Competency hearing set for convicted sex-slave killer

Gallego, 52, was sentenced to die by lethal injection 15 years ago for the murder of two Sacramento teen-agers. But his death sentence was overturned last year by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The appellate court said Gallego was entitled to a new sentencing hearing because jurors were given an improper instruction regarding the possibility of his eventually being pardoned for the crimes.

Last fall, Clark County District Judge John McGroarty, who was appointed to preside over the proceeding, ordered a psychological evaluation to determine if Gallego is competent to go forward with the new sentencing hearing.

The three-day hearing is scheduled to begin 1 p.m. Monday, the Pershing County District Attorney's office confirmed on Thursday.

Gallego was convicted here in 1984 for the killings of Karen Twiggs and Stacey Redican. The two young women disappeared from a Sacramento shopping mall in April 1980. Their bodies were found three months later in a remote Pershing County canyon about 90 miles east of Reno.

During his trial, his accomplice, Charlene Williams, testified Gallego was looking for "the perfect sex slave." Williams said she helped lure a number of victims into cars between 1978 and 1980 with promises of parties or jobs.

Williams confessed to taking part in 10 murders, including six that were never charged. She was released from prison in 1997.

Gallego is also on death row in California, where he was convicted of the November 1980 murders of a Sacramento-area couple.

Because both Pershing County district judges were involved in the prosecution of Gallego at his 1984 trial, the state Supreme Court named McGroarty to preside over the proceeding.

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