VANCOUVER, Wash. — Two years after the bodies of Meshay Melendez and her 7-year-old daughter, Layla Stewart, were found murdered near Washougal, their family and advocates say the fight for justice isn’t over.
Melendez’s ex-boyfriend, Kirkland Warren, pleaded guilty to their murders and was sentenced to life in prison last year. But family members and advocates say the system failed the mother and daughter long before their deaths.
Warren had been arrested just days before their disappearance for shooting at and threatening Melendez in a separate incident. Despite being labeled a threat, he was released without an ankle monitor. At the time, he was also out on bail for a 2017 murder charge in Arkansas…