Kore Bommeli avoided a scheduled murder trial after accepting reduced charges connected to Talina Galloway’s 2020 death.

WAGONER, Okla. — Kore Bommeli pleaded no contest to first-degree manslaughter and two other felony charges days before she was scheduled to face a jury in the death of her roommate, Talina Galloway, bringing a six-year Oklahoma homicide case to a negotiated end.

The Sept. 4 plea replaced the first-degree murder charge that had followed Bommeli since 2021. Wagoner County court records show the 64-year-old entered no-contest pleas to first-degree manslaughter, desecration of a human corpse and possession of a firearm after a former felony conviction. Eleven other counts were dismissed. The Wagoner County Sheriff’s Office later announced that Bommeli received a total Oklahoma sentence of 35 years, while her attorneys continued to say she denied causing Galloway’s death.

The agreement ended a case that had been preparing for trial throughout the summer. Court records show prosecutors and defense lawyers filed witness lists, evidence notices, motions concerning DNA, statements, photographs and other expected trial issues in July and August. On Sept. 1, a judge denied a defense motion to dismiss, and jury selection was still approaching. Three days later, the docket recorded a plea agreement, struck the jury trial from the calendar and showed that the original murder count had been reduced to manslaughter.

District Attorney Jack Thorp told KJRH that prosecutors had discussed the proposed resolution with Galloway’s family before making the offer. He said the family supported bringing the long-running case to a conclusion. Bryan Cannonie, who served as co-counsel for Bommeli, said the defense had expected the case to go to trial and that Bommeli continued to maintain that she had not killed Galloway. A no-contest plea allows a criminal case to be resolved without requiring a defendant to make an in-court admission of the factual allegations in the same way a guilty plea ordinarily does.

Galloway, 53, had been living with Bommeli in the Wagoner area when she disappeared during the first weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic. Bommeli reported her missing on April 17, 2020. Authorities said Bommeli told investigators that Galloway had been screened for COVID-19, told to quarantine and had gone to a favorite lake to be alone. Investigators later said they found no record that Galloway had been screened at a hospital or had contacted her doctor in the manner Bommeli described.

The missing-person investigation took an unexpected turn nearly two months later and about 150 miles away. On June 8, 2020, a witness in the Mena, Arkansas, area saw a pickup towing a small enclosed trailer into a wooded location near the Ouachita National Forest, according to accounts released by the Wagoner County Sheriff’s Office. The witness became concerned after noticing a strong odor and liquid in the trailer and recorded identifying information from the vehicle. An Arkansas deputy was dispatched, but the discovery that ultimately broke the case open did not come until the following winter.

On Jan. 14, 2021, the same witness was again in the wooded area and encountered a white box-style freezer with its lid taped shut. The witness reported another strong odor and gave authorities vehicle tag information that investigators connected to Galloway. Polk County deputies opened the investigation at the scene and found dismembered human remains inside the freezer. The Arkansas State Medical Examiner later identified the remains as Galloway’s and classified her death as a homicide.

By that point, Oklahoma investigators had already begun questioning the account of Galloway’s disappearance. The Wagoner County Sheriff’s Office later said Bommeli had displayed suspicious behavior and made inconsistent statements as the investigation continued. Authorities said she eventually stopped communicating with investigators. On Jan. 21, 2021, prosecutors filed a first-degree murder case and obtained a warrant. Bommeli, who was then in Wisconsin, was arrested by Dane County deputies during a traffic stop.

The homicide investigation also intersected with a separate Wisconsin case that would eventually determine where Bommeli spent the years before the Oklahoma prosecution was resolved. Investigators linked her to a 2014 incident involving ricin placed inside her neighbors’ home in the town of Middleton. A Dane County jury convicted Bommeli on June 27, 2025, of two counts of attempted first-degree intentional homicide. She later received a 25-year prison sentence followed by extended supervision in that case.

That Wisconsin conviction created an unusual multi-state custody situation as Oklahoma continued preparing the Galloway case. Wagoner County investigators traveled to Wisconsin to testify in the poisoning prosecution. By 2026, Bommeli had been returned to Oklahoma for proceedings in the homicide case, and the court docket shows extensive trial preparation before the last-minute agreement. Thorp said the Oklahoma sentence was structured with the Wisconsin imprisonment in mind and that authorities expected Bommeli to remain incarcerated for many years.

The public records describing the precise breakdown of the Oklahoma sentence contain a discrepancy. The Wagoner County Sheriff’s Office said Bommeli received 28 years for manslaughter, seven additional consecutive years for desecration of a human corpse and five years on the firearm conviction to run concurrently, producing the announced 35-year total. The online Wagoner County court docket, however, displays a Sept. 4 entry listing 28 years on the manslaughter count, one year consecutive for corpse desecration and five years concurrent on the firearm count. The docket also says the manslaughter term is concurrent with the Wisconsin sentence. The sheriff’s office and subsequent reports describe the final Oklahoma sentence as 35 years.

Regardless of that record discrepancy, the plea removed the possibility of a murder trial that could have publicly aired years of investigative evidence and competing interpretations of the case. Cannonie told KJRH there were statements and other evidence that likely would have become known through a trial but would now remain largely outside public view. He described the case as tragic for everyone involved and said Bommeli made the decision she believed gave her the best legal outcome.

For Galloway’s case, the agreement closes the central criminal prosecution more than six years after she vanished and more than five years after her remains were identified in Arkansas. The court dismissed the remaining counts as part of the plea, including allegations involving obstruction and financial offenses. The murder charge no longer appears as the final conviction; court records list first-degree manslaughter as the amended offense resolved through the no-contest plea.

Bommeli remains in custody, with the Oklahoma sentence tied to the prison term she is already serving from Wisconsin. The plea means no Oklahoma jury will decide the original first-degree murder accusation, but it leaves Bommeli convicted and sentenced on three felony counts connected to the case that began with Galloway’s April 2020 disappearance.

Author note: Last updated October 20, 2026.