King County prosecutors charged a 20-year-old Burien man with first-degree murder in connection with the June beating death of a woman by he and two other men during a robbery at her Kent apartment.
Michael Vincent Galloway is scheduled to be arraigned Monday, Nov. 4 at King County Superior Court in Kent, according to the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. He remains in the county jail at the Maleng Regional Justice Center with bail set at $1 million.
Kent Police arrested Galloway on Oct. 19 for investigation of first-degree murder more than four months after the June 3 death of Latasha Walker, 24. Police responded to a 911 call from a neighbor at about 8:16 p.m. June 3 and found Walker unconscious on her bedroom floor at the Somerset Apartments, 25216 110th Ave. S.E. Paramedics transported Walker to the Valley Medical Center in Renton where she was declared dead, according to charging papers filed Oct. 23.
A female friend of Walker who was with her that night told police that three men forced their way into the apartment. The friend said that Walker sold drugs from the apartment and had prescription pills and money in her bedroom.
One of the men, according to the friend, yelled at Walker, “Bitch, where’s the money?” and added “Bitch, you’re not going anywhere!”
One man forced Walker’s friend onto a couch and put a pillow over her head. Periodically, he punched her. She heard Walker screaming from the bedroom.
The three men left at the same time. After they left, the friend found Walker on the floor, in a fetal position, unconscious, with a belt around her neck, according to charging papers. Walker was unresponsive.
The friend couldn’t find her cellphone so she ran outside the apartment and screamed for help. Two women responded to the apartment, one called 911 and the other one performed CPR on Walker until paramedics arrived.
An autopsy by the King County Medical Examiner’s Office later determined Walker died from numerous liver lacerations and large amounts of blood in her chest cavity, consistent with some type of blunt force trauma.
Police investigators found fingerprints of Galloway inside the apartment on a dresser in Walker’s bedroom. Walker’s friend said drugs and cash were kept in the dresser, but no drugs or cash were found by police as the three men reportedly stole the items.
The men also allegedly took Walker’s cellphone. Detectives learned in July the phone had been reactivated. The investigation into the phone use eventually led them to Galloway.
Detectives interviewed Galloway Oct. 16 at the South Correctional Entity (SCORE jail) in Des Moines, where Galloway had been booked on an unrelated warrant.
Galloway admitted to detectives that he and two other men traveled in June to Kent to rob Walker. He said one of the other men told them Walker had large sums of cash and pills at her apartment and that her man was in jail.
When the men went to the apartment, Galloway knocked on the door and asked to use a phone. As a woman started to open the door, the men forced their way inside.
Galloway said the other men wrestled, punched and choked Walker as he looked for the money and drugs. Galloway said he didn’t find cash or drugs but he stole Xbox games, a laptop and cellphones. Detectives have not yet tracked down the other two men.
Kent Police did not issue a media release after the June incident because of the uncertainty at the time about how Walker had died.
“It was a unique case and we were not sure if it was a murder or not at first,” Police Chief Ken Thomas said during a phone interview.
After the King County Medical Examiner’s Office later determined it was a homicide, detectives didn’t want to compromise the investigation by releasing information, Thomas said.
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