LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Charges were filed Wednesday against a Santa Cruz man who is alleged to have killed his female companion – a young attorney raised in Lake County – during a visit to the Hawaiian island of Maui.
Gerald W. Galaway Jr., 38, is facing second-degree murder and kidnapping charges for the murder of 35-year-old Celestial Summer Dove Cassman of Santa Cruz, according to Maui County Prosecuting Attorney John Kim.
Cassman, who was born in Hawaii, was a 1994 graduate of Clear Lake High School in Lakeport, according to friends and a biography of her posted on the Web site of the law firm where she worked, Atchison, Barisone, Condotti and Kovacevich.
Galaway and Cassman were reportedly on a visit to Maui, having checked into the Kaanapali Beach Hotel on Wednesday, Aug. 31, according to the charging documents posted online by Hawaii News Now, www.hawaiinewsnow.com.
A report released to Lake County News by Lt. Wayne Ibarra of the Maui Police Department, police officers responded to a call regarding a domestic dispute involving a male and a female shortly before 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 1.
The court documents said that a female witness saw the couple arguing, with Cassman running up to the woman's vehicle to ask for help. Galaway allegedly came up behind Cassman and grabbed her around the neck.
The witness said Galaway picked Cassman up several times and slammed her body on the asphalt roadway, as Cassman fought and screamed for help. He then drug Cassman by her head into shrubs near the rental vehicle, and kept yelling at the witness to leave, which she finally did, going to borrow a cell phone to call 911.
When officers arrived at the scene, in the area of Nakalele Point along Kahekili Highway, they saw a male, alleged to be Galaway, who was wearing a dark blue t-shirt and was nude from the waist down, according to the charging document. When police attempted to contact him he fled and jumped off a cliff into the ocean, where he swam out to sea and screamed for help.
Kim said Galaway fell about 100 feet before going into the water, and was injured as a result.
The Maui Police Department reported that the Maui Fire Department and United States Coast Guard responded to assist in rescuing Galaway.
Cassman was found about an hour after the initial call, and was unresponsive when officers discovered her, the Maui Police reported.
Kim said Cassman was found near the roadside, not far from where the rental car she and Galaway had shared was abandoned.
Court documents said she was found down a small embankment, under a tree. The way her body was found and her clothes were torn suggested she could have been sexually assaulted.
It wasn't until about 6:45 a.m. the day after the incident that Galaway was rescued, according to the Maui Police report.
On the morning of Friday, Sept. 2, officers were airlifted by helicopter to the rock point at Nakalele, where they found Galaway and took him into custody, police said.
The Maui Police reported that Galaway had sustained non-life threatening injuries. He was transported to the Maui Memorial Medical Center.
A hearing regarding Galaway's medical condition was held in the case on Wednesday morning. Galaway wasn't present, according to Kim.
“He's in the hospital under guard,” said Kim.
Kim added, “He's technically not been arrested and booked because I don't believe they can move him because of his medical condition.”
In the mean time, the complaint against Galaway was filed in district court, and the court must now decide when to schedule a preliminary hearing, Kim said.
Galaway was represented by two attorneys in the Wednesday hearing, Hayden Aluli, who did not respond to a message seeking comment, and William Sloper.
Sloper, when contacted by Lake County News, would not comment on the case or Galaway's condition, only offering that Galaway still was considered innocent under the law.
Officials so far have not stated the exact cause of Cassman's death.
“We had an autopsy done on Monday. The report is forthcoming,” said Kim, adding he was not at liberty to say more.
The Maui Police Department's official confirmation of Cassman's identity is pending a positive identification by her family. Ibarra said Wednesday that family members were in the process of traveling to Maui to make the positive identification and complete the notification of kin.
According to her biography, Cassman received a bachelor's degree in political philosophy and art in 1998 from the University of California, Santa Cruz.
From 1998 to 2001 she worked for a nonprofit affordable housing and community building organization in Portland, Ore., and entered UC Davis' King Hall School of Law in 2001. She graduated three years later and was admitted to the State Bar of California in 2004.
After law school, Cassman worked for three years for McDonough Holland & Allen PC in Sacramento. In 2007 she returned to Santa Cruz to join Atchison, Barisone, Condotti and Kovacevich, where she continued working in public and municipal law.
Bay Area media has reported that Cassman served as deputy city attorney for the coastal communities of Half Moon Bay, Capitola and Santa Cruz through her work with Atchison, Barisone, Condotti and Kovacevich.
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