Palm Desert Man Who Beat Pregnant Wife Gets Sentencing Postponed

Palm Desert CA

19 February, 2021

1:38 PM

Description

PALM DESERT, CA — A judge Thursday appointed a public defender to represent an ex-con convicted of felony charges for repeatedly kicking his pregnant wife in the stomach and head until she lost consciousness in Palm Desert, and also postponed the defendant's sentencing date for the 11th time. Andrew Phillip Allen, 30, was convicted last March 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. The defendant represented himself following the verdict, accounting for several delays. He sought a new trial, which was denied, and also lost a bid to disqualify the Riverside County District Attorney's Office from the case. Allen had been scheduled to be sentenced Thurday, but he requested that an attorney be reappointed to his case, saying the sentencing process was too complex for him to navigate alone. Riverside County Superior Court Judge Jorge Hernandez granted Allen's motion and reset the sentencing for Feb. 23 at the Banning Justice Center, when a confirmation of counsel hearing is additionally scheduled. 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. His criminal record opens him up to a possible life sentence, according to prosecutors. 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. The defendant admitted to investigators that he knew she was pregnant, the papers say. She was five weeks pregnant at the time. 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. A prior domestic violence case from 2013 involving the same victim also occurred when she was pregnant. 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.