A Lowell man who held his ex-girlfriend captive for roughly 18 hours, raped her repeatedly and shot her neighbor in the head will spend the next 35 to 50 years in prison. Michael Galloway, 42, was sentenced Friday by Judge Kenneth Salinger following a September conviction on 12 of 13 charges tied to a violent spree that began on November 12, 2022.
Salinger did not mince words describing the case, calling what Galloway did to his ex-girlfriend and her neighbor “truly horrifying,” according to the Lowell Sun. The judge imposed 25 to 35 years for the crimes against the ex-girlfriend and a consecutive 10 to 15 years for the crimes against the neighbor, bringing the aggregate sentence to 35 to 50 years. In weighing the punishment, Salinger considered the facts and nature of the crimes and their impact on the two victims, the outlet reports.
Galloway went to his ex-girlfriend's Lowell apartment despite a no-contact order that was supposed to keep him away from her, and he had disabled the battery on his GPS monitoring device beforehand to avoid real-time tracking, per the same account. He entered the residence through a rear door armed with a handgun and a knife, struck his ex-girlfriend in the face with the firearm, and then held her captive for roughly 18 hours across multiple locations while repeatedly raping her.
A Neighbor Caught in the Crossfire
During the ordeal, Galloway shot his ex-girlfriend's neighbor in the head. The neighbor survived, and Salinger described her survival as a miracle after the bullet ricocheted off her skull, the station's report notes. Galloway was on probation at the time for a prior assault on the same woman, according to the Middlesex District Attorney's Office.
Lowell police and the Northeastern Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council SWAT team caught up with Galloway the next day, arresting him after a foot pursuit that ended beneath the Church Street bridge along the Concord River. He was initially charged with armed assault with intent to murder, rape, kidnapping, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, and discharging a firearm within 500 feet of a dwelling, the Lowell Sun reported in 2022. Judge John Coffey ordered him held without bail for up to 120 days at that time, finding him a threat to the community.
Four Years, Five Attorneys, and a Rejected Plea
Galloway was detained pretrial for roughly four years and cycled through five attorneys before his case finally went to trial. In November 2024, he rejected a plea offer that would have given him 20 to 25 years in prison followed by four years of supervised release, choosing instead to take the case before a jury.
When the trial began, Galloway opted to represent himself, with attorney Brian DeMott serving as standby counsel. Over two weeks, jurors heard testimony from 32 witnesses — including the victims themselves — and reviewed 107 exhibits before returning convictions on 12 of 13 counts: home invasion, aggravated kidnapping, two counts of rape, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon using a firearm, assault and battery on a family or household member, witness intimidation, firearm use while committing a felony, and armed assault with intent to murder, among others. Jurors acquitted him of a single charge of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon involving a knife.
Dueling Closing Arguments
In his closing argument, Galloway insisted forensic evidence pointed away from him. Middlesex Assistant District Attorney Megan McGovern, who prosecuted the case, countered that physical evidence, DNA, cellphone location data, witness testimony and ballistic testing all supported the victims' accounts. She also argued that Galloway repeatedly referred to matters never admitted into evidence and misstated testimony during the trial.
Under Massachusetts law, a firearm offense covered by the kidnapping statute carries a mandatory minimum of 10 years in state prison when committed while armed, according to the Massachusetts Legislature. State sentencing guidelines also generally allow judges to stack consecutive sentences across multiple convictions stemming from the same conduct, per the Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety and Security, which is the structure Salinger applied in splitting the sentence between the two victims.
