Delphi murder suspect moved to different prison
Plus, West Side plans watch party to see alum get Nobel Prize in Chemistry
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Just a few notes for a Friday morning …
RICHARD ALLEN, DELPHI MURDER SUSPECT, MOVED TO DIFFERENT PRISON
Court records filed Wednesday say Richard Allen, accused of murder in the 2017 killing of Delphi teens Abby Williams and Libby German, was going to be moved from the Westville Correctional Facility in northwest Indiana to the Wabash Valley Correctional Facility, roughly 200 miles to the south in Carlisle.
The order doesn’t explain the reason for the move between the two Indiana prison, other than to say that “the Indiana Department of Correction anticipates continuity of services and care provided to Mr. Allen at Wabash Valley Correctional Facility.”
Allen, a former CVS clerk living in Delphi, had been held in Westville since November 2022, shortly after he was arrested and charged in the high-profile investigation. He was sent to the state prison after Carroll County officials said they couldn’t guarantee his safekeeping at the county jail in Delphi.
Allen’s initial court-appointed defense team – since removed from the case, but arguing at the Indiana Supreme Court to be reinstated – had argued that that Allen did belong in a prison as he awaited trial, saying he belonged in a county facility that would have better conditions and that would have made it easier to prepare for trial.
Judge Fran Gull, an Allen County judge assigned to the case, rejected those requests, leaving it to the Indiana Department of Correction to decide where Allen should be held. Allen faces a trial date in October 2024. Meanwhile, all sides await an Indiana Supreme Court decision on motions to reinstate is initial defense team – Andrew Baldwin of Franklin and Brad Rozzi of Logansport – and to remove Gull from the case.
WEST SIDE PLANS NOBEL PRIZE WATCH PARTY
It’s not every day that one of your graduates collects a Nobel Prize. And West Lafayette High School isn’t letting the moment pass when Moungi Bawendi, West Side class of ’78, receives the Nobel Prize in Chemistry on Sunday.
A watch party hosted by West Lafayette Schools Education Foundation and the West Lafayette High School Alumni Association will start at 10 a.m. Sunday at the high school, 1105 Grant St. The doors will open on the west side of the school at 9:45 a.m., leading to the LGI Room, for the livestream event broadcast from Stockholm, Sweden.
“Hosting the watch party is one small way that we can show support and Red Devil Pride for Dr. Bawendi,” Wendi Ailor, executive director of the West Lafayette Schools Education Foundation, said. “And who knows? Watching this prestigious ceremony together may inspire a future Nobel Prize winner from our school.”
Announced in October, the Nobel in Chemistry went to Bawendi; Louis Brus, a professor at Columbia University; and Alexei Ekimov, who is with Nanocrystals Technology Inc. in New York. They were recognized for their work in the field of quantum dots, with research that stretched back to 1980.
Quantum dots are nanoparticles so small that their size determines their properties, according to the Nobel committee. The technology was key in the development of computer and television screens, LED lighting and medical devices used to remove cancerous tissue, to name a few.
Bawendi, the Lester Wolfe Professor of Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was born in Paris and came to West Lafayette during his school years. During his time in West Lafayette, Bawendi’s father, Mohammed Salah Baouendi, was a mathematician and professor at Purdue from 1971 to 1990, where he was department head from 1980-87.
At West Lafayette High School, Bawendi was co-valedictorian of the class of 1978. He helped found West Lafayette’s soccer club and was co-captain on that team, according to his bio kept by the school. He also played the violin and had a small classical music group and a jazz trio. Bawendi was inducted into the West Lafayette High School Wall of Pride in 2022.
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OTHER READS
Reporter Susan Orr at the Indianapolis Business Journal had a wrap up on a Purdue victory in court this week, when a Texas jury awarded $32.5 million in damages in a patent infringement lawsuit against STMicroelectronics. The federal lawsuit accused the Netherlands-based company of making and selling products that infringed on a patent for related to semiconductor devices used in high-voltage power applications. For Orr’s report, here’s a link.
J&C reporter Ron Wilkins had the interesting conclusion to the mystery of a headstone that turned up in a Lafayette apartment in 1997 and had remained an unsolved case for the Tippecanoe County coroner ever since. The story about how Coroner Carrie Costello’s office tracked down the mystery of William Kopp’s marker (1822-1907) is worth a read: “Tombstone returned to owner's gravesite.”
Indiana Capital Chronicle reporter Whitney Downard, up in the queue of end-of-the-year sessions with Gov. Eric Holcomb, got a question on his views about the brewing controversy over the LEAP pipeline issue that has Tippecanoe County wondering if the state is going to start sucking tens of millions of gallons of water for use in massive developments in Boone County. The governor’s response, in part: “No one was ever going to promise a company water if we don’t have it; no was ever going to take water away from a community if we don’t have it.” For more, here’s Downard’s report: “Holcomb defends LEAP pipeline, prepares for last legislative session.”
Downard also had this twist in a case challenging Indiana’s two-primary law – the one that kept Republican Charles Bookwalter from running against Rep. Jim Baird in the 2022 primary in the 4th District. A Marion County judge issued an injunction Thursday, ruling that the law is unconstitutional and clears the way for Republican John Rust to join the primary ballot in running to replace U.S. Sen. Mike Braun. Here's the story: “Judge finds primary law unconstitutional; grants Rust injunction.”
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I read recently that the Delphi murder suspect has been in solitary confinement since October of 2022. Why? That alone will cause mental deterioration, and he hasn't even been convicted yet.