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The killer of a Santa Cruz, Calif., attorney whose body was found at the bottom of a Maui cliff last year pleaded no contest Thursday in Maui Circuit Court to a reduced charge of manslaughter.
Gerald Galaway Jr., 39, was originally charged with second-degree murder. He also pleaded no contest to kidnapping and faces a prison term of 20 to 40 years when he is sentenced Sept. 11.
Santa Cruz residents Galaway and Celestial Dove Cassman, Galaway’s girlfriend, who was an attorney, arrived on Maui the day before she was killed Sept. 1.
A witness reported seeing Galaway holding Cassman in a chokehold and dragging her into bushes as she kicked and screamed near mile marker 38 on Kahekili Highway, according to police.
Her body was found at the base of the Nakalele cliffs in northern Maui.
Cassman, 35, worked as an attorney at a law firm that provided legal services to several cities.
She graduated from the University of California at Santa Cruz in 1998 before attending law school at UC-Davis, according to the website of the nonprofit Santa Cruz group CASA, where Cassman served as a director.