On Tuesday, August 16th, Seattle police charged 41-year-old Alexander Jay with the violent murder of Brent Wood.
Wood was attacked in the early hours of the morning on March 3 behind the Rite Aid on East Broadway on Capitol Hill. Police initially investigated an "unresponsive man" in a pool of blood, but Wood was declared dead when they arrived at the scene.
They later discovered the murder weapon, a bloody piece of rebar, stashed in a nearby recycling bin. After sending it off to forensics, the SPD confirmed that the blood matched that found on Jay's shoes; police took him into custody several days later.
Despite police arresting Jay in March, they did not yet suspect him of murder. Instead, they held him on two accounts of assault, both of which occurred on March 2.
A violent rampage around Seattle
The day before Wood's murder, Jay allegedly went on a violent rampage. He first attacked Harborview Medical employee Kim Hayes at the International District light rail stop, throwing her down the stairs twice. Hayes sustained multiple broken ribs and a broken clavicle. She alerted authorities immediately.
Following the attack, Jay acquired a knife from a local business and then headed to a nearby bus stop at 12th Avenue, where he stabbed a 29-year-old woman in the neck, face, arms, and chest ten times. He fled the scene as a bus approached.
Just hours after these first two attacks, Jay murdered Brent Wood behind the Rite Aid. Police were finally able to charge him with the crime after DNA evidence returned in June linking the blood on his shoes to the weapon found near the crime scene.
The violent attacks from March are not the first crimes to dot Jay's record. The Seattle local has a criminal history rich with assault, theft, and burglary throughout Washington and California. According to King County prosecutors, Jay's criminal history includes seven charges from the last five years and twenty overall. Most recently, police arrested him on charges of burglary in Bellevue.
Before upping his charge to include first-degree murder, his bail had been set at $650,000. Now it sits at $5 million.
Victim of Seattle's ongoing mental health crisis
Jay was first scheduled to appear in court on April 7, following his arrest for assault, but was diagnosed with unspecified schizophrenia disorder.
As a result, his attorneys argued that Jay was not competent to stand trial for the charges. In order that he could stand a trial, Judge Johanna Bender ordered Jay to be admitted to Western State Hospital to receive competency restoration treatment. Court records show that Jay has previously successfully received such treatment after being forcibly medicated.
Competency restoration treatment typically involves a patient receiving a clinical evaluation from a psychiatrist. If the psychiatrist declares the defendant incompetent (or unable to participate in their defense due to mental health issues), the state is required to provide services that can bring them back to competency. These can include education, therapeutic and recreational activities, and medication. Afterward, they are reevaluated for their competency to stand trial.
Although the court ordered Jay to undergo such treatment, he has yet to do so, as Washington State Hospital still does not have enough beds to take him. The lack of space in the hospital is partially due to COVID-19 patients. However, it is also because those who do not require hospitalization are currently taking up space as they await transfer to long-term care facilities. The Department of Social and Health Services says it will likely not have room to take Jay until October, further pushing back his murder trial.
In a June hearing, a judge ruled that each day he goes without treatment, the DSHS owes him $250. As of August 9, Jay has acquired $23,000 (dating back to May).
Justice for Brent Wood
While friends of Brent Wood were initially heartbroken to hear of his murder and adamant that his killer face justice, they are not angry to hear that Jay is getting state money as he sits in jail. "They lived parallel lives," said Jamie Lutton, owner of Twice Sold Tales and former employer of Wood.
"The fellow who killed him, if he had been caught as a teenager and his paranoid schizophrenia had been treated, he wouldn't have been on the streets attacking people. The mentally ill, people who haven't gotten help — it's a tragedy all around."
As for Wood, Lutton said, "I miss him, we all miss him. He would come nearly every day and talk to us, and I'm very sorry he's gone."
She believes the lack of care and attention Seattle gives its homeless is just as much to blame for Wood's death as Jay is.
"He's one of those people who wouldn't have been homeless if it hadn't been that horrible process that Gay men go through [in adolescence]. I miss him, and the only reason he was murdered was that we don't take better care of our unhoused people," she said.
According to Lutton, Wood lived in a social housing program (apartments built and managed by the government that are affordable to people making varying incomes) during the height of the COVID pandemic, but eventually they kicked him out.
"He wouldn't have been killed if he hadn't been kicked out of social housing," she said. "He was killed because he was wandering the streets after midnight. Nothing good ever happens after midnight."
While Lutton acknowledges that Wood's homelessness contributed to his early death, she is still relieved the police have finally charged someone in his murder. "We were all overjoyed! I started screaming, and I started calling people. Yes, the police did a good job on this one," she said.
While some in Seattle may be able to rest easier knowing an accused murderer is off the street for now, others know that Brent Wood has still not received justice. Justice for Wood will not come with the institutionalization of another homeless man. It will only come once the city can adequately treat the mentally ill and protect and provide proper resources for the homeless.