By Tammy Curtis, Managing Editor with aid of court documentation
Sharp County wrestler and habitual offender Tommy Wayne Ashcraft, known as “TikTok Tommy” was arrested once again. This time, he is being charged with six counts of child pornography in Independence County. Ashcraft is from Cave City.
Ashcraft was arrested first on Feb. 7 in Independence County on revocation of a suspended imposition (SIS) and a felony pick-up order.
The latest case, which was filed on Feb. 20, stems from a Dec. 11, 2024, tip police received that Ashcraft was not living in the county, but within the city limits of Batesville.
Brenda Bittle, with the Independence County Sheriff’s Department, received information Ashcraft was possibly living at the old Miller Gym, where wrestling events were held.
On Jan. 14, 2024, Batesville Officer Sam Stone went to the gym to speak with Ashcraft, who had multiple active felony warrants. After making contact with the gym owner, Stone was told Ashcraft had not been with the wrestling group in about four weeks after being told to bring proof he was not on parole or a registered sex offender. He never returned the requested information and was let go.
Stone was also contacted by the mother of a juvenile girl who alleged that Ashcraft had tried to contact her daughter through Snapchat and other social media multiple times. She provided screenshots of the attempts to the officer. She also informed the officer of another 14-year-old girl he had tried to contact. He spoke with the child.
A search warrant of Ashcraft’s Snapchat account yielded 895 photos from Feb 2023 through Jan 5, 2025.
Ashcraft was taken into custody on Feb. 7 on the outstanding warrants and spoke with Bittle at the jail after being Mirandized. While he admitted to sending several requests to underage girls, he maintained it was to gain them as wrestling fans, and he was never out of line with the young girls. He even claimed some of them called him “Dad”.
Ashcraft gave Bittle permission to open it and provided her with the passcode to his phone, claiming there was nothing inappropriate on the device.
A search warrant for the phone was executed on Feb. 11. The search revealed over 60,000 images and 2511 videos, thousands of which were pornographic.
Ashcraft was charged with six counts of distributing, possessing, or viewing matter depicting sexually explicit conduct involving a child, all Class C Felonies.
Records indicate, other than his other felony offenses, Ashcraft was convicted of Sexual Solicitation or Indecency with a child on Aug. 5, 2010. He was ordered to register as a sex offender after the conviction. Since then, he has been charged three times with failure to register as a sex offender.
He also has a Sept. 2024 case in Lawrence County for theft, a Class D Felony, and five open felony cases in Sharp County. He is known as a habitual con artist in the area. It is unclear why the Batesville wrestling group, whose owner told police he was aware of his status as a registered sex offender, did not consider that an issue when they hosted a wrestling event at the Hardy Gym last year. After the event, the venue was left in a mess, and they were prohibited from returning for future shows.
His bond was set at $150,000 in the case. He will be sentenced in the crime as a habitual offender.
