John Jefferson
Inset, top to bottom: Layla Stewart and Meshay Melendez (Vancouver Police Department). Background: Kirkland Warren (KATU).
A Washington man will spend the rest of his life in prison for shooting and killing his ex-girlfriend and sexually assaulting her 7-year-old daughter before also killing her and dumping the bodies down an embankment off a rural road days after he was released on bond on domestic violence charges and was ordered not to contact his ex.
Kirkland Warren, 29, learned his fate on Tuesday in the deaths of his former girlfriend, Meshay Melendez, 27, and her daughter, Layla Stewart. He pleaded guilty in September to one count of first-degree aggravated murder and one count of second-degree murder. Warren also entered an Alford plea — in which a defendant pleads guilty to a charge but maintains his or her innocence — to first-degree child molestation in the sexual assault of Layla, The Columbian reported.
Family members cursed the defendant.
“I can’t even make any more memories. The seven years was all I had,” Stewart’s aunt, Lashay Gates, said outside the courthouse, local CBS affiliate KOIN reported. “And it’s all because of Kirkland Warren. And I want him to suffer every single day. I want him to be hurt like I’ve been hurt.”
The Columbian reported that Melendez’s mother, Nichole Norris, wrote in a statement to the court of the loss.
“The day I lost them, I lost a part of myself,” she wrote. “A part of me died with my girls. I am no longer a girl mom. I am no longer a grandmother.”
Clark County Superior Court Judge David Gregerson took the defendant to task, Portland, Oregon, Fox affiliate KPTV reported.
“Any possibility of this being some horrific accident or being mitigated in any way is squarely contravened by the depraved way in which Meshay and Layla’s bodies were disposed of by this defendant,” he said.
As Law&Crime reported, the investigation began when Vancouver police responded on March 18, 2023, to the Springfield Meadows apartments in the 4300 block of NE 66th Avenue regarding a welfare check for Melendez and Layla, the agency said in a press release.
Family members reported they had not heard from Melendez since March 11, and a friend told them that the mother and daughter had not been home for a few days, and their dog was inside the apartment barking.
In the apartment, police found the dog but did not find the mother or daughter.
Investigators learned that Melendez, Layla, and Warren had stayed at the home of an acquaintance on March 11. Layla remained there while Melendez and Warren went out. When Warren returned about 8 a.m., the acquaintance saw Melendez in the passenger seat of his vehicle “passed out,” authorities said.
Warren went inside the residence, got Layla, put her in the vehicle and drove off, police said.
On March 19, Melendez’s mother found her daughter’s vehicle. Police seized it and took Warren into custody on charges of tampering with a witness, violation of domestic violence orders that barred him from contacting Melendez, assault, drive-by shooting and unlawful possession of a firearm.
A search of the Dodge Charger that Melendez and Layla were last seen leaving in with Warren revealed blood evidence in both the front and back seat of the vehicle, .22 caliber shell casings, children’s clothing that matched clothing Layla was believed to be wearing on March 12, and a purse containing Melendez’s identification, police said in another press release.
Days later, on March 22, a passerby reported what appeared to be two “life-sized mannequins” off a roadway down an embankment in thick brush in Washougal, a small city bordering Oregon. Deputies responded and discovered the victims. They had been shot in the head.
The Columbian, reporting on court documents released in October, said that Layla had been found naked from the waist down. DNA swabs taken from her matched Warren’s DNA, the newspaper reported.
Text messages showed Warren texted a woman on March 13 and March 15 asking about places he could bury a gun and questioning her about secluded areas, according to The Columbian, which cited evidence from prosecutors.
On March 18, Warren reportedly texted the friend about needing to get rid of Melendez’s car, saying, “I need to get rid of this stolo.”
Investigators also said he transferred $4,200 from Melendez’s account to his using her phone.
When Warren’s phone was searched, police found Google searches that included “how to get blood out of a car seat,” “how to beat murder,” and “killing the only witness,” the newspaper reported.
At the time of the killings, Warren was free on bond on a first-degree murder charge in connection with the death of a man in Arkansas in 2017. That victim also been shot in the head, and his body was found in a ditch.
In December 2022, Warren was arrested in Washington for the assault of Melendez and firing a gun into her apartment, charges for which he posted bail. He had been barred from contacting her.
He was released from custody four days before Melendez and her daughter went missing, The Associated Press reported.
In the Arkansas case, he has agreed to plead guilty to the murder of Curtis Urquhart. His sentence in that case will run concurrently with the one he receives in Washington for the murders of Melendez and Layla, prosecutors said, according to The Columbian.
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