COLUMBIANA – A woman facing up to life in prison for trafficking drugs and stealing evidence from the Alabama Department of Forensics Sciences facility at which she was employed reached a plea deal with prosecutors to serve two years of probation.

An agreement was reached with prosecutors that included Brandi Mikkel Hicks, 34, of Odenville, pleading guilty to first-degree theft of property and possession of heroin with intent to distribute, both of which are felonies.

Other felony charges, second-degree theft of property and trafficking cocaine, were dismissed, and Hicks was sentenced to three years in the Alabama Department of Corrections, suspended for two years of probation supervised by the state Probation Office.

“Miss Hicks provided information to law enforcement officials on multiple occasions,” said Alan Miller of the Shelby County District Attorney’s office. “While she was clearly a participant in the crime, the evidence shows that she was not the primary person responsible for the crime.”

The Hoover Police Department arrested Hicks on April 1, 2015.

Hicks was an evidence technician at the Birmingham Regional Laboratory of the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences off Valleydale Road in Hoover.

Hoover police launched an investigation after the Department of Forensic Sciences reported a routine inventory of its evidence revealed “numerous items of drug chemistry were missing.”

After conducting multiple interviews, Hoover police identified Hicks as the primary suspect in the thefts. Police obtained warrants on Hicks on March 26, 2015, and the suspect was picked up by the U.S. Marshals Gulf Coast Regional Fugitive Task Force days later.