Arrest made in the murder of Sara Starr

At a press conference on Dec. 7, the FBI and Coffee County Sheriff’s Office announced the arrest of Daleville resident Jason Starr for the 2017 murder of his ex-wife, Sara Starr.

Jason Starr was arrested by law enforcement officials in his Daleville home in the early morning hours of Dec. 7 after a multi-county and multi-state investigation that involved a number of law enforcement agencies, including the FBI. Jason Starr was charged with “use of interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder for hire.” The investigation included the Coffee County Sheriff’s Office, Dale County Sheriff’s Office, Geneva County Sheriff’s Office, Fort Rucker Criminal Investigators, the FBI, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Enterprise Police Department, Houston County Sheriff’s Office and Daleville Police Department.

“This is four years in the making,” Twelfth Judicial Circuit District Attorney Tom Anderson said. “We knew we had strong, decent evidence but knowing someone did something and being able to prove someone did something are two different things. Over the last two years and the tireless efforts of everyone involved here we are.”

Jason Starr made his first appearance in federal court in Montgomery but has not had a bond hearing yet. While Starr’s initial charges are federal charges, Anderson emphasized that the state has not decided whether it will bring state charges on him, as well.

“The state has dual sovereignty and we can charge a capital offense, too,” he said. “Whether or not we will put the state through that expense remains to be seen.

“Justice has been evasive for Sara Starr, her children, her students and for everyone that knew her. I’m proud to be able to stand here and say that we are going to fight for justice to send Jason Starr away for the rest of his life.”

Sutton confirmed that identical charges are expected to be handed down to another “person of interest” in the near future but could not elaborate any further.

In regards to a potential motive, Anderson and Sutton said that they couldn’t confirm what motive Jason Starr is believed to hold but did confirm that just before Sara Starr’s murder Jason Starr had been served with a court order to pay $2,500 per month to his ex-wife.

“We believe we have knowledge and strong evidence of motive,” Anderson said.

Federal prosecutors have not stated what sentence they will seek for Jason Starr as of yet.

Sara Starr, 36, was found dead in her Coffee County Road 647 home in Chancellor on Nov. 27, 2017.

Preliminary indications were that Sara Starr’s death occurred sometime after 6:30 a.m. on Nov. 27. Coffee County Sheriff Dave Sutton said that his department had first been contacted at approximately 8:30 a.m. on Nov. 27 when Sara Starr had been found dead. The death was initially reported to authorities as a “possible suicide” but no weapon was found.

The next day Coffee County law officers called Sara Starr’s death a “murder” at a news conference held Nov. 28, 2017 at the Coffee County Sheriff’s Office in New Brockton.

“We’re not at liberty to say a lot but one of the key factors that turned this into a homicide investigation instead of a possible suicide is that the death was an apparent gunshot wound to the head and no firearm was recovered from the scene,” Anderson said at that time.

At the 2017 press conference, Anderson confirmed that a “person of interest” was being investigated.

“I just can’t go into greater details because it could compromise the nature of the investigation and the efforts of the sheriff’s office,” he said.

Sara Starr was a fourth grade teacher at Harrand Creek Elementary School in Enterprise and the mother of four children. Originally from Kansas, Sara Starr had lived in the area for more than 10 years before her death.

Although Sara Starr’s ex-husband Jason Glenn Starr, 45, was questioned about the death of his former wife, he was never charged at that time.

A resident of Coffee Springs at that time, Jason Starr was arrested on May 24, 2018 at the entrance to Shell Army Airfield in Enterprise after being indicted on charges of sexual abuse of a child.

Nearly two months after being charged with sexual abuse of a child less than 12 years of age, Jason Starr pled not guilty and filed a formal request to the court to have his trial moved outside of Coffee County “to the nearest county free from prejudice.”

He was released from Coffee County Jail on a $30,000 bond and his attorney, James W. Parkman III, on July 5, 2018 submitted a change of venue request stating that a Coffee County trial would be “unfairly prejudicial to (Starr), denying him the right to a trial before an impartial jury.”

“Although Mr. Starr was not publicly named as a suspect in the death of Ms. Starr, media coverage surrounding her death raised issues as to whether Mr. Starr could have been involved,” the motion states. “… his name was repeatedly included in articles concerning the investigation of Ms. Starr’s death.”

After the sexual abuse charges in May, Parkman said Jason Starr’s name “was again found in local news stories, often addressing both the current charges and the still-unknown circumstances of his wife’s death.”

The change of venue request specifically named news reports from a newspaper and television station as evidence of “sensational and denunciatory” information.

“Ms. Starr’s death and the unknown circumstances surrounding it have been a topic of great interest in their hometown since November 2017,” the request stated. “Mr. Starr has been deemed a “strong person of interest” in the murder of his ex-wife, and he now faces the charge of sexual abuse of a child – possibly two of the worst allegations that can be made against a husband and a father.”

The request argued that because Jason Starr was “never officially pursued as the offender in Ms. Starr’s death, but was consistently named as a person of interest by news outlets,” the stories have “exposed the community to unfair and damaging information about the defendant.”

The request was ultimately denied.

On Sept. 15, 2020 Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey increased a reward being offered leading to the arrest and conviction of the person who murdered Sara Starr to $10,000 from the original $5,000 reward.