Man Indicted On Hate Crime Charges After Multiple Fires At Jehovah’s Witness Halls
Mikey Diamond Starrett was arrested in September 2021 for weapons and hate crime charges and now faces additional counts of damage to religious property, another hate crime, for allegedly starting fires at multiple Jehovah's Witness halls.
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A man from Washington State was indicted on Wednesday by a federal grand jury after multiple arsons at Jehovah’s Witness halls, reports Gene Johnson for AP News. Mikey Diamond Starrett, 50, also known as Michael Jason Layes, was arrested in September 2021 for weapons and hate crime charges and now faces additional counts of damage to religious property, another hate crime.
A statement was issued on behalf of the Jehovah’s Witnesses by Robert Hendriks, “We commend them for never giving up on the investigation over the past several years.” Starrett could face decades in prison if convicted. Although friends and family of Starrett say he believed he was haunted and used drugs, Starrett denied these claims saying of his drug use: “I smoke American Spirits brand cigarettes. There must be some confusion?”
