Crime & Safety
Accused Cassman Killer to Undergo Mental Exam
Celestial Cassman was the deputy city attorney for Capitola. She was killed last year in Maui.
Legal proceedings are far from over, even 13 months after the brutal killing of Capitola Deputy City Attorney Celestial Cassman.
The Santa Cruz woman was in Maui last September when she got into an altercation with a man and was eventually left to die on the side of the road.
Cassman's autopsy showed that she died of asphyxiation.
Find out what's happening in Capitola-Soquelwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
The accused killer is Gerald Galaway, Cassman's ex-boyfriend, with whom she was vacationing at the time of her death.
Galaway intially entered a not guilty plea, but later changed his plea to no contest. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Galaway would like to once again change his plea back to not guilty, but the Maui judge has not yet made a ruling on that front.
Find out what's happening in Capitola-Soquelwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Instead, the Chronicle reports that the judge has ordered Galaway to undergo a mental exam.
"Galaway says he was under medication and was concerned about a financial burden of a trial on his family when he accepted the [no contest plea] deal," according to the Chronicle.
He is expected back in court this week.
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