Lashay Gates, left, aunt of Layla Stewart, reads a victim impact statement as she joins her mom, Kristie Mays, grandmother of Layla Stewart, while Kirkland Warren is sentenced to life in prison for her death and the the deaths of her mom, Meshay Melendez, at the Clark County Courthouse on Tuesday afternoon, Oct. 8, 2024. (Amanda Cowan/The Columbian)Photo Gallery
Although Kirkland Warren will serve a life sentence in prison, friends and family of the Vancouver mother and daughter he shot to death in March 2023 say they don’t feel justice was served.
No sentence, they told the judge, would bring back Meshay Melendez and 7-year-old Layla Stewart, nor match the pain and grief caused by their deaths.
“The day I lost them, I lost a part of myself,” Melendez’s mother, Nichole Norris, wrote in a statement to the court. “A part of me died with my girls. I am no longer a girl mom. I am no longer a grandmother.”
Judge David Gregerson sentenced Warren, 29, to a life in prison without the possibility of parole at a hearing Tuesday.
Warren pleaded guilty last month in Clark County Superior Court to second-degree murder and aggravated first-degree murder in the deaths of his former girlfriend, 27-year-old Melendez, and her daughter, Layla, respectively. The mother and daughter were killed between March 12 and 13, 2023. Warren also entered an Alford plea to first-degree child molestation — which allows a defendant to maintain his innocence but admit there’s enough evidence to convict him — for sexually assaulting Layla.
The plea came days before his multiweek trial was set to start. Senior Deputy Prosecutor Toby Krauel said he offered the plea deal because it allowed Melendez and Layla’s family to have closure without going into the difficult details of the case.
Krauel said he felt Tuesday’s hearing was important for “the defendant to hear the tears and the groans and the pain he has caused.”
The gallery of the fifth-floor courtroom was packed, largely with those wearing shirts bearing photos of the mother and daughter. Krauel — who choked up at times as he described the gravity of the case to the judge — displayed photos of Melendez and Layla that remained at the front of the courtroom for the hearing. He said he hoped the mother and daughter would be remembered as they were when the photos were taken.
Many in the gallery wiped away tears and some sobbed during statements read from family members.
In her statement read by a victim advocate, Melendez’ mother, Norris, said that her daughter and granddaughter were everything to her. She wondered how anyone could do what Warren did to a woman and child.
Vancouver police Officer Tanya Wollstein read several statements on behalf of family members. She, too, choked up with emotion when reading a statement about how Layla’s last moments were “filled with fear and suffering that no child should experience.”
Layla’s father, Javontae Stewart, who attended the hearing virtually, spoke of the pain of losing his child and her mother.
Timeline in Meshay Melendez, Layla Stewart case
The following information comes from court records filed and appearances in Clark County Superior and District Courts and Jefferson County Circuit Court in Arkansas, as well as police news releases.
Nov. 27, 2017: Kirkland C. Warren shoots his passenger, Curtis Urquhart, with a 22-caliber handgun, after Urquhart repeatedly asks for money, and dumps his body in a ditch near Stuttgart, Ark. Warren later admits to shooting Urquhart, but he tells investigators he feared for his life.
Dec. 12, 2017: Warren is arrested in Arkansas in connection with the November homicide.
Dec. 13, 2017: Warren posts $250,000 bond in the homicide case and is released.
Feb. 7, 2018: Criminal charges of first-degree murder and abuse of a corpse are filed in the Arkansas case.
2020: Vancouver police investigate Warren for possessing a stolen semi-automatic handgun. Officers contact him, and he surrenders it. The firearm remains in evidence.
March 31, 2021: Warren lies on an application to buy a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun at SafeFire in Camas. He says he is not under indictment for a felony, when he has the pending murder case in Arkansas. His application is denied.
Dec. 13, 2022: Warren and Meshay Melendez argue at her Minnehaha area apartment. He subsequently leaves and shoots at Melendez’s balcony window, as she looks outside.
Dec. 23, 2022: Melendez calls 911 to report Warren assaulted her. She also reports the shooting from 10 days prior.
Feb. 3, 2023: Law enforcement interviews a friend who was present during the shooting and corroborates Melendez’s account.
Feb. 17, 2023: Melendez meets with investigators and recants her earlier statement. She says she lied about the shooting and claims she and her friend have mental health and drug issues, to explain away their earlier statements. She wants assurances Warren won’t be arrested. Investigators deem this to be suspicious.
March 2, 2023: Vancouver police arrest Warren.
March 3, 2023:Warren makes a first appearance in Clark County Superior Court on suspicion of second-degree domestic violence assault, drive-by shooting, making a false statement, harassment and possession of a stolen firearm, between the series of alleged incidents. Clark County prosecutors say a danger assessment found Warren poses an “extreme risk” to Melendez, with a score of 31 on a scale of 1 to 18. They also note the active homicide case in Arkansas. They ask Warren be held on $100,000 bail. Judge Suzan Clark grants the prosecution’s request, citing the nature of the allegations and the open Arkansas case. Clark also orders a domestic violence no-contact order with Melendez. Hours later, Warren violates the domestic violence no-contact order by calling Melendez twice from the Clark County Jail. He suggests she’s responsible for his arrest and needs to get his charges dropped. Melendez says she is trying to get the charges to go away. Warren says he’s not going back to Arkansas. Warren posts bail later that day. But he is cited in Clark County District Court for violating the domestic violence no-contact order with Melendez.
March 6, 2023: Warren appears in custody in District Court on the citation. Vancouver police Sgt. Deb Libbey, who authored the probable cause affidavit, asks the court to order Warren wear a GPS monitor if released and be subject to higher bail. Judge Kristen Parcher orders $10,000 bail and electronic monitoring, for domestic violence offenders who are released pending trial.
March 7, 2023: The District Court case is dismissed, and the allegations are later added to Warren’s Superior Court case. He is not fitted with a monitor before the case is dismissed.
March 8, 2023: Warren is released from the jail.
March 11, 2023: Melendez, Layla and Warren stay the night at a friend’s apartment in the VanMall neighborhood.
March 12, 2023: Melendez and Layla are last seen that morning with Warren, leaving in his burgundy Dodge Charger.
March 17, 2023: A judge in Arkansas revokes Warren’s bond in his 2018 murder case.
March 18, 2023: Melendez’s mother reports her and Layla missing after she can’t reach them for their regular video chat session, and friends express concern over being unable to contact them for a week. Vancouver police conduct a welfare check on Melendez and Layla at their Minnehaha area apartment. They are not there.
March 19, 2023: Melendez’s mother finds her daughter’s car, a Chrysler 200, in the 7800 block of Northeast Loowit Loop in the VanMall neighborhood. Vancouver police serve a search warrant for Warren’s vehicle and residence in the Kevanna Park neighborhood, and he is arrested. Vancouver police issue a missing persons bulletin to the public.
March 20, 2023: Warren appears in Superior Court on new allegations of tampering with a witness, second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm and a protection order violation. Clark County prosecutors ask that Warren be held without bail or that his bail increase from $100,000 to $500,000. Judge John Fairgrieve postpones the hearing a day and asks the prosecution for more information about the basis for the new allegations. He does not make a decision on bail. Warren remains in custody. The Arkansas judge’s order to revoke Warren’s bond is filed with Jefferson County, Ark., Circuit Court.
March 21, 2023: Warren appears in Superior Court on the new allegations. Fairgrieve finds probable cause. Clark County prosecutors ask Fairgrieve to order Warren be held without bail or increase his bail from $100,000 to $1 million and order he wear a GPS ankle device if released. Fairgrieve orders the $1 million bail and electronic monitoring. Vancouver police name Warren a person of interest in Melendez and Layla’s disappearances. Investigators also release descriptions of the involved vehicles.
March 22, 2023: Warren appears in Superior Court on a warrant for the Arkansas case. He admits he is the person wanted in Arkansas, but he refuses to waive extradition to be turned over to authorities there. Judge Robert Lewis orders Warren be held without bail on the warrant. Two bodies are discovered down an embankment in thick brush off Southeast Wooding Road near Sunset View Road east of Washougal. The Vancouver Police Department tentatively identifies them as Melendez and Layla.
March 26, 2023: About 300 people gather in Esther Short Park’s Propstra Square to honor Melendez and Layla. The vigil is hosted by the National Women’s Coalition Against Violence & Exploitation and YWCA Clark County, in conjunction with the family.
March 31, 2023: The Vancouver Police Department announces Warren is facing two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Melendez and Layla. The Clark County Medical Examiner’s Office also announces it had determined both Melendez and Layla died from gunshot wounds to the head.
April 12, 2023: Warren's wife, Monet Tyler-Warren, 26, is charged in Multnomah County Circuit Court in Oregon with first-degree aggravated theft, first-degree theft, aggravated identity theft and identity theft. She's accused of stealing money while working at a Portland credit union and transferring it to other accounts, including one in Melendez’s name.
April 19, 2023: More than 100 people attend a private memorial service at Evergreen Memorial Gardens for Melendez and Layla, followed by a procession to their gravesite.
Sept. 5: Days before Kirkland Warren’s trial was scheduled to begin in Clark County Superior Court, he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and aggravated first-degree murder in the deaths of Melendez and Layla Stewart, respectively. Warren also entered an Alford plea to first-degree child molestation — which allows a defendant to maintain his innocence but admit there’s enough evidence to convict him — for sexually assaulting Layla.
“The impacts of their deaths have left me and others here today struggling to find a way forward, and the grief is something I carry with me every moment of my life,” he said.
Before handing down the life sentence, Gregerson said “the air in this courtroom hangs heavy with the imponderable suffering of the family and friends of the victims.”
Warren declined to make a statement and stared straight ahead as the judge ordered the sentence. He did not react, even when Melendez and Layla’s supporters shouted “coward” and “child molester” as he was led out of the courtroom in handcuffs.
Krauel, the prosecutor, said this case involved some of the most difficult phone calls he’s had to make in his career.
“The hope is that the family gets some sort of healing out of this sentencing today, and the defendant realizes his actions will echo in eternity,” Krauel said.
Melendez’s mother reported the pair missing March 18, 2023, after she couldn’t reach them for their regular video chat session. Authorities found their bodies four days later in a rural area east of Washougal.
In a statement as part of the pre-sentencing investigation, Warren denied killing Melendez and Layla. He wrote that he’d been using drugs throughout the night that Melendez and Layla were killed. He said he had recently given Melendez a gun for protection and that she fumbled for it in her purse while the two argued inside his car. Warren claimed the gun went off multiple times, killing Layla and then Melendez. He also denied sexually assaulting Layla.
The Department of Corrections investigator wrote that, “The facts in this case, in all their painful detail, remain undisputed. … There is no credible defense for the evidence gathered against Mr. Warren. … This cruel and inhumane treatment was a deliberate decision carried out by Mr. Warren wherein he clearly demonstrated no regard for human life.”
Outside of the courthouse after the hearing, Michelle Bart, president of the National Women’s Coalition Against Violence and Exploitation, said she believes the criminal system failed the mother and daughter. Their family questions why Warren was out on bail in an Arkansas murder case and granted bail when he faced domestic violence allegations involving Melendez, and why protections, such as GPS monitoring, weren’t initially ordered.
“We have to do better,” Bart said.
As family and friends gathered up purple balloons they’d tied to pillars outside of the courthouse, one of them slipped their grasp.
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