Seattle career criminal will be paid $250 for every day he doesn’t receive mental health treatment

A Seattle career criminal who allegedly pushed a 62-year-old nurse down the stairs at a light rail station in an unprovoked attack could receive up to $17,000 from taxpayers if he doesn’t get mental health treatment in the next two months. 

Alexander Jay, 40, was arrested in March after he allegedly pushed Kim Hayes down the cement steps at the Chinatown-International District station near downtown. 

During his trial in April, Jay was found incompetent and was ordered three months of psychiatric treatment at an inpatient facility. 

Since May 9, Washington taxpayers have footed the daily $250 paid to Jay for each day he hasn’t received treatment.

Jay is being held in jail until the Department of Social and Health Services can accommodate for him to receive treatment – likely in mid-August -, the department told FOX. 

The measure was ruled by King County Superior Court Judge Johanna Bender after Jay was left untreated for 100 days, in violation of his due process rights. 

Jay was charged with brutally assaulting Hayes in March after he was allegedly caught on video repeatedly throwing the victim down the stairs at a Seattle light rail station.  

The nurse suffered a broken clavicle and three broken ribs. 

She was rushed to Harborview Medical Center, the hospital where she has worked for 25 years, receiving surgery from her colleagues. 

Jay has been convicted 22 times in Washington state and California, including on charges of burglary, theft, selling stolen property, drug possession, auto theft and multiple counts of domestic violence.

He was most recently convicted in 2021 of a residential burglary. 

Additionally, since 2016, Washington state courts have issued more than 15 bench warrants for the defendant for failing to attend hearings. 

He was also charged with second-degree assault, but a judge deemed him incompetent to stand trial in April. 

The senseless attack at the rail station was caught on surveillance video, which shows Hayes dressed in a red jacket, tumbling head-first down the stairs and coming to rest on a landing, as reported by KTTH’s Jason Rantz. 

Before she has a chance to get to her feet and flee, the suspect approaches her a second time, grabs hold of her again and hurls her further down the stairs.

The suspect races down the steps and tries to throw the victim down a third time, but she desperately clings to the railing and puts up a fight.

While Jay and Hayes are scuffling, two men, who appear to be homeless, walk up the escalator parallel to the staircase and witness the assault, but they fail to intervene.  

After punching and kicking the victim, the brute runs back up the stairs and exits the station before first responders arrive on the scene. 

The following day, police found Jay a half-mile from the crime scene and arrested him, reported KIRO.

Police said Jay and his victim had been in the same light rail car prior to the attack but had no interaction with one another.

Hayes, however, got a good look at his face, which has a distinctive cross tattoo on his left cheek, and later recognized him as the person who attacked her.

Jay is also being investigated in connection with a stabbing that took place at a bus station at the intersection of 12th Avenue South and South Jackson Street a short time after the assault on the nurse. 

‘The description of the stabbing suspect was similar to the suspect in the assault, and both descriptions included the cross tattoo on his left cheek,’ the Seattle Police Department stated in a press release at the time.

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