A 58-year-old man has been convicted for the murder of a 44-year-old Oak Run man. On February 7th of 2019, Gregory Donald Galusha was asleep at his home on Stagecoach Road in the Oak Run area when a neighbor, Joseph Edward Roza, entered the home and fired his gun into the wall above Galusha’s head. He then started hitting Galusha with a wooden sword-like stick. Galusha tried to run away, and as he was running down the driveway Roza followed him and shot him in the back, killing him and leaving him face-down in the dirt. Roza hid out for three days before turning himself in. He confessed to Shasta County Sheriff’s Detectives that he had killed Galusha. There was a series of complications in prosecuting Roza. Last year the case was dismissed by the court because no courtroom was available for the trial, so the DA’s Office had to refile the charges. A jury trial was reset for last October but it had to be delayed because an important witness was unavailable. The trial was then set to begin last December but there was another delay. On Tuesday a Shasta County jury found Roza guilty of 2nd degree murder with a special allegation of using a firearm. Sentencing is set for January 13th.
– Steve Gibson