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Thessalonica Allen, 37, was found guilty in less than 30 minutes by a LaPorte County jury following a four-day trial for causing the death of Randy Allen, 50, on July 27, 2021, at their home in the 1400 block of West 18th Street in LaPorte, according to court records. Records show Allen shot her husband as he was preparing to move out following an argument. After he bled out, Allen initially hid his corpse in a bedroom, then tried to carry it to the trunk of her car, and eventually cut off his legs, put them in trash bags, and had her teenage children help put the rest of the body in a plastic tote and hide it in a bedroom closet.
In her appeal, Allen said she acted in self-defense and the evidence was insufficient to convict her of murder. She also asserted the trial judge erred by refusing to admit into evidence an unsubstantiated protective order Allen obtained against her husband and said the judge failed to instruct the jury on a potential involuntary manslaughter charge. The appeals court rejected all three of Allen's claims in its 3-0 ruling.
Chief Judge Robert Altice, writing for the appeals court, said rather than acting in self-defense, it was Allen who escalated the argument into violence by shooting her husband as he was preparing to move out and when he posed no threat to her. Listen now and subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | RSS Feed | SoundStack | All Of Our Podcasts Allen also had no evidence of immediate injuries or bruises her husband had inflicted on her, she did not call 911 after the shooting and instead allowed her husband to bleed to death, Altice said. Likewise, Altice said admitting the protective order would more likely than not confuse the jury because Allen subsequently denied the order's abuse allegations in a letter to the LaPorte Police Department.
Altice also found no problem with the trial court not instructing the jury on involuntary manslaughter because it was not factually included in the murder charge since Allen did not commit battery or touch her husband to kill him — she shot him. "Judgement affirmed," Altice said. Allen still can ask the Indiana Supreme Court to consider reviewing her conviction.
Otherwise, her 63-year prison term for murder, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, child neglect, abuse of a corpse, and moving a body from the scene of a death is scheduled to run until April 29, 2067, records show..
