Allman to be tried again on murder charge

Barry Allman is going to be tried again in the murder of Lance Baumgarten in August of 2020. That’s the decision of Seventh Circuit Court Judge Matt Brown, who declared a mistrial in the case last month after the defense was not told about immunity the state had granted to witnesses in the case.

Brown announced that decision in a hearing Friday afternoon, denying a motion to dismiss the case with prejudice, meaning Allman would not have been able to be tried on the murder charge again. In his decision, Judge Brown called the errors made by the state in the case “grossly negligent, egregious and caused serious inconvenience, burden and cost to the county, the court, court staff, jurors and to Mr. Allman.” Brown also assessed the Pennington County State’s Attorney’s Office $5,782 for the jury costs of the first trial. Judge Brown said they will do what they can to get the case back on the docket without delay.