The man charged in the 2017 murder of two teenage girls in Delphi has been transferred to a new facility.
Richard Allen has been relocated from the Westville Correctional Facility in northern Indiana to the Wabash Valley Correctional Facility, about 30 miles from Terre Haute, for his safety, according to a document filed by Attorney General Todd Rokita Wednesday.
Allen’s former attorneys argued his physical and mental health was deteriorating after months in isolation.
Special Judge Fran Gull granted Allen his prison transfer in April. She later declined the move in July, arguing that his treatment at Westville was better than other inmates.
It’s not the first time Allen has been relocated as he awaits trial. However, this new facility is the farthest he’s moved away from his hometown of Delphi.
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Allen was arrested in October 2022 and charged with two counts of murder in the 2017 slayings of 13-year-old Abigail Williams and 14-year-old Liberty German. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Court documents released in June said that the teens' “wounds were caused by a sharp object.” The documents also included a filing by prosecutors that said Allen confessed multiple times to the killings in a phone call to his wife.
Allen’s former court-appointed defense attorneys, Bradley Rozzi and Andrew Baldwin, argued in court documents filed in September that the girls were killed as part of a ritual sacrifice. Carroll County Prosecutor Nicholas McLeland dismissed the theory as a “fanciful defense” made for social media.
Rozzi and Baldwin withdrew from the case amid questions about security of evidence. Allen's new attorneys, Robert Scremin and William Lebrato, were appointed by the court on Oct. 27.
Allen’s trial is scheduled to begin Oct. 15, 2024, and is expected to last a little more than two weeks.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
