Jason Starr (Coffee County Sheriff’s Office), Sara Starr (WTVY/screengrab), Darin Starr (FBI)
Already sentenced to life in prison for the murder-for-hire shooting of an Enterprise, Alabama, teacher and mother to two sets of twins, two brothers are on the hook for a million-dollar restitution penalty now that a judge has overruled a series of defense objections, including one that argued paying $500 for the victim’s funeral flowers and photos was not “required.”
U.S. District Judge R. Austin Huffaker, Jr., last Friday ruled that 50-year-old Jason Starr of Alabama and 54-year-old Darin Starr of Texas must pay $1,069,242.03 in restitution following their murder-for-hire convictions and life sentences for the post-Thanksgiving 2017 driveway shooting death of 38-year-old Sara Elizabeth Shubert Starr, according to an order obtained by Law&Crime. The judgment went into effect on Monday, the docket shows.
The inmates must pay Sara Starr’s estate the overwhelming majority of the funds — $989,008 — based on the calculation of “lost future income.” But they must also pay Rhonda Whisler and Shawn Shubert, Sara’s mother and brother, more than $29,000 to cover the funeral, child care, and travel expenses they incurred as a result of the Starr brothers’ crime.
In calculating the monies owed to the Sara Starr’s family members, the judge notably rejected the defense’s objection to shouldering the costs of funeral flowers and photos.
“[T]he $500 requested is not exorbitant, nor is there anything extravagant or unconventional about these items at a funeral. Accordingly, the Defendants’ objection is overruled,” Huffaker wrote.
The judge further concluded that Sara Starr’s mother was entitled to restitution for having to fly to Alabama when local law enforcement raised concerns about her traumatized grandchildren being at school during an active shooter drill.
Darin Starr raised an objection to having to cover those costs, but the judge overruled him because he cited “no case law.”
“The minor children’s mother was brutally murdered with a firearm. It is entirely reasonable that a close relative, instead of the Coffee County DHR, should travel to Enterprise and remove the children from school during an active shooter drill due to the minor children’s sensitivities following their mother’s death,” the judge wrote. “And obviously Ms. Whisler did not make this decision on her own initiative because local law enforcement asked her to do this.”
Jason Starr, who previously served in the U.S. Army and was separately accused at the state level of molesting a child under the age of 12, was convicted last September of hiring his brother to ambush and kill his ex-wife — four months after the victim and Jason divorced. Sara Starr was fatally shot in her driveway as she left for work at Harrand Creek Elementary School on Nov. 27, 2017, the Monday after Thanksgiving that year.
Prosecutors said that Darin Starr’s phone was powered off for a seven-hour span between midnight and the morning of the shooting, only turning the device back on once he was on his way back to Texas. The “unthinkable” crime was committed after a judge sided with Sara and awarded her “a significant portion” of her ex-husband’s “income” as part of the divorce, as well as more than $1,000 in child support and $1,500 in alimony in a shared custody arrangement that also cost Jason “a portion of his military benefits,” prosecutors also revealed.
Jurors found that, prior to the shooting, Jason gave Darin a motorcycle and paid him $2,600 to travel from Texas to Alabama and carry out the murder.
We’ll never know if the jurors that convicted the Starr brothers would have warmed to their “alternative perpetrator” theory because Huffaker refused to allow the defense to explore it. The theory claimed that a U.S. Army helicopter pilot who died by suicide months after Sara Starr’s death — and left a note suicide note saying Jason and Darin Starr should be considered persons of interest — should have instead been viewed as a suspect in the case.
Huffaker slammed that as “rank speculation and conjecture” filled with “glaring omissions” and based on “no real evidence.”
In January, Jason looked on at his sentencing hearing as two of Sara’s children hoped the worst for their father.
“I never want to see you again. You are useless,” one child said, while the other reportedly added, “I hope you rot.”
Read the restitution order here.
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