DA Dan Dow asks governor to reverse early parole for woman who killed daughter
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Update, April 25 at 6:30 p.m.:
On Friday, San Luis Obispo County District Attorney Dan Dow sent a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom, requesting that he reverse the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Parole Board’s decision to grant early parole to Allie Brown.
Brown was convicted of the second-degree murder of her 22-month-old daughter, Lily Sommer-Brown. She had served 12 years of her 15-year sentence when she was granted early parole, according to a news release from the District Attorney’s Office.
In the letter, Dow said that the parole board did not adequately consider the “gravity of the crime” or Brown’s conflicting statements about the incident.
Originally, Brown said the family’s border collie injured her daughter. Later, she said she dropped her daughter in the shower.
Additionally, Brown violated rules while incarcerated, and a 2023 assessment of Brown determined that she was at a moderate risk for violence, the letter said.
“The board further failed to take into account that Brown did not put together comprehensive relapse prevention plans for domestic violence or mental health management,” the letter said. “This is alarming because both the life crime and the background of abuse against Lily’s mother involve domestic violence and apparent mental instability.”
Original story:
A San Luis Obispo County resident convicted of murdering her daughter was granted early parole on Tuesday.
In 2015, a judge sentenced Paso Robles resident Allie Brown to 15-years-to-life in prison after she pled no contest to the second degree murder of her 22-month-old daughter, Lily Sommer-Brown, a news release from the San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office said.
Brown was known as Herbert David Brown III when she was convicted, but is now going by the name Allie, according to the news release.
On Feb. 19, 2013, Brown called 911 because her daughter Lily had stopped breathing.
Emergency responders found Lily covered with bruises and a severe skull fracture “consistent with striking with great force against a hard object,” the release said.
Originally, Brown said the family’s border collie injured her daughter. Later, Brown said she had dropped Lily in the shower, according to previous Tribune reporting.
Lily was transferred to the Stanford University Medical Center, where she was declared brain-dead and taken off of life support.
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Parole Board first granted Brown parole on Oct. 30, to the objection of Lily’s mother and the San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office, according to the release.
In March, Gov. Gavin Newsom referred the decision back to the board for review.
On Tuesday, the board affirmed its original decision and granted Brown parole after serving 12 years in prison.
San Luis Obispo County District Attorney Dan Dow called the decision “shameful.”
“(Brown) should have served every day of the 15 years before being considered for possible parole,” Dow said in the release. “I ask the Board of Parole Hearings: Where is the justice for Baby Lily?”
Brown’s release date has not yet been determined.
This story was originally published April 24, 2025 at 5:09 PM.
