The mother of a 17-year-old killed last year in Spokane, allegedly by an inmate who had been mistakenly released early from prison, has filed a $5 million claim against the state.
Veronica Medina-Gonzalez submitted the claim seeking compensation in Ceasar Medina’s death less than 24 hours after Gov. Jay Inslee announced that an investigation revealed incompetence and failed management led to the early release of more than 3,000 prisoners from state custody. The mistake was due to an ongoing computer error that wasn’t corrected until at least three years after it was discovered.
“Ceasar Medina was killed by a man that should have been incarcerated, but was in fact wrongly released by the DOC due to a known computer ‘glitch,’ ” says the claim, prepared by a Seattle law firm. “Rather than fix the problem immediately, DOC allowed the problem to go unfixed for years.”
Jeremiah A. Smith, 26, has been charged with first-degree murder in Medina’s death. Medina was shot May 26 in the neck and chest at the former site of Northwest Accessories, 3400 N. Monroe St., during what witnesses described as a robbery attempt gone awry. The 17-year-old died despite first responders’ efforts at the scene of the shooting.
