State of Georgia vs. Denver Fenton Allen: Case, Judge, and Aftermath

State of Georgia v. Denver Fenton Allen is the Floyd County murder prosecution of a man who beat his cellmate to death in 2015 and is now serving life without parole. The case became nationally known for a reason unrelated to the killing: an eleven-minute pretrial hearing in June 2016, in which Allen and Superior Court Judge J. Bryant Durham Jr. traded graphic insults on the record, later animated by the creators of Rick and Morty.

The Killing at the Floyd County Jail

On August 26, 2015, detention officers at the Floyd County Jail in Rome, Georgia, found 49-year-old Stephen Rudolph Nalley dead in his cell during a 1:50 a.m. head count. Assistant County Coroner Gene Proctor said Nalley had been “apparently beaten to death,” and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation took over the case at the sheriff’s office’s request.¹²

Denver Fenton Allen, then 30, of Cartersville, was charged with murder the next day. He had been transferred to the Floyd County Jail only a week earlier, on August 19, from Bartow County, where he faced four felony counts of making terroristic threats and acts. Allen and Nalley shared a cell in the jail’s “O-Block,” a unit generally used for inmates with mental health issues.¹

Prosecutors later said Allen had waited for Nalley to fall asleep before attacking the smaller man, then bragged to other inmates about the killing. Assistant District Attorney Luke Martin put it this way at the plea hearing: “He didn’t punch the biggest guy in the room, he waited until Stephen Nalley went to sleep. And then he bashed Stephen Nalley’s head in.”³

The Pretrial Hearing That Went Viral

On June 17, 2016, Allen appeared before Floyd County Superior Court Judge J. Bryant Durham Jr. to make an oral motion to dismiss his court-appointed attorney, James C. Wyatt. A court reporter transcribed the entire eleven-minute hearing.⁴

Allen told the court his public defender had made sexual advances toward him, had forced him into a mental health evaluation, and had conspired with doctors at Central State Hospital to fabricate a diagnosis. He also said Wyatt had produced no meaningful discovery. With trial scheduled the following week, Allen said he had received only the four-page indictment: no autopsy report, no coroner’s report, no crime scene photos.⁵

Judge Durham did not examine the substance of any of it. He told Allen he had a right to counsel but no right to a specific attorney, and gave him two options: proceed with Wyatt or represent himself. Self-representation, Durham warned, would be “the biggest mistake you’ve ever made in your life.” When Allen asked whether he would be found guilty defending himself, the judge answered, “You’re probably right.”⁶

How the Exchange Escalated

Allen began directing graphic sexual insults at Durham. Rather than clear the courtroom or pause the proceeding, the judge responded in kind. Durham called Allen a slur, told him “you look like a queer,” said he had “a constitutional right to be a dumbass,” and at one point told him, “Come on. Jack off.”⁷

Durham stacked contempt sentences as Allen kept going: 20 days, then 40, then 60, then a year, and finally 10 years after Allen said “suck my dick.”⁸ Allen also threatened to murder the judge’s family, saying he would “cut your children up into pieces” and “knock their brains out with a fucking hammer.” Durham referred those threats to the district attorney’s office for additional charges of aggravated assault and terroristic threats.⁶

Through all of it, Wyatt, the attorney whose conduct was under discussion, said nothing. He did not intervene, de-escalate, or try to keep his client from racking up new charges on the record.⁵

Consequences for Judge Durham

After the hearing, Durham reported himself to the Georgia Judicial Qualifications Commission. The JQC issued a formal admonishment for his “improper and intemperate remarks” and his failure to de-escalate, and Durham agreed to counseling. The Commission said it was “impressed” by his “candor, sincerity and contrition.”⁹ Some in Georgia’s legal community questioned whether the sanction was strong enough.⁴

Durham recused himself from Allen’s case immediately.⁹ He stayed on the Floyd County Superior Court bench, later becoming the longest-tenured superior court judge in the Rome Judicial Circuit and serving as Chief Judge. He announced in 2019 that he would not seek re-election and retired on December 31, 2020.¹⁰

How the Murder Case Ended

With Durham recused, the case moved to Superior Court Judge Billy Sparks. In April 2017, Sparks declared Allen temporarily unfit to stand trial.⁴

By that December, Allen was deemed competent enough to enter a plea. On December 11, 2017, he pleaded guilty but mentally ill to Nalley’s murder. Sparks sentenced him to life without the possibility of parole. Assistant District Attorney Luke Martin told the court, “He’s a dangerous person. He needs to be in prison until he dies.” After the sentence, Allen threatened to kill people in the courtroom, including the prosecutor.³

The Rick and Morty Animation

By the time Allen was sentenced, the transcript had already found a second audience. In 2017, Adult Swim premiered an animated reading titled “Judge Morty: State of Georgia vs. Rick Allen” at San Diego Comic-Con. Rick and Morty co-creator Justin Roiland voiced both the judge and the defendant as the show’s lead characters, over black-and-white animatics by series storyboard artist and director Erica Hayes.¹¹

An independent animator known as “tiarawhy” later released a full-color version that drew millions of views on YouTube. Turner Broadcasting, Adult Swim’s parent company, issued a takedown notice, but public backlash led it to reverse course and restore the video.¹¹

Where Allen Is Now

Allen is housed in the Special Management Unit at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson, Georgia. He also has a separate murder charge pending in the Superior Court of Lowndes County; the details are not publicly available in the record.¹²

Since his incarceration, Allen has filed a long series of federal civil rights lawsuits under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Courts have called his filings “illegible,” “indecipherable,” “fanciful,” and “wholly incredible,” and have dismissed them across the Northern, Middle, and Southern Districts of Georgia going back to at least 2012. His named defendants have included YouTube, the state of Georgia, the U.S. District Court, and, in a 2025 filing, seven continents and China.¹³

Federal courts have designated him a “three-strikes” litigant under the Prison Litigation Reform Act, meaning he must pay filing fees upfront unless he can show imminent danger of serious physical injury, a standard he has repeatedly failed to meet. His most recent known complaint, a 61-page filing alleging false imprisonment, poisoned food, kidnapping, police brutality, and an 18-hour erection, was dismissed without prejudice on May 29, 2025.¹⁴

1
Northwest Georgia News. Cartersville Man Charged in Floyd County Jail Inmate Death
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Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Floyd County Detention Center Inmate Death
3
New York Post. Man Whose Incredibly Crude Exchange With Judge Went Viral Gets Life
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Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Murder Suspect Who Provoked Judge Into Vulgarity Found Not Fit for Trial
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Prison Legal News. More Lawyers, Same Injustice
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Lowering the Bar. State v. Denver Fenton Allen Transcript
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Vox. Judge Durham Rick and Morty
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Rolling Stone. Donkey Dick Defendant Court Transcript Greatest Lines
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ABA Journal. Judge Is Admonished for Highly Inappropriate Exchange With Defendant
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Northwest Georgia News. Superior Court Judge J. Bryant Durham Jr. to Retire as Current Term Ends in December
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Newsweek. Rick and Morty Court Video Judge Transcript Denver Fenton Allen
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GovInfo. Allen v. State, 5:25-cv-00216-TES
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GovInfo. Allen v. State, 5:25-cv-00209-TES-CHW Strike List
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GovInfo. Allen v. State, 5:25-cv-00209-TES-CHW