Indiana prosecutor files request to amend charges against Delphi murders suspect Richard Allen

(CNN) — A county prosecutor has filed a request to amend the charges against Richard Allen, the suspect in the 2017 murders of two teenage girls in Delphi, Indiana, court documents show.

Allen is suspected of killing Liberty “Libby” German, 14, and Abigail “Abby” Williams, 13, whose bodies were discovered in a wooded area on February 14, 2017, a day after they went for a hike along Delphi Historic Trails, CNN previously reported.

The girls had failed to show up to meet Libby’s father at a previously arranged time, according to police. Allen was arrested and charged in October 2022 for the murders after a five-and-a-half-year nationwide search.

Allen was originally charged in October 2022 with two counts of murder while committing or attempting to commit kidnapping. The amended felony charges against him include two new counts of murder and two counts of kidnapping, according to court documents obtained by CNN affiliate WTHR.

Carroll County prosecutor Nicholas McLeland, who filed the request on Thursday, said in his motion the amended charges “more accurately aligns the charging information with the cause’s discovery and probable cause affidavit.”

Also on Thursday, the Indiana Supreme Court issued an order reinstating Allen’s originally appointed public defenders, Andrew Baldwin and Brad Rozzi.

The justices heard oral arguments on a petition filed by Allen after Baldwin and Rozzi withdrew their representation last October in what Carroll Circuit Court Judge Frances C. Gull called at the time an “unexpected turn of events,” CNN previously reported.

Gull disqualified them after finding “gross negligence by said attorneys in their representation of the defendant” and replaced them with public defenders Robert Scremin and William Lebrato, according to the court docket.

Gull made the decision following an alleged leak of crime scene photos from Baldwin’s law office, which occurred without Baldwin’s and Rozzi’s knowledge, according to court documents obtained by WTHR.

Mitchell Thomas Westerman, a former colleague and friend of Baldwin’s, is the accused leaker, Westerman’s attorney, Michael Kyle, confirmed to CNN in a phone interview on Friday.

Westerman is accused of using his phone to take the crime scene photos, which were allegedly leaked and reportedly ended up in the hands of a YouTube content creator, Kyle told CNN.

Westerman was charged with conversion, which is a misdemeanor, last November and remains out on bond. Westerman worked for Baldwin approximately between 2013 and 2018, Kyle said.

The alleged leak possibly happened sometime in the late summer or early fall of last year and came to light in October, according to Westerman’s attorney.

Allen had also requested the trial happen within the next 70 days and remove Gull as judge, both of which the supreme court denied.

With Baldwin and Rozzi reinstated, it’s unclear if Allen’s trial will take place in October or be moved to an earlier date.

CNN’s Joe Sutton, Lauren Mascarenhas, Emma Tucker, Barbara MacDonald and Eliott C. McLaughlin contributed to this report.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2024 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.