Washington man sentenced for shooting, setting fire to religious buildings

A Washington man was sentenced to nearly a decade in prison for damaging and destroying religious buildings.

Mikey Diamond Starrett, aka Michael Jason Layes, 52, from Olympia, pleaded guilty in May 2024 to four counts of damage to religious property and one count of using a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office Western District of Washington.

Starrett was sentenced to 11 years in prison in U.S. District Court in Tacoma on Friday.

“There are significant and troubling facts,” Chief U.S. District Judge David G. Estudillo said at the sentencing hearing. “Terrorizing a group of individuals because of their religious beliefs.”

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According to U.S. Attorney Tessa Gorman, Starrett went on a series of arsons and a shooting spree in 2018 that damaged or destroyed several Jehovah’s Witness Kingdom Halls.

In March 2018, he set fire to the Kingdom Halls in Tumwater and Olympia. In July 2018, Starrett returned to the Olympia Kingdom Hall and burned it down completely. Then in May 2018, he used an assault-style rifle to shoot rounds into a Kingdom Hall in Yelm.

Gorman reported Starrett’s attacks caused more than $700,000 in damage to the Kingdom Halls. Starrett admitted he defaced, damaged and destroyed the Kingdom Halls because of the properties of religious character. After a lengthy investigation, he was arrested in September 2021 and has been in federal custody since.

“Mr. Starrett’s attacks irrevocably destroyed the sense of safety and peace that a house of worship is supposed to provide, and caused severe, permanent harm to the Jehovah’s Witness community in Washington,” Gorman stated via the release. “These were not crimes against buildings, but a series of attacks against a community and a faith.”

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Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division stated the Justice Department will continue to take action against similar crimes.

“The defendant in this case committed four attacks on Jehovah’s Witness Kingdom Halls, causing fear and anguish to its members,” Clarke said. “The freedom to practice the religion we choose, without discrimination or violence, is a fundamental civil right in our nation and a hallmark of our democracy from its very inception. Violence based on religious prejudice has no place in our society. The Justice Department will continue to prosecute those who target and harm houses of worship.”

Julia Dallas is a content editor at MyNorthwest. You can read her stories here. Follow Julia on X here and email her here.