WA to pay $2.3M after patient fatally strangled at psych facility in Pierce County
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- A Western State Hospital patient was strangled to death in 2022.
- The victim’s roommate was charged with murder, but pleaded not guilty due to insanity.
- The victim’s brother sued the state, which agreed to pay $2.3M to settle the lawsuit.
The state agency overseeing Western State Hospital will pay $2.3 million to resolve a lawsuit that accused officials of negligence after a psychiatric patient was strangled to death by his roommate.
The Washington State Department of Social and Health Services agreed to settle the legal complaint filed in 2024 by the brother of 69-year-old Stephen Kellogg, according to a stipulated judgment Dec. 22 in Pierce County Superior Court.
Kellogg was discovered by Western State Hospital staff in his room in October 2022 with bodily injuries, a cord wrapped around his neck and a deep bite wound on his wrist, The News Tribune previously reported. Kellogg’s roommate, Jason Conrad Day, who claimed Kellogg had threatened him, was charged with his murder, but later found not guilty by reason of insanity and could spend the rest of his life institutionalized.
The lawsuit alleged that DSHS, which is responsible for administering adult psychiatric inpatient programs operated by the state, should have taken steps to prevent Day, 54, from hurting fellow patients and knew or should have known he was dangerous. DSHS was accused of failing to properly monitor patients or perform searches for anything that could be used as weapons.
The agency, which claimed to have acted in good faith in the performance of its duties and denied wrongdoing, did not admit to any liability as part of the settlement, court records show.
“We offer our heartfelt condolences to the family of Stephen Kellogg and to all who were affected by his death,” DSHS spokesperson Cynthia Shipley said in a statement Dec. 22.
Shipley said the agency understood that no monetary settlement could ever replace the loss of a loved one, but DSHS hoped the resolution could provide some measure of healing.
“Our agency remains deeply dedicated to fostering a restorative environment that prioritizes the safety and well-being of every patient and resident,” she said.
Attorney Nathan Roberts, who represented Kellogg’s brother in the lawsuit, said in an interview Dec. 22 that the significant sum of money to be paid by the state — “a strong settlement for a case of that type” — was in and of itself an acknowledgement that Kellogg’s death had been preventable and Western State Hospital needed to do better to keep its patients safe.
“I hope that this will be the last case of this kind that has to be brought,” Roberts said. “The people in Western State Hospital are completely dependent on managers and staff there to keep them safe from external threats and also from their fellow residents who might have violent propensities. That’s a big responsibility and I hope they’re going to take it more seriously moving forward.”
Day, who had been at Western State Hospital for nearly a decade, had a history of violently assaulting other patients, according to the lawsuit and prior reporting by The News Tribune. He entered the Lakewood hospital after being charged with biting the nose off a patient at a psychiatric hospital in King County in 2013 and, eight years later, was accused of biting the nose off a patient at Western State Hospital.
He was not charged in the latter case due to lacking evidence and conflicting statements, court records show.
Kellogg, who had been a patient at the hospital since 1989 after he pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to a first-degree murder charge, was determined by the Pierce County Medical Examiner’s Office to have died of strangulation. He and Day had shared a room for about three months.
Kellogg was found on the floor, covered with a bloodstained blanket, and a watch was laid on top of his bloody left eye, according to the lawsuit. He was pronounced dead by emergency responders 34 minutes after Day reported to a nurse that he had killed him, the suit said.
Following the deadly attack in 2022, DSHS had said that the assault occurred during a 15-minute window between hospital staff rounds. The men were housed in a building that maintained a higher level of security than the hospital’s general campus, but wasn’t the highest security unit, the agency had said.
Day, who’s currently institutionalized at Eastern State Hospital near Spokane, recently applied for conditional release from the facility, court records show. In response, DSHS said in a court filing it supported staff-escorted community outings for Day, albeit with a lengthy list of proposed conditions.
This story was originally published December 24, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
