A Westmoreland County jury found a former New Kensington man not guilty Thursday of raping his 20-year-old ex-girlfriend last October while he was free on bail awaiting retrial on a murder charge.
Denard T. Galloway turned and thanked jurors when they returned to the courtroom after about 21/2 hours of deliberations and acquitted him of rape, sexual assault, simple assault and indecent assault.
Galloway, 37, now of Pittsburgh's East Liberty neighborhood, was charged with raping a woman in the Southwest Greensburg home of her mother just three weeks after he left prison. He had been incarcerated since early 1999, when he was arrested and charged with the fatal shooting of a man in New Kensington.
Galloway was convicted in 2000 of first-degree murder for killing 43-year-old Terry Anderson. Prosecutors sought the death penalty for Galloway, but a Westmoreland County jury decided instead to impose a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
That conviction and sentence were overturned last year after a county judge ruled Galloway had inadequate defense at his trial.
Last September, Galloway was freed from prison after he posted $50,000 bail.
In the sexual assault case tried over the last two days, his accuser claimed that in the early morning hours of Oct. 16, Galloway came to her mother's home, dragged her into the kitchen by the hair and raped her. The woman, who at the time was 51/2 months pregnant with another man's child, also has a 5-year-old son by Galloway.
Galloway testified yesterday he did not force himself on the woman and that she consented to the sexual encounter.
"At no time did I ever grab her hair and drag her into the kitchen," Galloway testified.
Galloway's bail in the murder case was revoked immediately after he was charged with rape. Defense attorney Emily Smarto said she would petition the court soon to reinstate Galloway's bail to allow him to be free while he awaits his retrial for murder.
No retrial date has been set.
