A man arrested for failing to register as a sex offender has been sentenced in Tate County Circuit Court.
Documents show John Howard Starkey Jr., 42, of Nesbit, was ordered to serve 133 days in Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC) and four years, 232 days post-release supervision in intervention court.
Starkey pleaded guilty to a charge of failure to register as a sex offender as a habitual offender in circuit court Wednesday, Jan. 4. He was indicted by the Tate County Grand Jury in January 2022.
Captain Lisa Sanders said the Tate County Sheriff’s Office opened an investigation regarding Starkey’s non-compliance on the Mississippi Sex Offender Registry list before a warrant was issued for his arrest. He was taken into custody by deputies in May 2022 and booked into the Tate County Jail.
Starkey was convicted of statutory rape in DeSoto County in November 2000.
