Galloway Charged With Murdering 2-Year-Old Boy

A 27-year-old convicted baby killer was charged Monday with second-degree murder in the death of 2-year-old Devin Erb.

Kenneth Galloway, 27, is being held in the Spokane County Jail on $500,000 cash bond.

Police said Monday the child had died of trauma April 4 while in Galloway’s care and the injuries weren’t accidental.

The boy’s mother, Sara Erb, called paramedics when she returned to her apartment and found her son alone and unconscious.

Police picked up Galloway last Thursday morning walking along a road near Reardan, Wash. He had driven his car into a ditch about 10 miles north of Reardan.

Galloway pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter in 1990 in the death of his infant son, Kenneth Jamal Galloway, and was sentenced to 6 years in prison.

He also pleaded guilty to two counts of seconddegree assault for abusing his 6-month-old twin sons in 1989. Both cases were in Pierce County.

Erb has said she wasn’t aware of those convictions and that Galloway told her he had served time for assaulting two men.

But on Monday, a state Department of Corrections official said Erb knew Galloway had committed crimes against children. Erb was told not to leave her son alone with Galloway, said Steven Holmes, community corrections supervisor.

In 1993, Galloway was transferred from Walla Walla to the Airway Heights Corrections Center. He later enrolled in a work-release program at Cornelius House and was released last September.

He met Erb at Cornelius House, and she became a visitor-sponsor for him.

Last month, Galloway asked to move in temporarily with Erb after he had severed two fingers on his right hand while working on a table saw.

His probation officer, Pam Madill, talked to Galloway and Erb on March 1.

Holmes said Madill asked if Erb knew about Galloway’s past crimes, and Erb said she did. Madill then asked Galloway if he had told the truth, and he said he had, Holmes said.

Holmes said Madill told Erb: “‘His crimes were not against adults. They were against children. … I would ask that he not baby-sit your child.”’

Madill, according to Holmes, continued her account of the meeting: “Erb said, ‘No, he won’t be babysitting.”’

But Erb denied Madill’s account.

“What happened is she had asked me if I knew of Ken’s charges,” Erb said. “I said I did. But I knew what Ken had told me. She said ‘OK,’ with my son standing right there.

“No one has ever said a word to me” about the past convictions, Erb said. “There’s no way in hell I would let this man around my child if I knew about this. This child was my life.”