A former beauty queen who had armed herself with a pistol, lighter fluid and butcher knife and tried to kill the parents of a romantic rival cried quietly and insisted she wasn't a threat to anyone.
"There's no reason to fear me," Tracy Lippard told Circuit Judge Charles Lobban on Wednesday. "I just want to go on with my life."Lobban disagreed. Calling her actions a frightening crime that could not be tolerated, he sentenced Lippard to two years in prison.
Lippard, 23, a 6-foot blonde from Newport News, Va., had faced up to 61/2 years in prison for seven misdemeanor convictions, including two counts of second-degree attempted murder.
Last February, the night after she was crowned Miss Williamsburg, Va., Lippard embarked on a 250-mile journey to the Lewisburg home of Rodney and Lynn Weikle.
Lippard and the Weikles' daughter, Melissa, had been dating the same man, Todd Scott. Melissa Weikle was pregnant with Scott's child at the time of the attack.
Lippard said she went to the Weikle home to confront Scott after he didn't show up at the pageant. She had dedicated a song to him.
Authorities said Lippard bluffed her way into the Weikles' home, cracked Weikle on the head with a hammer and pointed a gun at his wife. Weikle, a former Secret Service agent, put her in a headlock and disarmed her.
Lippard said she became enraged when Weikle told her Scott planned to marry his daughter. The marriage took place in August.
"I just wanted to make the statement that I have also become a victim in this," Lippard said at her sentencing. "They were innocent people that got caught in the middle of something that was going on between Todd Scott and myself, and I really do sincerely apologize."
But Lobban told Lippard that her crimes were too serious for probation and "scared the living daylights" out of the Weikles.
Defense attorney Paul Detch said he may appeal. Lippard remained free on bail.