A plea agreement has been reached regarding a Bartholomew County man facing multiple charges that include armed robbery.
Justin Don Allen, 24, of 8666 W. County Road 700S is formally charged with armed robbery as a Level 3 felony, unlawful possession of a firearm by a serious violent felon as a Level 4 felony, and possession of a controlled substance as an A misdemeanor.
While Allen did not attend a June 17 change of plea hearing in Bartholomew Superior Court 1, a request for an indefinite continuance by Allen’s public defender, Jane Ann Noblitt, was approved by Judge James Worton.
After the hearing, Deputy Prosecutor Sara Laska said a plea arrangement has been reached regarding Allen, but details won’t be made public until a joint change of plea and sentencing hearing is held.
That hearing won’t be scheduled until probation officers complete a pre-sentence investigation report on Allen and submit it to the court, she said.
In the early morning hours of Oct. 2, 2022, police were dispatched to the site of a reported armed robbery on California Street, just north of 9th Street. When officers arrived, they were informed two suspects used a firearm to rob another person of currency before fleeing in a dark colored vehicle, according to investigative reports.
A short time later, officers observed a vehicle that matched the description given to the officers at the scene of the robbery. The officers conducted a felony traffic stop on the suspect’s vehicle on U.S. 31 near County Road 450N and observed a large sum of money inside the vehicle, police said.
Both Allen and a second suspect, Carter E. Kappel, 23, were taken into custody. During a search of the vehicle, the officers found drugs and drug paraphernalia, along with a handgun that appeared to have the serial number removed, police said at the time.
If online records are correct, no criminal charges have been filed in Bartholomew County against Kappel. But elsewhere, the Daviess County resident had been convicted of methamphetamine-related charges in both Johnson and Marion counties.
Records also indicate Kappel spent a substantial amount of time in an addiction-treatment center in his hometown of Washington, Indiana.
