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A homeless man accused of assaulting two women and beating a man to death in a course of mere Hours in Seattle he is expected to receive more than $36,000 from taxpayers for remaining in jail instead of receiving court-ordered mental health treatment.
Alexander Jay, 40, was charged with first-degree murder, first-degree assault and second-degree assault stemming from three separate attacks that took place in March over the course of 12 hours.
He is accused of beating 31-year-old Brent Wood to death on March 3. The fatal beating came hours after Jay allegedly threw a woman down the stairs at Seattle’s Union Station, leaving the woman with broken bones, and after he allegedly stabbed another woman at a bus stop, an attack which occurred minutes after the train station incident.
Jay has been behind bars since March and will face a competitive hearing on his murder charge before his trial begins, King 5 reported this week. A judge already deemed him incompetent to stand trial on the assault charges in April.
Jay’s case was complicated in April when a judge ordered Jay to receive three months of hospital care in a mental health facility so that he could understand the charges against him.
Jay, however, has remained behind bars in the King County Jail because there was not enough room for him in a mental health facility, a representative from the Department of State Health and Social Services (DSHS) said. told fox 13.
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In June, a judge ruled that DSHS must pay Jay $250 for each day he spends in jail instead of receiving mental health treatment.
DSHS expects a bed to be cleared for him at Western State Hospital by Oct. 2, a DSHS representative told Fox News Digital on Tuesday. The state will owe him $36,750 by that date, according to Fox 13.
The judge modified her order this month so that Jay would not receive the payments directly, and instead ordered that the payments be made to an “agreed responsible adult or protective payee.” DSHS told Fox News Digital that no payments had been made to Jay as of Tuesday.
Booking photo of Alexander Jay, who was charged in King County, Washington, with first-degree murder, first-degree assault, and second-degree assault.
(Fox 13)
News of the payments drew the ire of a family member of the man Jay allegedly fatally beat.
“It’s ridiculous. It’s not right. He shouldn’t get any money,” Nathan Wood, Brent Wood’s younger brother, told Fox 13.
DSHS has also spoken out against the payments.
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“We as a department have taken the position that we oppose the payment of these compensatory penalties because we are taking the correct measures and steps to provide these services to our clients who are waiting for inpatient services. We believe that these penalties take money out of it.” system that is working. designed to assist and provide services to them,” the department said in a statement, according to Fox 13.
Jay isn’t the only person waiting for a bed at a state mental health facility. He was joined by hundreds of other people, according to the outlet. So far, the state has paid $93,700 to people in similar situations and faces $88,150 in outstanding payments, including Jay’s.
DSHS told Fox 13 that it expects to have an additional 60 beds in the facility by the fall.
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Jay is being held in jail in lieu of $650,000 bail for the two assault charges and $5 million bail for the murder charge. has almost two dozen prior convictions in Washington since 2000, according to prosecutors.
Stephen Sorace of Fox News Digital contributed to this article.
