Man accused of burning Jehovah’s Witness halls in WA is now indicted in hate crimes
A man accused of setting fire to Jehovah’s Witness Kingdom Halls in Washington has been indicted for hate crimes, according to federal prosecutors.
Mikey Diamond Starrett, 50, set fires at two halls on three separate occasions in 2018, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington.
On Tuesday, Dec. 13, a federal grand jury charged Starrett in a superseding indictment with “three counts of damage to religious property, including the use of fire, and three counts of using fire to commit a federal felony,” the release says.
Starrett was formerly known as Michael Jason Layes, but changed his name in 2021, The Olympian reported.
On March 19, 2018, Starrett set fire to the Kingdom Hall of Olympia and the Kingdom Hall of Tumwater, which is about 3 miles south of Olympia, according to prosecutors. He is accused of setting fire to the Kingdom Hall of Olympia again on July 3, 2018. He targeted the properties because of their “religious character,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Starrett’s attorneys did not respond to a request for comment from McClatchy News.
He’s accused of shooting at a Kingdom Hall in Yelm in 2018
A grand jury also indicted Starrett in October in connection with a May 2018 shooting that damaged a Jehovah’s Witness Kingdom Hall in Yelm, about 20 miles southeast of Olympia, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
He is accused of shooting at the building with a semi-automatic rifle and defacing it. He was indicted on a charge of unlawful possession of an unregistered firearm and charged in a superseding indictment with one count of damage to religious property, including the use of a dangerous weapon, according to prosecutors.
He was arrested on Sept. 8, 2021, and has been in federal custody ever since, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Between 2018 and 2020, there were eight attacks on Kingdom and Assembly Halls in Thurston, Mason and Pierce counties, The Olympian reported. Federal prosecutors have charged Starrett in connection with four.
“Our criminal investigators have been working tirelessly on these attacks since they began in 2018,” Jonathan T. McPherson, Seattle Field Division Special Agent for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms said in a statement. “We hope this indictment helps calm the fears of those in the Pierce and Thurston county areas through the knowledge that (Starrett) is being prosecuted for his alleged crimes.”
If convicted, Starett could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison on each charge of damage to religious property and up to 10 years in prison on the unlawful possession of an unregistered firearm charge.
He will be arraigned on the indictment next week, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Martín Bilbao, a reporter with The Olympian, contributed to this story.
This story was originally published December 14, 2022 at 3:46 PM with the headline "Man accused of burning Jehovah’s Witness halls in WA is now indicted in hate crimes."