Explainers
How Washington State Courts Work: The Hernandez Melgar Case Explained
The legal proceedings in State of Washington v. Nestor Hernandez Melgar played out in the Snohomish County Superior Court in Everett, Washington. But why there? Why not a federal courthouse? Why Everett and not the city of Snohomish? These are reasonable questions — and the answers reveal how justice is actually delivered in the Pacific Northwest.
Two Parallel Systems
Washington state has two court systems operating side-by-side:
The Washington State Superior Court — the primary trial court for state-level offenses. Organized by county, it handles general jurisdiction matters including state criminal cases and civil disputes.
The U.S. District Court (Western District of Washington) — the federal trial court for the western part of the state. It handles federal law, constitutional matters, and disputes between parties from different states.
The key distinction is subject matter jurisdiction: what kind of case is it? First-degree murder is a state crime — it goes to Superior Court, not federal court.
How Superior Court Districts Work
Washington’s Superior Court is organized into 32 districts serving 39 counties. That’s not a math error — some less-populated counties share a district, with a judge rotating between county seats. Snohomish County, however, is a single-county district: populous enough (Everett alone has over 110,000 residents) to warrant its own dedicated judicial administration.
That dedicated status has a history. The county seat wasn’t always Everett. Through the 1890s, it was the town of Snohomish. The records were relocated to Everett in 1897 after a contested series of elections and a Washington Supreme Court ruling — a legal battle that ultimately established Everett as the permanent center of Snohomish County justice. Which is why, in 2026, Nestor Hernandez Melgar’s trial took place in Everett.
The Federal Court: A Different Lens
The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington serves roughly 6 million people — about 78% of Washington’s total population. Rather than organizing by county, the federal system uses two large divisions:
Seattle Division — headquartered at the U.S. Courthouse at 7th and Stewart. Counties served include King, Snohomish, Island, San Juan, Skagit, and Whatcom.
Tacoma Division — headquartered at Union Station. Counties served include Pierce, Clark, Clallam, Cowlitz, Kitsap, Lewis, Mason, and others.
The appellate tracks are also separate: state cases move through the Washington State Court of Appeals; federal cases go to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
How the Hernandez Melgar Trial Illustrates This
The Hernandez Melgar trial demonstrates the mechanics of the state system in practice.
Why state court? First-degree murder under Washington law is a state felony. Federal jurisdiction didn’t apply — there was no federal statute at issue, no federal agency involved, no interstate element that would trigger federal authority.
Why Everett? Because Everett is the county seat of Snohomish County, and the crime occurred within Snohomish County. Under the state system, the county seat hosts the courtroom, the prosecutor’s office, the jail, and the judges. All roads in Snohomish County justice lead to Everett.
How the trial ran: After Lindsay Geary’s death in November 2024, the investigation ran for over 18 months — including seven months for the medical examiner’s report alone, and a critical piece of digital evidence discovered in December 2025. The trial itself was four weeks. On June 22, 2026, the jury returned a verdict: guilty on all counts.
Who was in the room:
- The prosecution, representing the state, argued that behavioral evidence — the call sequence, the door delay, the rope length — established that Melgar staged Geary’s death as a suicide
- The defense argued reasonable doubt: no DNA linked Melgar to Geary’s neck or fingernails, and Geary’s phone contained evidence consistent with suicidal ideation
- The jury, twelve citizens of Snohomish County, weighed both accounts and returned a unanimous verdict
- The medical examiner, whose report found the cause of death to be asphyxia due to ligature compression — and the manner of death to be “undetermined” — provided the scientific record the jury had to interpret
That “undetermined” ruling is what makes this case a landmark: the jury resolved a question that forensic science could not. Washington law treats circumstantial evidence as equal to direct evidence, and the jury found that the behavioral record was sufficient to convict.
Three Takeaways
1. Jurisdiction is both geographic and subject-based. The building you walk into depends on where you are. The system you’re in depends on what happened. A Snohomish County resident charged with a state crime appears in Everett. If the same person faced a federal charge, they’d appear at 7th and Stewart in Seattle.
2. The county seat is the hub. The “32 districts for 39 counties” structure means that judicial resources — judges, clerks, prosecutors, courtrooms — are concentrated in high-population centers. Everett, Seattle, and Tacoma anchor their respective regions.
3. Juries interpret what science cannot. A medical examiner must rule “undetermined” when the physical evidence is ambiguous. A jury doesn’t have that constraint — they are tasked with the total picture. In the Hernandez Melgar case, the jury found that picture sufficient for conviction.
Sentencing is scheduled for July 22, 2026, in Snohomish County Superior Court, Everett.
Stay in the Loop
Listen: New episode on Cassian Creed: Daily Update
Watch: YouTube Short walkthrough
More coverage: Follow all our open cases at cassiancreed.com.
Sentencing for Nestor Hernandez Melgar is scheduled for July 22, 2026.