Melissa Hancock, a former guest star on Little Women: Atlanta, pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors related to a fatal drunk driving crash that led to the death of a Portsmouth, Virginia Coast Guard member in November.
Hancock was in court Friday to enter no contest pleas to charges of driving on the wrong way and failing to obey a highway sign, both misdemeanors. She was fined $150 for the two charges, according to the Virginian-Pilot.
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However, the 25-year-old Hancock still faces a felony manslaughter charge. The trial in that case begins on May 23. She is required to serve at least a year in prison, and could be sentenced to up to 20 years.
The fatal crash happened on Nov. 4, 2017 at around 2 a.m. on Interstate 264. She was driving her 2011 Cadillac on the wrong side of the road when she crashed head-on into Daniel Dill’s sedan. The 29-year-old, who was on his way to pick up his wife and their friends after her birthday party, died the next day.
According to police, Hancock told a state trooper she had two to four drinks at a nightclub an hour before the crash. Her blood alcohol level was between 0.17 and 0.19, far above the 0.08 legal limit in Virginia.
Hancock’s attorney said she suffered three fractures in her back in the crash, and appeared in court Friday in a wheelchair. She is being held without bond in the Virginia Beach city jail while awaiting trial.
When the judge in the case revoked Hancock’s bond in December, her attorney, Robert Morecock, said the jail was “in no way capable of taking care of this woman.” She was being cared for by her mother and two aunts, the Virginian-Pilot reports.
Little Women: Atlanta is a Lifetime reality series about women of short stature in Atlanta. It is a spin-off of Little Women: LA and was followed by Little Women: Dallas.
Hancock also worked as a runway model, appearing at the first ever New York Fashion Week event with little people.
“Curvy women, six-foot-tall women, four-feet-tall women, we should all have the same opportunity to show what we got,” Hancock said in a 2015 interview with Entertainment Tonight.
Hancock moved to Virginia Beach just weeks before the crash. She was previously convicted on marijuana possession and reckless driving, according to the Virginian-Pilot.
