on the Delphi case for others who might be interested.
Now the defense wants to see any records regarding Walla’s employment with IDOC. They also want to know if Walla has been investigated by her employer since her testimony last month.
The defense has requested those records within 15 days instead of waiting the standard 30 days for them, saying they need time to look at any records on Walla to decide if those should be included in a list of trial exhibits due by Oct. 1.
Allen’s trial is set to start Oct. 14.