Key evidence against Floyd Galloway in the murder of Danielle Stislicki has been suppressed because of how it was obtained.
A judge granted the motion to suppress the evidence on Thursday (Nov. 17). The ruling was a major win for Galloway’s defense.
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The decision stems from a lie detector test Galloway took seven days after Stislicki vanished.
Stislicki walked out of her office on Dec. 2, 2016, and was never seen again. Her body has never been found. Galloway was a security guard who worked in her office.
The lie detector test Galloway took was ordered by an attorney who was working for Galloway. That attorney had James Hoppe, a former FBI agent, administer the test.
Something Galloway said during the test disturbed Hoppe so much that he called his personal friend and then chief of police of the Troy police, Gary Mayer, and relayed what he learned during the test.
Mayer shared the information with Farmington Hills police Chief Chuck Nebus, who was investigating the case.
“Chief Nebus typed up a standard form tip sheet they use in all these cases,” prosecutor Danielle Russo Bennetts said. “These officers then go out to a location and recover property belonging to miss Stislicki.”
The judge has determined that evidence seized as a result of that tip violated Galloway’s due process rights.
“Police intentionally intruded on the privileged relationship and used the information to locate and seize evidence,” the judge said.
Here is the evidence that cannot be presented in trial
Acting on that tip, investigators located Stislicki’s FitBit, keys and cellphone somewhere between her apartment and a Tim Horton’s where Galloway was spotted the night Stislicki vanished.
The Tim Horton’s was a 10-minute walk from Stislicki’s apartment. Prosecutors said Galloway purchased a coffee and used a phone at the Tim Horton’s to make a call.
At 9 p.m. that night a cab driver picked Galloway up from the Tim Horton’s and dropped him off at an apartment complex about 1,000 feet from where Stislicki was last seen, prosecutors said.
Testimony from persons working at Tim Horton’s who saw Galloway and surveillance footage and phone records from Tim Horton’s will not be presented in the trial.
Forensic data retrieved from Stislicki’s phone will not be used in the trial. Surveillance footage from a gas station near Tim Horton’s and evidence that Galloway took a cab ride that night from near where Stislicki vanished.
Read: Why a judge ruled to suppress key evidence in Danielle Stislicki murder case
Galloway in prison after pleading guilty to attacking jogger
Galloway is currently in prison after pleading guilty to assault with intent to cause great bodily harm, assault with intent to commit sexual penetration and kidnapping.
The guilty plea comes from charges connected to a Sept. 4, 2016, assault in Hines Park in Livonia. He confessed to attacking a woman jogging in the area. Galloway was sentenced on Dec. 8, 2017, and his earliest release date is June 26, 2033.
Police have searched Hines Park for Stislicki’s remains, but nothing has been found.
On Feb. 5, 2021, a court ruled that Galloway’s attack on the jogger cannot be introduced as evidence in the murder trial. According to the ruling, the court rejected the prosecution’s argument that the attack on the jogger showed a common plan or scheme because there was no striking similarity between the two crimes.
Read: One of last people to see Danielle Stislicki testifies he saw her with Floyd Galloway