ABIGAIL YOUNG AGAIN DENIED PAROLE IN SENTENCE FOR EMMA THOMPSON’S DEATH

  

The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles has denied the early release of a Brenham woman serving a 20-year prison sentence in the death of her four-year-old daughter.

Abigail Young was denied parole on Thursday for her 2010 conviction of Injury to a Child by Omission, following the death of Emma Thompson in 2009.  Young’s boyfriend, Lucas Coe, was also convicted and is serving a life sentence.

Amanda Mathews, Young’s sister and Thompson’s aunt, says Emma deserved to live a full life and that her family is grateful that the parole board has “continued to see this crime for what we see it as.”

Per the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, the board denied Young’s parole request due to the offense having “elements of brutality, violence, assaultive behavior, or conscious selection of victim’s vulnerability indicating a conscious disregard for the lives, safety, or property of others, such that the offender poses a continuing threat to public safety.”  The board also stated in its decision that Young’s accrued good conduct time “is not an accurate reflection of the offender’s potential for rehabilitation” and that her early release “would endanger the public.”

In 2013, the state passed Emma’s Law to make parole review occur every five years, rather than annually, for anyone who is convicted of a felony against a child.  However, Young is eligible for yearly reviews since she has served over half of her sentence. 

Young’s next parole review is scheduled for February 2027.