Pontotoc County Resident Sentenced For Arson In Indian Country

MUSKOGEE, OKLAHOMA – The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Oklahoma announced that Shyla Faye Pittman, age 38, of Ada, Oklahoma, was sentenced to 14 months imprisonment and three years of supervised release for one count of Arson in Indian Country.

The charge arose from an investigation by the Pontotoc County Sheriff’s Office, the Chickasaw Nation Lighthorse Police, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

On October 16, 2023, Pittman pleaded guilty to one count of Arson in Indian Country.  According to investigators, on March 11, 2023, law enforcement officers responded to a call about a housefire and arrived to discover Pittman on the porch of the burning building, with a butane torch nearby.  After firefighters extinguished the blaze, ATF Fire Investigators discovered multiple points of origin for the fire, indicating that Pittman had purposefully set fires throughout the home.  The crime occurred in Pontotoc County, within the boundaries of the Chickasaw Nation Reservation, in the Eastern District of Oklahoma.

The Honorable Ronald A. White, Chief Judge in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma, presided over the hearing.  Pittman will remain in custody of the U.S. Marshal pending transportation to a designated United States Bureau of Prisons facility to serve a non-paroleable sentence of incarceration.

Assistant United States Attorney Kevin Gross represented the United States.