Westerman
As jury selection begins for the Delphi double murder trial in northern Indiana, a local case tied to it has been continued until later this month.
Richard Allen, 52, is charged with two counts of murder and two counts of murder while committing or attempting to commit kidnapping in the killings of 13-year-old Abigail Williams and 14-year-old Liberty German. If convicted, he could face up to 130 years in prison. Prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty.
Jury selection began Monday in Fort Wayne. Once the 12 members and four alternates have been selected, they will be taken to Delphi in Carroll County, where they will be sequestered for the duration of the trial, monitored by bailiffs and banned from using cellphones or watching news broadcasts.
If jury selection is completed Wednesday, jury instructions and opening statements could take place Friday morning. The trial is expected to last a month.
Although Delphi is about 100 miles away from Johnson County, the case does have local ties.
Andrew Baldwin, one of the attorneys representing Allen, is based in Franklin. Additionally, a man was charged with conversion, a Class A misdemeanor, after reportedly leaking evidence from the case to someone else, with the evidence eventually making its way online.
Mitchell Thomas Westerman, a former employee of Baldwin’s, is accused of taking photos of crime scene photos that were left inside a conference room at Baldwin’s office. These photos were sent to someone else, eventually being shared by a third person to YouTube creators and podcasts, according to court documents.
Westerman, of Franklin and formerly of Westfield, has since taken part in a pre-trial diversion agreement reached between him, his attorney Michael Kyle and Special Prosecutor Lindsey Holden-Kay of Bartholomew County, which remains pending.
Per the terms of the pre-trial diversion agreement filed in Johnson Superior Court on July 18, the prosecution would be withheld upon compliance with several conditions. These conditions include admitting that probable cause existed to support all elements of the crime of conversion, paying a diversion fee, not receiving new charges for three months and complying with all conditions by the time a compliance hearing took place on Sept. 25, the agreement shows.
The compliance hearing was continued to Oct. 30, according to online court records.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
