Summary:

In 1998 Galloway and his girlfriend, Deannee Bayless, along with Kevin Scott Varga and his 17 year old girlfriend, Venus Anderson, all of whom were on probation or parole in South Dakota, gathered up their belongings and left South Dakota, intending to travel to Mexico. Along the way, they stopped in Wichita, Kansas, where Varga beat a man to death with a pole, then robbed him.

They later arrived in Greenville, Texas and again decided to "roll" someone. They met David Logie in a motel lounge and convinced him to go eat with them. Along the way, Bayless pulled over in a deserted area, ostensibly so that she and Logie could have sex on the hood. Logie exited the car with her. Varga and Galloway then appeared and began attacking Logie. Galloway struck him with his fists and knocked him down. He pleaded for his life for several minutes while Galloway beat him. Varga then handed Galloway an object, and the beating continued until Logie was dead. The group took Logie's wallet and credit cards and dragged his body into the woods. Police found a ball peen hammer and a tree limb near the body.

Accomplice Anderson was the State's star witness at trial. Accomplice Galloway was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death. He was executed one day before Galloway. Accomplice Bayless was convicted of murder and sentenced to 40 years in prison, erligible for parole in 2018. Accomplice Anderson received limited immunity in exchange for her testimony against the others. She served seven years in prison.

Citations:

Galloway v. State, Not Reported in S.W.3d, 2003 WL 1712559 (Tex.Crim.App. 2003). (Direct Appeal)
Galloway v. Thaler, 344 Fed.Appx. 64 (5th Cir. 2009). (Habeas)

Final/Special Meal:

Two BLTs; 1 bacon cheeseburger; French fries and ketchup; chocolate cake; 2 servings of milk; and 2 Mountain Dews.

Last Words:

"If I can go back and change the past, I would. There's nothing I can do. I'm sorry. I love you, Adonya. That's it."

Texas Attorney General

Monday, May 6, 2010

Media Advisory: Billy Galloway scheduled for execution

AUSTIN – Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott offers the following information about Billy John Galloway, who is scheduled to be executed after 6 p.m. on Thursday, May 13, 2010. On March 24, 2000, in Hunt County, Galloway was sentenced to die for the capital murder of David Lawrence Logie.

FACTS OF THE CRIME

During late summer of 1998, Galloway, his girlfriend, Deannee Bayless; Galloway’s friend Kevin Varga; and Varga’s girlfriend, Venus Joy Anderson; were all on probation or parole with the South Dakota Department of Corrections. On September 1, 1998, the four gathered their money and belongings, loaded up Galloway’s car, and left South Dakota.

A few days later, they arrived in Wichita, Kansas, and checked into a hotel. That evening, after discussing a plan to lure someone back to the hotel to blackmail or rob him, Galloway, Anderson, and Bayless went to a bar. There they met David McCoy. Bayless talked McCoy into returning to the hotel with them. Once there, the men killed McCoy, wrapped his body in a blanket, and put it into Galloway’s car. Driving both Galloway’s and McCoy’s cars, the group left Wichita. After Galloway’s car broke down, they abandoned it in a parking lot with McCoy’s body still inside.

On September 7, the group arrived in Greenville, Texas. Galloway and Varga wanted more money, so they agreed to use the same pickup scheme that they had used in Kansas. Shortly thereafter, Bayless and Anderson met David Logie at a motel and convinced him to go eat with them. With Bayless driving Logie’s rental car, the three left the Holiday Inn parking lot. Galloway and Varga surreptitiously followed them in McCoy’s car. Shortly thereafter, Bayless pulled off the road near a building. Bayless got out of the car with Logie. Galloway appeared and began cursing and hitting Logie with his fist, knocking him down. Varga repeatedly struck Logie with a log, killing him. Bayless took Logie’s wallet and credit cards. The group burned McCoy’s vehicle and left Greenville in Logie’s rental car.

The group drove to San Antonio, where Bayless and Anderson used Logie’s stolen credit cards at a shopping mall. As they were leaving the mall parking lot, the women saw a police car behind them, and they pulled into a nearby Wal-Mart parking lot. The officer approached and separated the two women. After Anderson confessed to the murders, officers arrested Bayless and Anderson. Galloway and Varga were arrested later that night. Based on the information Anderson gave in her confession, the authorities found Logie’s body near Greenville and told Kansas authorities about McCoy’s murder.

PUNISHMENT-RELATED EVIDENCE

At sentencing, the State introduced evidence that while awaiting trial, Galloway had assaulted a guard and had escaped from Hunt County Jail. The State also offered testimony from victims’ relatives. And the State introduced evidence that in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, in 1996, Galloway had been involved in a car chase with police that led to a crash. Galloway was charged with driving while intoxicated and drug possession. He also had been arrested in South Dakota for resisting arrest, causing disturbances, possession of a concealed weapon, and for repeatedly threatening police officers, and had spent time in the South Dakota Prison system.

PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Nov. 19, 1999 – A Hunt County grand jury indicted Galloway for capital murder.
March 21, 2000 – After a trial in the 354th District Court of Hunt County, the jury found Galloway guilty of capital murder.
March 24, 2000 – After a hearing, the court sentenced Galloway to death.
Jan. 29, 2003 – On appeal, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the conviction and sentence.
Oct. 6, 2003 – The U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari review.
Jan. 21, 2004 – The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied Galloway’s application for state habeas corpus relief
Dec. 3, 2008 – A Dallas U.S. district court denied federal habeas corpus relief.
Jan. 5, 2009 – The federal district court denied Galloway’s request for permission to appeal.
Sept. 18, 2009 – The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit denied Galloway’s request for permission to appeal.
April 5, 2010 – The Supreme Court denied Galloway’s petition for writ of certiorari.

Killer executed for '98 robbery-slaying near Dallas

A day before, South Dakota parolee's ex-cellmate was put to death for same crime

By Michael Graczyk - The Houston Chronicle

Associated Press May 13, 2010

HUNTSVILLE — A South Dakota parolee condemned for killing an Army officer during a robbery and beating in Texas was put to death Thursday evening, a day after his former cellmate was executed for the same crime.

Billy Galloway had a long, violent history culminating in the slaying of David Logie, 37, in September 1998. The Army major from Fayetteville, N.C., was bludgeoned with a hammer and a tree limb behind a building in Greenville, about 50 miles northeast of Dallas. It was one of two slayings blamed on Galloway and Kevin Varga during a weeklong cross-country crime spree.

Varga, 41, received lethal injection Wednesday evening. Twenty-four hours later, Galloway, also 41, was belted to the same gurney, had needles inserted into his heavily tattooed arms and became the ninth prisoner executed this year in the nation's most active death penalty state.

“If I can go back and change the past, I would,” Galloway said, looking at Logie's father and widow, who were among people watching through a window. “There's nothing I can do. I'm sorry.” He looked toward another window, where his father and stepmother stood in an adjacent room with a friend. He told the friend that he loved her. “That's it,” Galloway said. He gasped slightly, then began snoring quietly. Ten minutes later, at 6:19 p.m. CDT, as his pale skin turned purple, he was pronounced dead.

“If our beloved David had to die, we are glad it was in Texas where justice is their main goal,” Logie's widow, Diann, said. “His death left a void in our lives and hearts that can never be filled. Our lives will never be the same for as long as we live.” Logie's father, Jack, dismissed Galloway's apology and Varga's more extensive but similar comments from the death house Wednesday. “I cannot forgive,” he said.

Galloway's appeals to the courts were exhausted and no last-day legal actions were filed. “I guess I've come to the realization that this is it,” Galloway recently told The Associated Press.

Galloway and Varga met in prison in South Dakota. Varga was paroled in May 1998 after serving about half of a 10-year term for grand theft. Galloway, originally from Onondaga, N.Y., was paroled a month later. He served time for theft, parole violation and attempted robbery. Galloway credited his charisma and what he called his “Manson complex” for being able to persuade his girlfriend, Deannee Bayless, Varga and Varga's 17-year-old girlfriend, Venus Joy Anderson, to make a road trip from South Dakota to Mexico. Z

Anderson testified that Varga proposed they would finance the trip using a scam in which the women offered sex to men along the way. Then, Galloway and Varga would ambush and rob the victims. Their first target was David McCoy, 48, in Wichita, Kan. McCoy's body was found wrapped in sheets in Galloway's SUV abandoned a few blocks from where he was beaten to death. The group wasn't tried for his slaying. A day later, they robbed and killed Logie, an aviation analyst at Fort Bragg, N.C., who was in Texas on business.

Testimony showed Anderson and Bayless propositioned Logie at a Holiday Inn bar in Greenville. When they went to a deserted area behind a building, Galloway and Varga showed up. Police said a hammer and bloody tree limb were found near Logie's battered body, which the four dragged into some woods and set on fire.

“A pretty violent son of a gun, a nasty dude,” prosecutor Keith Willeford, a former Hunt County district attorney, said of Galloway. “These were brutal, horrible murders, just absolutely disgusting.” Authorities eventually arrested the four in San Antonio after a routine police license check showed their car was stolen.

Anderson, from Revillo, S.D., served a reduced seven-year prison term in exchange for her testimony. Bayless, from Sioux Falls, is serving 40 years for murder. She's not eligible for parole until 2018.

While awaiting trial, Galloway escaped from the county jail. He was captured about 90 minutes later. During the break, Willeford said Galloway stabbed an officer numerous times with a shank but that the officer's bulletproof vest prevented serious injury. “People are trying to make me a monster,” Galloway said. “I'm not a monster. I made some bad decisions in my life.”

At least eight other Texas inmates have execution dates approaching. Next week, Rogelio Cannady, 37, is set to die for killing a fellow Texas inmate while already locked up for a double murder.

Second S.D. ex-con in 2 days executed for 1998 murder

By Mary Rainwater - The Huntsville Item

May 14, 2010

HUNTSVILLE — Former South Dakota resident Billy John Galloway had few words to say before he was executed Thursday for the 1998 robbery-slaying of Maj. David Logie in Greenville. Galloway, 41, was the second death row inmate in as many days to be put to death by lethal injection for the murder of Logie, an army officer from Fayetteville, N.C. Another former South Dakotan, Kevin Scott Varga, also 41, was executed for his role in the crime at the Huntsville Unit on Wednesday.

“If I can go back and change the past I would,” Galloway said from the gurney of the cell-sized execution room, addressing Logie’s father, Jack Logie, and his widow, Diann Logie. “There’s nothing I can do. I am sorry.” Galloway then turned his attention to his family, father William Galloway, step mother Mary Galloway, friend Adonya Buzinis and spiritual advisor Kathryn Cox. “I love you, Adonya,” he said. “That’s it.”

Galloway kept eye contact with his family as the lethal injection began to flow through his system, beginning at 6:09 p.m., and concluding five minutes later, at 6:14 p.m. He was pronounced dead at 6:19 p.m., the same time Varga was pronounced just 24-hours prior.

Galloway’s execution gave Logie’s family some closure for the tragic death of their loved one, they said, but was little consolation for the fact that Logie was no longer with them. “The fate of these individuals was determined by them,” Diane Logie said about Galloway and Varga during a press conference after the execution. “They are solely responsible for the reason we are all gathered here.”

Diann Logie went on say that their experience in dealing with her husband’s death changed their perspective on how they view the death penalty. “(Galloway and Varga experienced) a much more humane death than they inflicted on their victims,” she said. “They (were) able to say good-bye to their families and express their love, which is more than what was granted for us. “If our beloved David had to die, we are glad it was in Texas where justice is their main goal.”

When asked their feelings on Galloway’s apology and Varga’s request for forgiveness, Jack Logie did not hesitate to respond with, “I cannot forgive them.” Logie’s mother, Norma Logie, felt differently, silently mouthing the words, “I can.”

Billy Galloway had a long, violent history culminating in the slaying of David Logie, 37, in September 1998. The Army major was bludgeoned with a hammer and a tree limb behind a building in Greenville. Galloway and Varga met in prison in South Dakota. Varga was paroled in May 1998 after serving about half of a 10-year term for grand theft. Galloway, originally from Onondaga, N.Y., was paroled a month later. He served time for theft, parole violation and attempted robbery.

Galloway credited his charisma and what he called his “Manson complex” for being able to persuade his girlfriend, Deannee Bayless, Varga and Varga’s 17-year-old girlfriend, Venus Joy Anderson, to make a road trip from South Dakota to Mexico.

Anderson testified that Varga proposed they would finance the trip using a scam in which the women offered sex to men along the way. Then, Galloway and Varga would ambush and rob the victims. Their first target was David McCoy, 48, in Wichita, Kan. McCoy’s body was found wrapped in sheets in Galloway’s SUV abandoned a few blocks from where he was beaten to death. The group wasn’t tried for his slaying. A day later, they robbed and killed Logie, who was in Texas on business. Authorities eventually arrested the four in San Antonio after a routine police license check showed their car was stolen.

Anderson, from Revillo, S.D., served a reduced seven-year prison term in exchange for her testimony. Bayless, from Sioux Falls, is serving 40 years for murder. She’s not eligible for parole until 2018.

While awaiting trial, Galloway escaped from the county jail. He was captured about 90 minutes later. During the break, Galloway stabbed an officer numerous times with a shank but the officer’s bulletproof vest prevented serious injury.

Executions fit a heinous crime

RapidCityJournal.com

May 14, 2010

As the end neared, his mother's prayers and pleas for mercy fell on deaf ears. Kevin Varga was executed by lethal injection Wednesday for the 1998 murder of David Logie, who was beaten to death with a hammer and a tree limb. The brutal slaying took place four months after Varga was released from the South Dakota penitentiary. Billy Galloway, who met Varga in prison and lent a hand in Logie's murder, was executed yesterday.

Varga made a lot of bad choices throughout his life, including the location of his most heinous crime. Texas is known for its liberal use of the death penalty. Varga was the eighth death row inmate to be executed there, this year. Galloway yesterday became the ninth, with two more planned before month's end. Varga also was the 455th person to die by lethal injection in Texas since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1982.

South Dakota, where both men lived prior to the Texas murder, has executed only one person is the last six decades. Not that we're judging the consequence of their heinous acts, which also included the murder of another man in Kansas the day before Logie's death. If ever a crime called for the death penalty, the cruel and senseless murder of Logie would be among them.

Of course, Texas is bigger and more heavily populated than South Dakota, and therefore has more crime and violence. All things considered, though, Texas seems to prefer retribution when it comes to punishing murderers. Whether you favor the death penalty or not, any death is a tragedy for the grief-stricken families left behind.

Varga is survived by a son, a stepson, and his mother, Beth, who lives in Rapid City. All of them spent time with Varga before he died. His mother was there when he took his last breath. We extend our condolences to them, and to the victim's family. Logie's father also was on hand to witness the executions of Varga and Galloway.

If that gave him any sense of closure or some small bit of peace, it's the least he and the rest of his family deserve. The executions rid the world of two murderers who, in death, met the same fate they imposed on their victims. There's no joy in that, but justice has been served.

Billy John Galloway

ProDeathPenalty.com

During the late summer of 1998, Billy Galloway, his girlfriend, Deannee Bayless, Galloway's friend Kevin Varga, and Varga's girlfriend, Venus Joy Anderson, were all on probation or parole with the South Dakota Department of Corrections. On September 1, 1998, the four gathered their money and belongings, loaded up Galloway's automobile, and left South Dakota.

A few days later, the group arrived in Wichita, Kansas, and checked into a hotel. That evening, after discussing a plan to lure someone back to the hotel to blackmail or rob them, Galloway, Anderson, and Bayless went to a bar. According to Anderson, the group discussed "rolling" someone. When she asked what this meant, her cohorts explained that it entailed enticing an older man with money back to a hotel room and then blackmailing him after the others caught him in a compromising position. At the bar, the three met David McCoy, and Bayless talked him into returning to the hotel with them. Once there, the men killed McCoy, wrapped his body in a blanket, and loaded it into Galloway's vehicle. Driving both Galloway's vehicle and McCoy's car, the group headed out of Wichita. After Galloway's automobile stopped running, they abandoned it in a parking lot with McCoy's body still inside.

The group arrived in Greenville, Hunt County, Texas, September 7, 1998. Galloway and Varga wanted more money, so they agreed to engage in the same pickup scheme that they had used in Kansas. Shortly thereafter, Bayless and Anderson met David Logie at the Holiday Inn and convinced him to go eat with them. With Bayless driving Logie's rental car, the three left the Holiday Inn parking lot. Galloway and Varga surreptitiously followed them in McCoy's car. Shortly thereafter, Bayless pulled off the road near a building. Bayless got out of the car with Logie and told Anderson that she and Logie were going to have sex on the hood of his car. About this time, Galloway appeared and began cursing and hitting Logie with his fist, knocking him down. Varga repeatedly struck Logie with a log, killing him. Bayless took Logie's wallet and credit cards. The group burned McCoy's vehicle and left Greenville in Logie's rental car.

The group traveled to San Antonio, where Bayless and Anderson used the credit cards Bayless had stolen from Logie at a local mall. As they were leaving the mall parking lot, the women noticed a police car behind them, and they pulled into a nearby Wal-Mart parking lot. The officer approached and separated the two women. After Anderson confessed to the murders, officers arrested Bayless and Anderson. Galloway and Varga were arrested later that night. Based on the information Anderson gave in her confession, the authorities located Logie's body near Greenville and notified Kansas authorities about McCoy's murder. Galloway's accomplice Kevin Varga is scheduled to be executed the previous day.

UPDATE: “If I can go back and change the past, I would,” Galloway said, looking at Logie's father and widow, who were among people watching through a window. “There's nothing I can do. I'm sorry.” He looked toward another window, where his father and stepmother stood in an adjacent room with a friend. He told the friend that he loved her. “That's it,” Galloway said. He gasped slightly, then began snoring quietly. Ten minutes later, at 6:19 p.m. CDT, as his pale skin turned purple, he was pronounced dead. “If our beloved David had to die, we are glad it was in Texas where justice is their main goal,” Logie's widow, Diann, said. “His death left a void in our lives and hearts that can never be filled. Our lives will never be the same for as long as we live.” Logie's father, Jack, dismissed Galloway's apology and Varga's more extensive but similar comments from the death house Wednesday. “I cannot forgive,” he said.

In the Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas

On Direct Appeal from Hunt County

In March 2000, a Hunt County jury convicted appellant of capital murder. Tex. Penal Code Ann. § 19.03(a). Pursuant to the jury's answers to the special issues set forth in Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Article 37.071, sections 2(b) and 2(e), the trial court sentenced appellant to death. Art. 37.071, § 2(g). ⁽¹⁾ Direct appeal to this Court is automatic. Art. 37.071, § 2(h). Appellant raises ten points of error. We affirm.

A few days later, the group arrived in Wichita, Kansas, and checked into a hotel. That evening, after discussing a plan to lure someone back to the hotel to blackmail or rob them, appellant, Anderson, and Bayless went to a bar. ⁽²⁾ At the bar, the three met David McCoy, and Bayless talked him into returning to the hotel with them. Once there, the men killed McCoy, wrapped his body in a blanket, and loaded it into appellant's vehicle. Driving both appellant's vehicle and McCoy's car, the group headed out of Wichita. After appellant's automobile stopped running, they abandoned it in a parking lot with McCoy's body still inside.

The grand jury, not the district attorney, is ultimately responsible for the return of a "true bill" or a "no-bill" in a case. State ex rel. Holmes v. Salinas, 784 S.W.2d 421, 426 (Tex. Crim. App. 1990). Further, the grand jury has the authority to review matters that have not been presented by the state but are known about by some member of the panel. Id. That an improper person may have questioned witnesses in front of the grand jury in violation of Articles 20.03 and 20.04 did not render the subsequent indictment void. Rather, this issue is subject to a harm analysis. See Sanders v. State, 978 S.W.2d 597, 599-600 (Tex. App.- Tyler 1997, pet. ref'd) and Smith v. State, 36 S.W.3d 134, 136-38 (Tex. App.-Houston [14th Dist.] 2000, pet. ref'd); see also Cain v. State, 947 S.W.2d 262, 264 (Tex. Crim. App. 1997)(holding that, except for certain federal constitutional errors labeled by the United States Supreme Court as "structural," no error is categorically immune to a harmless error analysis). Because of the independent nature of the grand jury, the record does not support a finding of harm in this case, even assuming that error occurred. The grand jury's subsequent presentment of the indictment to the trial court invested that court with jurisdiction of this cause. Tex. Const. art. V, § 12(b); see also Art. 20.01, et sec. Appellant's first point of error is overruled. ⁽³⁾

Texas Penal Code section 19.03 defines the offense of capital murder as murder plus some aggravating element. See, e.g., Patrick v. State, 906 S.W.2d 481, 491 (Tex. Crim. App. 1995), cert. denied, 517 U.S. 1106 (1996); Hughes v. State, 897 S.W.2d 285, 295 (Tex. Crim. App. 1994), cert. denied, 514 U.S. 1112 (1995). Section 19.03(a)(7)(B) defines one form of capital murder as the murder of one person plus the additional murder of a second person, which murder was committed during a different criminal transaction but pursuant to the same scheme or course of conduct as the charged murder. Appellant is charged under this provision of the statute with the murder of David Logie (committed in Hunt County, Texas) aggravated by the additional murder of David McCoy (committed outside of Texas, but pursuant to the same scheme or course of conduct as Logie's murder). Because the primary murder occurred in Hunt County, Texas, this state has the authority to prosecute the offense even though some of the elements of the aggravating offense occurred outside the state's boundaries. The statute explicitly authorizes prosecution for murder in the county in which the body was found. See Art. 13.05. ⁽⁴⁾ Logie's body was found in Hunt County. Appellant's third point of error is overruled.

In his fourth point of error, appellant argues that his prosecution for capital murder and exposure to a potential death sentence was based solely upon his gender, thus denying him Equal Protection under the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Appellant notes that, while the state tried, convicted, and sentenced him to death for his involvement in the instant offense, the prosecution gave both of the women involved plea bargains for a lesser charge and punishment. ⁽⁵⁾ He asserts that this evidence establishes gender discrimination in the exercise of prosecutorial discretion.

The United States Supreme Court has stated that "the decision to prosecute may not be 'deliberately based upon an unjustifiable standard such as race, religion, or other arbitrary classification . . ..'" Wayte v. United States, 470 U.S. 598, 608 (1985)(quoting Oyler v. Boles, 368 U.S. 448, 456 (1962)). However, an appellant who raises the issue of equal protection in this context has the burden of proving the existence of purposeful discrimination by providing "exceptionally clear evidence" that the state decided to prosecute for an improper reason. Green v. State, 934 S.W.2d 92, 102-03 (Tex. Crim. App. 1996)(quoting County v. State, 812 S.W.2d 303, 308 (Tex. Crim. App. 1989)). Appellant has not provided exceptionally clear evidence for his claim, nor does the record support it. ⁽⁶⁾ The evidence presented throughout the instant case showed that the four persons involved in the charged offense acted with varying degrees of involvement. The differences in charging and punishment indicate that the prosecutor weighed each individual's culpability as well as the state's ability to prove each case when making the decision about whom to prosecute and for what. Appellant has not shown discriminatory intent on the part of the prosecutor. Appellant's fourth point of error is overruled.

In Tong v. State, 25 S.W.3d 707, 711-12 (Tex. Crim. App. 2000), cert. denied, 532 U.S. 1053 (2001), we explicitly stated that we had not yet decided whether a capital defendant can waive the mitigation special issue and that Mosley's holding involved the admissibility of victim-impact evidence, "not whether the special issue can be waived." Our opinion in Ripkowski v. State, 61 S.W.3d 378, 391 n.48 (Tex. Crim. App. 2001), noted that, while Mosley had suggested that a defendant may have a right to insist upon waiving the submission of mitigation special issue, "[t]hat question would be ripe only in a case in which the trial court refused [such] a requested waiver."

In his ninth point of error, appellant complains that the imposition of the death penalty violated the Eighth Amendment's prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment in that the anti-parties special issue operated unconstitutionally as applied to him. Specifically, appellant alleges that the state did not show that he actually caused the death of the deceased, intended to kill the deceased, or anticipated that a life would be taken, and thus he was less morally blameworthy than his co-defendants. ⁽¹¹⁾ See Art. 37.071, § 2(b)(2).