The estates of a woman and her young daughter murdered in 2023 sued Clark County for failing to perform “any meaningful supervision” over the killer who was out on bail at the time.
The wrongful death lawsuit filed last week in Clark County Superior Court accuses the county’s probation and pre-trial services division of failing to follow its own policies and procedures to ensure that Kirkland Warren complied with the conditions of his release.
Warren, 29, was convicted last year of killing his ex-girlfriend, Meshay Melendez, 27, and her 7-year-old daughter, Layla Stewart. He is serving a life sentence.
Melendez and Layla were reported missing on March 18, 2023, six days after they had last been seen with Warren, who was quickly named a person of interest in the case.
He had just been released from jail and was subject to a no-contact order due to allegations that he’d shot at Melendez’s apartment and threatened her.
Four days later, on March 22, Melendez and Layla were found dead from gunshot wounds in rural Washougal. Authorities determined Warren had also raped the girl.
Clark County was responsible for monitoring Warren, the lawsuit states. The suit was filed by Nichole Norris, Melendez’s mother, and Javontae Stewart, Layla’s father, on behalf of the victims’ estates.
“Clark County Probation failed to adequately supervise a suspected murderer who used a firearm against his intimate partner,” the suit states.
Joni McAnally, a county spokesperson, said Clark County “doesn’t provide statements on pending litigation.”
The lawsuit states that Warren didn’t promptly report to probation upon his release from jail and authorities were unable to locate him, violations of his pre-trial release that Clark County Probation did not report to the court.
At the time, Warren was awaiting trial on charges of drive-by shooting, second-degree assault with a deadly weapon, gross misdemeanor harassment with bodily injury and two counts of fourth-degree assault.
“Had defendant Clark County Probation exercised ordinary care and done its job properly, Warren would not have been able to continue in a reign of terror” against Melendez and her daughter, the lawsuit argues.
The lawsuit alleges that Clark County probation authorities knew Warren posed a danger to the victims and were aware that he faced allegations of murder and abuse of a corpse in Arkansas for the 2017 killing of a 57-year-old man named Curtis Urquhart.
Urquhart was shot in the head and found in a ditch in Arkansas in 2017. Warren grew up in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, has two daughters, records show.
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