Meshay "Karmen" Melendez Photo The wife of the man charged in the March slayings of Vancouver mother and daughter Meshay “Karmen” Melendez and Layla Stewart is accused of stealing money while working at a Portland credit union and transferring it to other accounts, including one in Melendez’s name. Monet Tyler-Warren, 26, is charged in Multnomah County Circuit Court in Oregon with first-degree aggravated theft, first-degree theft, aggravated identity theft and identity theft. She is scheduled to be arraigned on indictment July 28, court records show. The case was filed April 12, according to court records, and it appears she was released on her own recognizance after her initial arraignment. Tyler-Warren is married to Kirkland Warren, 27, who is charged in Clark County Superior Court with two counts of aggravated first-degree murder and one count of second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm. He pleaded not guilty to the charges April 17, and his trial is scheduled for June 12. The charges allege Warren killed Melendez, 27, and 7-year-old Layla between March 12 and March 15. The information cites aggravating factors: There was a court order prohibiting Warren from contacting Melendez, Melendez was a witness in a pending case against Warren, and Melendez and Layla’s deaths were part of a common scheme or plan.

The Vancouver mother and daughter were last seen the morning of March 12 with Warren, who had been barred by court order from having contact with Melendez in connection with an earlier domestic violence case, according to investigators. He had appeared March 3 in Superior Court for allegations he shot at Melendez’s apartment in the Minnehaha area in December. Theft of money According to a probable cause affidavit in the case against Tyler-Warren, an employee at the Portland-based Trailhead Credit Union reported April 11 that another employee had been changing customer account information in order to transfer money. The employee showed Portland police documentation for two accounts. The records showed on Nov. 21, Tyler-Warren’s credentials were used to alter the information, including the password, email and phone number for one of the accounts. It also showed $20,000 was transferred to an account belonging to Melendez, court records state. The employee also provided police with surveillance photos that showed Melendez opening an account at the credit union in November. The surveillance footage also captured Melendez exiting Tyler-Warren’s vehicle, according to the affidavit. Tyler-Warren’s credentials were also used Oct. 14 to alter the information on another account so that $4,500 was transferred to an account under a different name, the affidavit states.

When interviewed by officers, Tyler-Warren told them she had been changing account information so her husband could steal money. She said she began stealing money from accounts last summer and had altered between five and 10 accounts, according to court records. Vancouver police have filed multiple search warrant affidavits in Warren’s murder case, and detectives more recently sought to obtain call records from Tyler-Warren’s phone. A search warrant affidavit, signed April 19, states a search of Tyler-Warren’s car revealed a .22 caliber handgun in the center console. The ammunition inside matched those found inside Warren’s Dodge Charger. Vancouver police previously said Layla was shot twice in the head, and Melendez was shot once in the left temple, both by a small caliber gun similar to a .22. Authorities found their bodies March 22 in a rural area east of Washougal. Police say Tyler-Warren told them the gun found in her car belonged to her, and she did not use Warren’s Dodge much, the search warrant affidavit states. She denied any involvement in Melendez and Layla’s deaths.