Woman says wrestling 'sleeper hold' led to wife's death, officials say

Aterraka Scotland admitted to killing her wife after learning she was having an affair, police said. (Redmond Police Department)

A Washington woman who strangled her cheating wife last month, briefly assumed the woman's identity in a bid to fool cops and then tried to explain the death as the result of a "sleeper hold" while the pair were wrestling, officials said.

Ateerraka Scotland, 27, of Redmond, Wash., is accused of killing her wife, Tiffany Scotland, 26, in their apartment on March 29. Scotland was charged Monday in King County with second-degree murder and had bail set at $3 million.

Prosecutors said in court papers that Scotland told police she killed her wife after learning she was having an affair. She told police she and two others planned to dispose of the body at a later time and that she assumed the victim’s identity to make it seem as if she were still alive, prosecutors said.

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“Between the time of the killing and her arrest, the defendant assumed the victim’s identity by using the victim’s phone and sending text messages as the victim, presumably in an attempt to show that the victim was still alive,” the King County Prosecutor’s Office said.

Scotland told police after she confronted Tiffany regarding the affair, the two women wrestled and she put her wife in a “sleeper hold until she became unresponsive.”

The prosecutor's office said Scotland called her family after her arrest asking them to bail her out “so she can leave the area,” Q13 FOX.

“After telling her mother that she killed Tiffany, the defendant states ‘I want to hurry up and get out of here.’ Her mother responds, ‘When you get out of there, you better leave town.' The defendant then states, 'I plan on it. I just want to have a fresh start somewhere,'” authorities said.

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Scotland’s mother asked her daughter if the slaying was self-defense and the woman replied, “Technically, yeah, but this is the one state they’re not going to take my side because of the way I look and the way I dress.”

Records found Scotland was a suspect in a 2016 assault when she allegedly hit her male roommate in the head with a hammer, seriously injuring the man.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.