A convicted felon in Washington state will receive nearly $37,000 from the state because he has been held in prison instead of a mental health facility while awaiting trial on three felonies, including first-degree murder.
According to The Blaze, Alexander Jay, 40, a homeless man living in Seattle, is accused of assaulting two women and killing a man within a 12-hour time period earlier this year.
Authorities say that on March 2, Jay repeatedly threw a woman who worked as a nurse down the stairs of the Union Station stop of the Seattle light rail and later stabbed a woman at a bus stop. Surveillance video captured the Union Station attack.
Hours later, on March 3, Jay is accused of beating Brent Wood, 31, to death.
Identified by the woman who was assaulted in the light rail station, Jay was arrested and charged with first-degree murder, first-degree assault and second-degree assault in the three attacks.
In April, a judge found Jay incompetent to stand trial on the two assault charges and a judge also ruled that he be admitted to a mental health center instead of remanded to prison, according to The Blaze. It is unknown if the same judge issued both rulings.
According to the state Department of Social and Health Services, Jay remained jailed despite the court order because an available bed at a mental health center could not be found.
Another judge ordered the Social and Health Services department to pay Jay $250 for each day he remains in jail because he did not receive the court-ordered services.
The Blaze reports that Jay is set to receive $36,750, and a bed at Western State Hospital is expected to open up in October.
Both the Department of Social and Health Services and the Wood family have blasted the ruling.
''It's ridiculous,'' said Nathan Wood, Brent Wood's younger brother. ''It's not right. He shouldn't be getting money.''
The Social and Health Services department said such ''compensatory sanctions'' actually punish the patients in its care.
''We believe these fines take money out of the very system that is designed to help them and provide them services,'' the department said in a statement.
It has not yet been decided whether Jay is competent to stand trial for murder in Wood's death..
The Blaze reports that Jay has 22 prior convictions, including for first-degree theft, domestic violence, possession of a controlled substance, and burglary.
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