Prineville man facing attempted murder retrial
A 30-year-old Prineville man who pleaded guilty to attempted aggravated murder and arson for setting a 2002 fire at a Crook County prosecutor’s home is back in a Central Oregon jail, awaiting his retrial later this year on attempted aggravated murder and other charges.
Nathan Wayne Galloway recently was moved from the Snake River Correctional Institution near Ontario to the Jefferson County Jail, where he’s being held on $1 million bail awaiting trial, said Michael Kron of the Oregon Department of Justice.
A motion hearing in the case is set for Oct. 13, with a five-day jury trial currently scheduled to begin Dec. 8, Kron said last week. Galloway was transfered back to local authorities after serving a state prison term in another case, he added.
Galloway had been sentenced to more than 40 years in prison after pleading guilty in 2002 to attempted murder and arson for trying to burn down then-Crook County Deputy DA Ron Brown’s house.
The family, including three young children, escaped unharmed after smoke alarms sounded. First responders doused the flames with a garden hose.
Nearly two years ago, the Oregon Court of Appeals granted Galloway a new trial, finding he had been provided an inadequate defense by a lawyer who, among other things, did not visit the fire scene.
While Galloway will be tried again on the charges of attempted aggravated murder, attempted murder and burglary, the court upheld his other convictions on first- and second-degree arson and recklessly endangering another.
Galloway and two others were charged with setting that blaze and another small one around the same time. Galloway had pending misdemeanor charges at the time of the fire and, according to court documents, said he would “fix it” by “blowing somebody up and blowing up a DA’s house.”
A visiting Marion County judge will hear the case, to be prosecuted by the state, since local judges have conflicts of interest or were removed at the request of the defense.
After the 2002 conviction, Galloway had five more years added to his sentence after being convicted of criminal conspiracy to commit murder. News accounts indicated he devised a plan to overpower a guard and use a sharpened toothbrush to kill him and escape from the Crook County Jail.
