GUILTY WA - Meshay Melendez, 27 & daughter, Layla Stewart, 8, Vancouver, 12 Mar 2023 *vehicle found Mar 19*

DNA Solves
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DNA Solves
SEP 16, 2023
The National Women’s Coalition Against Violence & Exploitation will hold a candlelight vigil the evening of Sept. 25 in recognition of the National Day of Remembrance for Homicide Victims.

[...]

NN, mother of Meshay Melendez and grandmother of Layla Stewart, along with JT, father of Brittany Thuney, will also be hosting the event.

For more information, visit National Day of Remembrance For Murder Victims - Clark County, WA.
 
SEP 16, 2023
The National Women’s Coalition Against Violence & Exploitation will hold a candlelight vigil the evening of Sept. 25 in recognition of the National Day of Remembrance for Homicide Victims.

[...]

NN, mother of Meshay Melendez and grandmother of Layla Stewart, along with JT, father of Brittany Thuney, will also be hosting the event.

For more information, visit National Day of Remembrance For Murder Victims - Clark County, WA.
I will be there, any other locals planning on attending?
 
SEP 26, 2023
[...]

Dozens of people gathered in Vancouver on Monday evening to remember their loved ones. The families of Meshay Melendez and Layla Stewart, and Brittany Thuney asked the National Women's Coalition Against Violence and Exploitation, known as NWCAVE, to host the candlelight vigil in Esther Short Park.

[...]

"We have never hosted one before. We were asked by the families we represent," explained Michelle Bart, who leads NWCAVE. "We celebrated Layla's birthday this week. I can honestly say that I’ve never celebrated a little girl's birthday at the cemetery so that was really difficult. We’re going to get justice for both of them."

[...]

"It gives us a place where we feel connected to a group that understands what we are going through," Davis said. "And helps us feel like we're not alone."
 
Warren was in court Friday afternoon on the new charge.

According to court documents, detectives just received a new report from a crime lab that linked Warren's DNA to the child.

His trial is set to start in early January.

According to a probable cause statement filed Friday, Warren now faces a new charge of first-degree child rape in addition to the two murder charges — arising from recently received results of analysis at the Washington State Patrol crime lab.

When investigators recovered the body of Layla Stewart, the affidavit says, she was nude from the waist down, wearing only a shirt and jacket. During a post-mortem exam, detectives found a clothing tag stuck to her skin that came from a shirt in the backseat of Warren's vehicle. Her underwear and leggings were also found in the backseat.

After collecting forensic evidence from Stewart's body, the Clark County Medical Center sent samples off to the WSP crime lab for testing.

Results of those tests didn't come back until Oct. 18, according to the affidavit. DNA found on Stewart's private parts matched that collected from Warren, the affidavit says.
 
Warren was in court Friday afternoon on the new charge.

According to court documents, detectives just received a new report from a crime lab that linked Warren's DNA to the child.

His trial is set to start in early January.

According to a probable cause statement filed Friday, Warren now faces a new charge of first-degree child rape in addition to the two murder charges — arising from recently received results of analysis at the Washington State Patrol crime lab.

When investigators recovered the body of Layla Stewart, the affidavit says, she was nude from the waist down, wearing only a shirt and jacket. During a post-mortem exam, detectives found a clothing tag stuck to her skin that came from a shirt in the backseat of Warren's vehicle. Her underwear and leggings were also found in the backseat.

After collecting forensic evidence from Stewart's body, the Clark County Medical Center sent samples off to the WSP crime lab for testing.

Results of those tests didn't come back until Oct. 18, according to the affidavit. DNA found on Stewart's private parts matched that collected from Warren, the affidavit says.
Us locals are sick over this. We did not think it could get any worse. There is so much that is not public, so many layers. I want to point out that the people Meshay was around during this time in her life, were not her normal, every day people. She was in so deep, she could not get out. She knew too much and it looks like Kirk wanted to make sure no one was alive to tell tales of what he had been doing to both of them

I don't think she wanted her loved ones to know how bad it really was.
 
NOV 7, 2023
The man accused of killing Vancouver mother and daughter, Meshay Melendez and Layla Stewart, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to a charge of first-degree rape of a child involving the 7-year-old.

Kirkland C. Warren, 28, of Vancouver, has already pleaded not guilty in Clark County Superior Court to two counts of aggravated first-degree murder and one count of second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm. He also pleaded not guilty to a slew of domestic violence charges in another case with Melendez, 27, as the listed victim.

[...]

An evidence hearing is set for Nov. 16 and the trial is set for Jan. 8, 2024.
 
Warren's next hearing is on 2/29/24. I lost track fo this case and didn't even know the rape charges had been filed :(
 
MAR 7, 2024
The wife of Kirkland Warren, the man charged in the March 2023 slayings of a Vancouver mother and daughter, was sentenced to two years of probation last month for stealing money from credit union accounts in Portland.

[...]

...He [Warren] is facing charges in Clark County Superior Court of two counts of aggravated first-degree murder and one count each of first-degree rape of a child and second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm.

He’s also charged with other domestic violence crimes against Melendez in a separate Clark County case and is facing murder charges in a 2017 Arkansas homicide. He is scheduled for trial in the Clark County cases April 22.

[...]

In addition to probation, Tyler-Warren is required to undergo mental health treatment, court records show.

[...]
 
A pre-trial conference on 9/6 has been added. Trial still scheduled for 9/9.

23-1-00558-06 | WARREN, KIRKLAND C

08/30/2024 Readiness Hearing
Hearing Time 9:00 AM
Comment #2

09/06/2024 Pre-Trial Conference
Hearing Time 1:30 PM

09/09/2024 Jury Trial-12
Hearing Time 9:00 AM
Comment #2

 
A pre-trial conference on 9/6 has been added. Trial still scheduled for 9/9.

23-1-00558-06 | WARREN, KIRKLAND C

08/30/2024 Readiness Hearing
Hearing Time 9:00 AM
Comment #2

09/06/2024 Pre-Trial Conference
Hearing Time 1:30 PM

09/09/2024 Jury Trial-12
Hearing Time 9:00 AM
Comment #2

We, the community, are ready for this to be over. We are ready for Kirk to make his debut at Walla Walla State.
I can't explain to ya'll how losing these two has affected my community. Men that I grew up with, who helped raise Meshay, were her Dad's childhood friends, have been shattered by this. It is on their minds every single day. One of my friends I think has PTSD. He thinks all the time about what they could have done different to protect them

He will be headed to Arkansas next for the first murder. A state that does have the DP. His judge father can't help him this time.
 
Melendez’s mother, Nichole Norris, told The Columbian she was not looking forward to the trial and the details of her daughter and granddaughter’s deaths being shown in the courtroom.

“I don’t want my girls’ bodies put on display,” Norris said in a June interview. “He already took their lives, did what he did to them, made them suffer and humiliated them by dumping them the way he did. I can tell you right now, when we go to trial and those things are shown, I can’t be in the room to see.”

Norris pointed to a separate case in which Warren is charged with murder in Arkansas in connection with a 2017 fatal shooting. And she questioned why a Clark County judge granted Warren bail when he faced domestic violence allegations involving her daughter and why protections, such as GPS monitoring, were not initially ordered.

“I understand that they were murdered and certain things happened to them, but I feel like everybody wants to talk about, like the gruesome murders, but not, how did we get here?” Norris said. “People are dying every day. I’m not acting like the girls are the only ones that’ve been through this. This is happening everywhere. But if things aren’t done, how are we supposed to save certain people? Some people can be saved.”

 
Will cameras be in the courtroom in this trial?
No, not publicly. I will be attending via zoom. WA is very strict about court cases and things being made public.
I don't think I will be able to listen to most of it, even though I already know what he did. Her Mom made a very hard choice to not want a plea deal, knowing she would have to endure a trial. She wants to ensure he gets the maximum time allotted so he can never hurt anyone else again.

She is showing an incredible amount of strength. IDK if could do it.

Thankfully, Kirk is not from here and has no supporters in Washington and Oregon. All of his friends are in the south. So we will not have to deal with any of his family here. I am very glad about that, I could forsee terrible things happening if Kirks family shows up in Vancouver.
 
Melendez’s mother, Nichole Norris, told The Columbian she was not looking forward to the trial and the details of her daughter and granddaughter’s deaths being shown in the courtroom.

“I don’t want my girls’ bodies put on display,” Norris said in a June interview. “He already took their lives, did what he did to them, made them suffer and humiliated them by dumping them the way he did. I can tell you right now, when we go to trial and those things are shown, I can’t be in the room to see.”

Norris pointed to a separate case in which Warren is charged with murder in Arkansas in connection with a 2017 fatal shooting. And she questioned why a Clark County judge granted Warren bail when he faced domestic violence allegations involving her daughter and why protections, such as GPS monitoring, were not initially ordered.

“I understand that they were murdered and certain things happened to them, but I feel like everybody wants to talk about, like the gruesome murders, but not, how did we get here?” Norris said. “People are dying every day. I’m not acting like the girls are the only ones that’ve been through this. This is happening everywhere. But if things aren’t done, how are we supposed to save certain people? Some people can be saved.”

The irony is not lost on me about the ankle monitor. The Tiffany Hill law, requiring the GPS monitor for DV offenders, was named after a woman here in Vancouver that was killed by her spouse about 7 years ago.
If I knew (peripherally) Tiffany Hill, then I am sure Meshay's mother, aunts, and uncles did too.
 

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