Juno Beach man gets 4 years for trashing mosque
He tore shutters, broke windows at North Palm Beach Islamic center.
WEST PALM BEACH — A 28-yearold Juno Beach man charged with vandalizing a North Palm Beach mosque in what prosecutors called a hate crime accepted a plea deal Monday that will send him to prison for four years.
Joshua Killets pleaded guilty Monday in a brief hearing before Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Glenn Kelley sentenced him to 50 months in prison on one count each of burglary to a structure with more than $1,000 in damages and criminal mischief to a place of worship.
N o r t h P a l m B e a c h p o l i c e arrested Killets on Dec. 4 after he smashed more than a dozen windows and tore storm shutters off the Islamic Center of the Palm Beaches on Castlewood Drive.
Prosecutors say Killets bragged about what he did shortly before his arrest. His social media posts in the months leading up to the vandalism contained comments about President Barack Obama, Syrian refugees and Muslims.
In an April 2015 post, Killets posed for a photo holding an assault rifle. The caption under it read: “That AR-15 will put down any radical Islamic!! I wish they would!!”
Questioned by police, Killets quickly confessed to breaking 12 windows in the mosque’s men’s prayer hall, which he entered through a women’s bathroom window he had smashed. He also admitted that blood splatter found inside the mosque was his blood from having injured himself while vandalizing the mosque.
Killets is the son of Ann Killets, an adjunct professor and former associate dean for education at Palm Beach Atlantic University. Ann Killets, who retired as Palm Beach County School District’s chief academic officer in 2011 after more than 33 years with the district, told The Palm Beach Post last year that she loved her son but did not condone his behavior.
Joshua Killets has a previous conviction in 2011 for petty theft.