A 30-year-old Tulsa woman pleaded guilty in federal court Wednesday to tampering with evidence related, in part, to an investigation into her possession, use and distribution of controlled substances, announced U.S. Attorney Clint Johnson.
The federal investigation was launched following the Jan. 4, 2021, death of the woman’s 2-month-old baby.
Ashton Nikoel Mattingly, also known as Nikki Mattingly, pleaded guilty to three counts of tampering with evidence by corruptly altering, destroying, mutilating, and concealing records and other objects.
According to the plea agreement, Mattingly admitted to instructing an individual to remove a white pill bottle from her residence and to change her Snapchat password so that the evidence could not be accessed in the ongoing investigation. She also admitted to instructing another individual to falsely report her cell phone as stolen and to have her service provider disable it so that phone records could not be used as evidence.
The FBI and Tulsa Police Department conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Ben Tonkin and Vani Singhal are prosecuting the case.