Client killed woman in 2013 Woman guilty of killing at PDC
Judge Antonio Reyes of the Tulare County Superior Court sentenced a woman to 16 years to life in prison for murdering a fellow client at the Porterville Developmental Center, the Tulare County District Attorney’s office reported.
On June 15, 2017, Sheila Allen, 28, a client and resident of the facility, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and the special allegation of use of a deadly weapon.
At 11:30 p.m. on Dec. 17, 2013, the Porterville Police Department received a call stating a client had been killed and that officers with the Office of Protective Services had already detained a person. Officers found that Allen had entered the room of the 36-year-old adult female victim and strangled her with the electrical cord of a DVD player that was in Allen’s room. After strangling the victim, Allen returned to her room and notified developmental center staff.
Staff members and medical personnel responded to the scene and rendered medical aid including CPR, however, the victim was pronounced deceased by a doctor at the scene. According to authorities, it appeared the attack was unprovoked. Authorities noted that neither women was housed in the high security forensic area of the state facility.
Both Allen and the victim were clients of PDC and were housed in the same building where the incident occurred. Allen allegedly committed the crime to receive a new housing assignment within the facility, said the DA’S office. She was booked into the custody of the Tulare County Sheriff’s Department after the incident.
According to a probation report, there were some charges pending
in Kern County regarding a fire that Allen had self-reported in 2013 at a Bakersfield group home she’d been placed in, which may have landed her in the PDC.
She did go through a competency hearing to determine she was fit for trial.
Assistant District Attorney Dave Alavezos said Allen is ordered to state prison, but noted that where she will be housed is uncertain.
“That is up to the prison,” said Alavezos, adding, “I am not sure where they are going to order her to be housed.”
Allen’s case was prosecuted by Supervising Deputy District Attorney Cindy Underwood and investigated by the Porterville Police Department.
The Porterville Developmental Center is home to more than 400 clients, roughly 200 who live in fenced, prison-like units for “secure treatment,” or forensic area. California’s courts have ruled those clients unfit to stand trial and some a danger to themselves and others. PDC began housing what are called forensic patients in the 1990s.