The man who spearheaded the conspiracy to set fire to multiple Walmarts in Alabama and Mississippi was sentenced to 18 years in federal prison Tuesday — double the sentence recommended by prosecutors.

Jeffrey Sikes admitted in federal plea agreement last October he led a conspiracy to set fire to a Walmart on the Interstate 65 Service Road in May 2021.

In exchange for the guilty plea, prosecutors agreed to drop additional charges against Sikes, who — along with six others — was accused of setting fire to Walmart stores in Tillman’s Corner, Gulfport, Miss., and Biloxi, Miss., between May 27, 2021 and June 4, 2021.

Sikes pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to maliciously destroy by fire real and personal property used in and affecting interstate and foreign commerce. Prosecutors had recommended the nine-year sentence for Sikes, but as noted in court documents, those recommendations are non-binding and federal penalties allow for a sentence of 5-20 years.

U.S. District Judge Terry Moorer of Alabama’s Southern District eschewed the recommended sentence in handing down Sikes’ 18-year prison term.

Sikes was indicted and taken into custody in February 2022 in Gulf Shores, where the Nebraska native was living at the time. The original indictment named Sikes, who was using the name Kenneth Allen, along with Sean Bottorff, Michael Bottorff, and brothers Quinton Olson and Alexander Olson as the co-conspirators. Erica Sikes and Jenna Bottorff were later indicted as co-conspirators.

Initially, each of the defendants pleaded not guilty, but would later change their plea to guilty. Two of Jeffrey Sikes’ co-conspirators — the Olson brothers — are also scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday, with sentencing for the remainder to come later.

The federal indictment against Jeffrey Sikes and his fellow conspirators maliciously set the fires “to force Walmart, Inc. to meet demands related to interstate and foreign commerce set forth by the conspirators in their manifesto (identified herein as ‘The Walmart Manifesto.’)”

According to the indictment, the conspirators used accelerants such as lighter fluid to set racks of clothing and other materials on fire. It cites a mix of data to identify participants’ movements, including in-store security camera footage and cell phone data.

Some of those calls include a “burner phone” used to take pictures of a six-page manifesto titled “Declaration of War and Demands for the People” which the indictment says was “Supposedly written by a group called ‘The Veterans Order.’”

According to the indictment, photos of the document were emailed to local news stations in Mobile and the Mississippi coast. The indictment says that the document “references the malicious fires, makes a series of demands on Walmart related to the company’s interstate and foreign commerce business practices, and threatens further malicious fires if Walmart does not comply with the demands. It is signed with a seal pressed into melted red wax.”

The fire set inside the I-65 Service Road Walmart caused an estimated $8.5 million in damage, according to testimony by the store’s senior director John Wimsett. The store was closed for two weeks for cleanup and repair.