CRESTVIEW — Nicole Allen wasn’t sentenced Wednesday for third-degree murder. Instead, she got a new attorney.
Allen also learned Ryan Minyard, who was released from representing her, is no longer bound by attorney-client privilege in her case.
Okaloosa County Circuit Judge Michael Flowers told Allen that her request to change a no contest plea to not guilty had been nullified and any new request would have to be filed after consulting with her new attorney, Jeremy Keich.
“This motion is not to be considered,” Flowers said as he set aside a handwritten request for a new trial Allen had filed in July.
Allen confirmed to the court Wednesday that “Yes … I want to withdraw my plea.”
Allen is charged in the death of Logan Sherwin, the 2-year-old son of her boyfriend Grant Sherwin.
She was to have been sentenced Wednesday, and Assistant State Attorney Bobby Elmore made it clear he would seek a 65-year maximum sentence on charges of third-degree murder and 10 counts of child abuse.
Logan Sherwin died Dec. 29, 2011, after first responders found his unresponsive, malnourished body at the family’s home in Crestview. The boy had a large contusion on his head and was covered with bruises from the top of his head to the bottoms of his feet.
Allen’s boyfriend, Grant Sherwin, was sentenced in May to 20 years in prison for his role in Logan’s death.
Testimony at Sherwin’s sentencing hearing indicated Allen was believed to have committed the worst of the abuse on Logan and his 3-year-old sister.
Contact Daily News Staff Writer Tom McLaughlin at 850-315-4435 or tmclaughlin@nwfdailynews.com. Follow him on Twitter @TomMnwfdn.