SEATTLE — A Texas woman who set fire to a Snohomish County church in 2023 , causing more than $3.2 million in damage, was sentenced Thursday in federal court to six years in prison.
U.S. District Judge Jamal N. Whitehead handed down the sentence to Natasha Marie O’Dell, 38, of Temple, Texas, who pleaded guilty in April to arson, damage to religious property and obstructing persons in the free exercise of religious beliefs.
“This offense was devastating and dangerous,” Whitehead said at sentencing. “You burned down the spiritual home of a congregation. The wounds you have inflicted deepen for each day they are away from their home.”
Prosecutors said O’Dell traveled to western Washington in August 2023 to visit relatives in Woodinville and deliberately set fire to the Seattle Laestadian