Bio

Leslie Galloway III, also known as “Bo,” was from the Moss Point area of Mississippi. Before the capital murder case, Galloway had a prior felony conviction for carjacking. That conviction became important during the penalty phase of the Shakeylia Anderson case because the State used it as an aggravating circumstance. The Mississippi Supreme Court record states that the State introduced a “pen pack” showing the prior carjacking conviction and showing that Galloway was under Mississippi Department of Corrections supervision when Anderson was murdered.

Galloway’s prior carjacking conviction remained the subject of later litigation. He later filed a post-conviction petition challenging that conviction, arguing that his defense attorney had a conflict of interest. The Mississippi Supreme Court rejected that claim in 2020, and the carjacking conviction continued to stand as part of the capital-case history.

Murder Story

On the evening of Friday, December 5, 2008, 17-year-old Shakeylia Anderson was at her grandmother’s house in Gulfport, Mississippi, with her cousin Dixie Brimage. A phone call came in from someone identified as “Bo.” Anderson said the phone was hers, and her uncle got the impression that she was preparing to leave and meet someone. At about 10:00 p.m., Anderson walked outside carrying her book bag and got into a white Ford Taurus after speaking briefly with a man by the car.

The next evening, December 6, 2008, a hunter in a secluded wooded area west of Highway 15 in northern Harrison County found an unclothed body lying on a dirt logging road. Law enforcement secured the scene overnight and returned the next morning with investigators and the medical examiner. The victim was later identified as Shakeylia Anderson.

Investigators described Anderson’s body as partially burned and heavily injured, with scrapes, gouges, lacerations, and at least three tire marks. They found a burned patch of grass, drag marks leading from that area to where the body was found, broken glass from a bottle of New Amsterdam gin, burned cloth, and tire tracks near the body. Based on the scene and the condition of the body, the medical examiner concluded that Anderson had been run over by a vehicle.

Investigators began looking for a man nicknamed “Bo” who drove a white Ford Taurus. On December 9, 2008, Jackson County officers identified Leslie Galloway as a possible suspect and saw a white Ford Taurus at his residence. Later that evening, officers stopped the Taurus a short distance from the home and arrested Galloway.

Forensic testing connected the vehicle and Galloway’s property to Anderson. Blood and tissue-like material recovered from inside and underneath the Taurus matched Anderson’s DNA. Tire tracks at the scene were consistent with the type of tires on the Taurus. Officers also searched Galloway’s residence and seized items including shoes, a baseball cap, a Burger King shirt with the name tag “Bo,” and an empty bottle of New Amsterdam gin. DNA testing found Anderson’s DNA on the shoes and baseball cap.

The State’s capital-murder theory was based on murder during sexual battery. The medical examiner testified about injuries consistent with forceful sexual penetration, and the jury was instructed that the State had to prove that Galloway killed Anderson while committing sexual battery. Galloway admitted to investigators that he went by “Bo,” that he had been seeing Anderson, that he had spoken with her on December 5, and that he had picked her up that evening in the white Ford Taurus.

Galloway was tried in Harrison County Circuit Court in September 2010. On September 23, 2010, the jury found him guilty of capital murder. WLOX reported that the jury reached the guilty verdict after about two hours of deliberation.

On September 24, 2010, the same jury sentenced Galloway to death. The Mississippi Supreme Court later recorded the judgment date as September 24, 2010. The four aggravating factors found by the jury were that Galloway was engaged in sexual battery, was under a sentence of imprisonment at the time, had a prior violent felony conviction, and that the murder was especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel.

Galloway appealed. On June 6, 2013, the Mississippi Supreme Court affirmed his conviction and death sentence. The court rejected multiple claims, including challenges related to jury instructions, DNA testimony, and penalty-phase issues. His motion for rehearing was denied on September 26, 2013, and the U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari on May 27, 2014.

Galloway later filed post-conviction challenges. On October 5, 2023, the Mississippi Supreme Court denied post-conviction relief. In 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear another appeal from him, while AP reported that a separate federal appeal remained pending.

In 2025, Galloway filed another state appeal arguing that a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision affected his confrontation-right claims involving DNA testimony. On September 11, 2025, the Mississippi Supreme Court rejected the filing, and local reporting described him as a South Mississippi death row inmate whose latest appeal had been denied.