Bio

Michael Steven Gallegos was born on November 10, 1971, in Flagstaff, Arizona. Kendall Wishon's mother had been in a relationship with Gallegos's brother, Jerry, since 1984; the couple eventually settled in Phoenix. Kendall's half-brother, George Smallwood, moved to Flagstaff in November 1989 to live with Gallegos's family, with Gallegos's parents becoming his legal guardians. Gallegos and Smallwood became friends and attended Coconino High School together, both seniors at the time of the murder. Smallwood periodically visited his mother and half-sister in Phoenix, sometimes accompanied by Gallegos.

Murder Story

In March 1990, during their high school spring break, Gallegos and Smallwood spent the week at Kendall's home in Phoenix, working on their vehicles during the day and helping supervise Kendall, then 8, after school. On the night of March 16, 1990, after Gallegos's brother Jerry went to bed around 11:30 p.m., Gallegos and Smallwood continued drinking beer and playing video games. Gallegos suggested to Smallwood that they go into Kendall's room to fondle her, and Smallwood agreed. 

Once inside, Gallegos lifted her nightgown and rubbed baby oil on her back. When she began to wake, Smallwood put his hand over her mouth, and Gallegos placed his hand over Smallwood's hand and over her nose. She gasped for air, made sounds described in testimony as being "like a little pig," and eventually went limp. Believing she was dead, Smallwood suggested they "finish her off"; he was unsuccessful in whatever he then attempted, but Gallegos proceeded to sexually assault her body. Gallegos later told police he continued because "it wasn't like she was going to tell anybody." The two carried her body outside and left it under a tree approximately 250 feet from the house, where it was discovered the following day.

Investigators grew suspicious of Gallegos and Smallwood after determining there were no signs of forced entry into the house. Gallegos initially denied involvement but eventually confessed on two separate occasions, implicating Smallwood, who denied any involvement. Both were initially charged, but charges against Smallwood were later dismissed after DNA testing linked Gallegos to evidence recovered from the body while specifically excluding Smallwood as a possible contributor.

Gallegos's trial began March 6, 1991. His defense attorney, Greg Clark, acknowledged to the jury at the outset that Gallegos was "absolutely responsible" for the crimes, while portraying him as a "scared teenager" and a "man-child" who "never intended to kill" Kendall. The defense also argued, as a technical matter, that Kendall was no longer legally a "person" at the time of the sexual assault since she had already died, an argument one appellate judge later described as "convoluted, inherently repulsive, and unsympathetic," though not necessarily an unreasonable strategy given the overwhelming physical evidence against him. Gallegos was convicted on March 14, 1991, of first-degree murder and sexual conduct with a minor, and was sentenced to death on May 24, 1991, along with a consecutive 21-year term for the sexual conduct conviction.

On direct appeal, the Arizona Supreme Court affirmed Gallegos's convictions but remanded the case for resentencing (State v. Gallegos, 178 Ariz. 1, 870 P.2d 1097 (1994)); he was resentenced to death on October 24, 1994, a decision addressed in a subsequent opinion (State v. Gallegos, 185 Ariz. 340, 916 P.2d 1056 (1996)). In October 2001, the Arizona Supreme Court issued a warrant for his execution, scheduled for November 14, 2001, but a stay was granted shortly afterward because Gallegos had not yet exhausted his appeals.

In later federal habeas corpus proceedings, a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Gallegos's claims that his trial attorney had provided ineffective assistance. However, in a 2016 ruling, the divided panel found that a federal district court should further consider a separate argument, that Phoenix police detective Armando Saldate had failed to properly advise Gallegos of his rights before obtaining his confession, and that prosecutors had known but failed to disclose that Saldate had a documented history of lying in judicial proceedings and disregarding defendants' constitutional rights in other cases. Saldate was also the central detective involved in Arizona's high-profile Debra Milke case, a separate and well-known wrongful conviction controversy. Gallegos remains on Arizona's death row.