Jan. 4—DELPHI, Ind. — Richard Allen, recently convicted and sentenced to 130 years for the February 2017 deaths of teenagers Libby German and Abby Williams, has yet to officially file an appeal in the case.
But Amy Karozos, the State’s Public Defender is already working behind the scenes for when that possible day comes.
During Allen’s Dec. 20 sentencing, presiding Judge Fran Gull approved a request to have the State Public Defender choose lawyers for Allen’s potential upcoming appeal process.
And so this week, Karozos filed a motion requesting at least two appellate attorneys to oversee Allen’s case, rather than just one.
“Defendant Allen’s trial counsel believes no individual appellate attorney will be able to manage the volume of information in this case under the tight deadlines required by the Indiana Rules of Appellate Procedure,” Karozos wrote in her motion.
Karozos also indicated she has already consulted with several experienced appellate attorneys “qualified to handle a murder conviction appeal” and concluded through those meetings that more than one appellate attorney would be needed to represent Allen due to the “voluminous record, multiple pretrial hearings, trial proceedings and evidence” that was presented in the case.
“It is in the interest of judicial economy that this Court facilitate the appointment of multiple appellate lawyers to prosecute Defendant Allen’s appeal within a reasonable time and to further avoid the possibility of lengthy continuances and delays,” Karozos wrote, “which would most certainly result from the appointment of any one attorney to handle this appeal.”
Allen has 30 days to file his official notice of appeal.
Once that appeal is filed, the case record is then assembled, and court officials will begin preparing transcripts needed for such an appeals process.
That includes transcripts from each pre-trial conference and the nearly three-week long jury trial held in November in Carroll Circuit Court.
Karozos’ motion also came out around the same time Gull ruled all crime scene and autopsy photos, along with the autopsy reports and all other medical records in the Delphi case, will be kept under seal.
That ruling also includes Allen’s mental health records.
It was Feb. 14, 2017, when the bodies of German and Williams were found near the Monon High Bridge area in rural Carroll County.
In November 2022, Allen was arrested for his alleged connection to the case.
In interviews with police conducted in October 2022, Allen reportedly told investigators he was on the trails that day but never saw the girls.