‘Serial arsonist’ sentenced to prison for attacking Kingdom Halls in Thurston County

THURSTON COUNTY, Wash. – The man who admitted to burning and shooting up Kingdom Halls of the Jehovah’s Witnesses in 2018 will spend 11 years in federal prison, a judge ruled Friday afternoon.

Mikey Diamond Starrett, 52, of Olympia, apologized during his sentencing hearing in U.S. District Court in Tacoma, while acknowledging the impact his actions had on the Jehovah’s Witnesses community.

“I am ashamed and ashamed of my actions,” Starrett said. “(The attacks) are indeed unprovoked and unacceptable. I wish I could go back in time and bring it all back.”

Earlier this year, Starrett pleaded guilty to four counts of damage to religious property and one count of use of a firearm during a violent crime.

Prosecutors called Starrett a serial arsonist who hated the Jehovah’s Witnesses community and spent months carrying out the attacks.

“These were not crimes against buildings, but a series of attacks on a community and a faith,” Assistant United States Attorney Jonas Lerman wrote in a sentencing memo. “He committed not just one attack, but four. The damage or destruction he caused terrorized the Jehovah’s Witnesses community and threatened our nation’s promise of religious freedom.”

The motive for the attacks remains unclear, although investigators noted that Starrett expressed hostility toward the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

“He described Jehovah’s Witnesses as ‘sloppy’ and as ‘gangsters’ who were not interested in serving the community,” Lerman’s sentencing memo said. “(Starrett} said Jehovah’s Witnesses were trying to take over the world and do something about it. He said he wished they were all dead.”

Federal investigators executed search warrants on Starrett’s internet history and discovered that he had researched Kingdom Hall locations in western Washington.

“Starrett’s Internet history also revealed the depth of his hostility toward Jehovah’s Witnesses and Christianity more broadly,” the sentencing memo said. “For example, Starrett conducted an extensive search for relevant information in the period before and after the attacks, including the phrase ‘Jehovah Witness refuses military service.’ JW Elder Sexually Abused Eight Girls Over Four Decades and “How to Destroy Christianity with One Simple Step Video.”

During Friday’s hearing, Starrett said he is a changed man and feels no hatred toward the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

“I was wrong. I regret what I did. What I did was un-American in the United States, religious freedom is protected by the Constitution,” he said.

Starrett said he was drinking heavily in 2018 and was having a “midlife crisis.”

“Although I made every effort not to physically harm anyone, I had no right to destroy and damage Kingdom Halls of Jehovah’s Witnesses and to express my sincere regret for the fear and danger my actions caused,” he said.

Starrett’s attorney, Bryan Hershman, argued in court that Starrett had a viable defense and could have won the case if it had gone to trial.

“We had a lot to work with, we did that, and I commend Mikey for saying, ‘No, I have to take responsibility for what I did’ and walk away from that fervent defense and take responsibility,” Hershman told KOMO News.

Prosecutors asked Judge David Estudillo to impose a fourteen-year sentence, while Hershman asked for seven years and one day.

After a brief court recess, Estudillo imposed a prison sentence of 132 months (11 years), followed by three years of supervised release.

“This is common conduct and conduct so serious that the law requires severe punishment,” Estudillo said.