Palm Desert man sentenced to 47 years to life for beating pregnant wife
An ex-con was sentenced today to 47 years to life in state prison for repeatedly kicking his pregnant wife in the stomach and head until she lost consciousness in Palm Desert.
Andrew Phillip Allen, 30, was convicted in March 2020 of seven felony counts, including inflicting corporal injury, assault with a gun, criminal threats and willful child cruelty, along with two misdemeanor counts of violating a protective order.
Before handing down the sentence at the Banning Justice Center, Riverside County Superior Court Judge Jorge Hernandez read a statement from Allen's wife in which she pleaded with the court to deliver a light sentence, saying he was a good father who should be allowed to help raise his children.
"Our kids will now become victims as long as we continue to punish their father and not allow him to be a part of their lives," she wrote. "We live in a world where it takes two parents to raise children.''
The judge was unswayed, and issued a protective order that bars Allen from contacting his wife and kids while he's behind bars.
According to Deputy District Attorney Amity Armes, Allen attacked his wife on two separate occasions in the early morning hours of Aug. 20, 2019. A passerby called 911 about 8 that morning and sheriff's deputies responded and arrested the defendant at the apartment he shared with his wife and their two young children on Hovley Lane.
One of the fights occurred while the couple's children, who were 6 and 10 at the time, were eating breakfast nearby. Allen, who is 6-foot-2 and 210 pounds, punched his wife, causing her to fall, then delivered repeated kicks to her head until she lost consciousness, according to prosecutors.
In an interview with a Riverside County sheriff's deputy, the older daughter said her father kicked her mother in the face and stomach as she lay on the ground before the victim yelled "Stop! Stop! I'm pregnant," according to court papers that state the defendant admitted to investigators that he knew she was expecting.
She was five weeks pregnant at the time. It was unclear if the fetus suffered any damage. He then pulled out a handgun, raised it to his wife's head and threatened to kill her. The altercation ended when sheriff's deputies knocked on the door.
According to court papers, Allen has four prior domestic violence convictions involving the same victim -- two felony convictions for inflicting corporal injury, one felony conviction for preventing a witness from testifying and one misdemeanor conviction for spousal battery. A prior domestic violence case from 2013 involving the same victim also occurred when she was pregnant, according to court documents.
During that altercation, the defendant "grabbed her and hit her on the left side of her head, then struck her in the stomach and ribs three times with a closed fist," according to court records.
The victim was four to five weeks pregnant during that incident. Allen additionally has an unresolved felony case involving allegations he resisted arrest and attempted to take a firearm from a peace officer.
