Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, November 18, 1994 TAG: 9411180093
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LEWISBURG, W.VA. LENGTH: Long
A Virginia beauty queen accused of trying to kill a romantic rival characterized herself as ``another Lorena Bobbitt-Amy Fisher'' after her arrest, a former inmate testified Thursday.
Prosecutors also alleged Tracy Lippard stole a 9mm pistol from a Virginia couple before driving 250 miles from her hometown of Newport News, Va., to Lewisburg on a mission to kill Melissa Scott and her parents.
Lippard, the 1993 Miss Williamsburg (Va.) and runner-up for Miss Virginia, seemed unconcerned about the charges against her, said Teresa Dixon, Lippard's cellmate at the Greenbrier County Jail.
``She didn't find it serious at first. She said she was going to be another Lorena Bobbitt-Amy Fisher,'' Dixon testified.
Lippard, 23, is charged with three counts of attempted murder as well as malicious wounding and weapons violations. She faces up to 39 years in prison if convicted.
Prosecutors allege that Lippard wanted to kill Scott and her parents, Rodney and Carlynn Weikle of Lewisburg, because Scott, unmarried at the time, was dating Todd Scott, whom Lippard also had dated.
``She was going to kill [Melissa Scott's] family and then, in turn, after killing them, she was going to burn the place to cover up what she had done,'' Dixon testified.
Melissa Scott, pregnant by Scott at the time, was living with her parents. The Scotts married in August and live, with their 7-month-old daughter, with the Weikles.
Lippard told Dixon she intended to ``cut the baby of Melissa out of her and flop it on the table,'' Prosecutor Richard Lorensen said.
Dixon, who was charged with trying to smuggle marijuana into the jail for an inmate, testified she tried to tell authorities about her conversation with Lippard five or six times before they took her statement March 11.
Defense attorney Paul Detch asked Dixon if she was trying to get her own sentence reduced by telling the story to authorities.
``Yes sir, I was,'' Dixon said.
She said authorities refused to reduce her time. Dixon later pleaded guilty and served ``several months,'' Lorensen said.
Meanwhile, Scott testified that he broke up with his future wife in July 1993, got engaged to another woman that fall, then started dating Lippard last December.
Scott said he would see Lippard during the week in Newport News, then drive home to High Point, N.C., on weekends to see his fiancee, to whom he referred only as ``Shelley.''
He told Lorensen he never had a serious relationship with Lippard and never discussed marriage.
Detch contends that Lippard was confused and angry about Scott's involvement with another woman and went to Lewisburg Feb. 27 only to confront Scott and his future wife about the situation.
Detch read several entries from Lippard's diary in which she said she had slept repeatedly with Scott and he repeatedly had said he loved her.
Scott denied that. He said he broke up with Lippard on Feb. 23 after a fight over his refusal to keep her picture in his wallet.
But under cross-examination, Scott said that while he considered the relationship over, ``I never told her specifically.'' He also said he slept with Lippard in his motel room that night.
Police say Lippard crowned her successor as Miss Williamsburg on Feb. 26, then drove to Lewisburg the next day armed with the pistol, a butcher knife, lighter fluid and a hammer.
Detch says Lippard intended no harm, carrying the pistol only for protection and intending to use the knife and lighter fluid to vandalize Scott's car if he rejected her. He denied she had a hammer.
Weikle said he let Lippard into the house after she knocked on the door and told him her car had broken down. The former Secret Service agent said Lippard struck him twice in the head with the hammer, and he grabbed her in a headlock.
Carlynn Weikle then walked into the room, and Lippard pulled out the pistol, Rodney Weikle said. He said he and his wife wrestled Lippard to the floor while their daughter called police.
Melissa Scott testified Thursday that she followed her mother into the kitchen from a back bedroom where they had been on the phone. She said she did not see Lippard's gun.
She broke into tears when a recording of her 911 call was played for the jury. Circuit Judge Charles Lobban gave Scott some napkins to dab her tears.
Earlier Thursday, David Griffin of Chesapeake, Va., and his live-in fiancee, Amy Alley, testified that their loaded 9mm pistol was stolen last December, apparently during a small party that Lippard attended with Scott.
Griffin and Alley said they kept the pistol between the mattress and box spring of their bed.
They said Lippard became distraught and went upstairs to lie down and use the phone. Prosecutors said Lippard found the Weikles' phone number and address in Scott's possession during the party.
Detch said Lippard bought the pistol she was carrying that night at a store in Virginia for $400 and kept it only for self-defense. But Griffin and Alley identified the silver-plated, wood-grip pistol as theirs.
Another witness, Gary Powell Sr., who lives next to the Weikles, testified Thursday that a week before the alleged attack, he saw Lippard drive around the neighborhood, then park in his yard.
He said he was suspicious and confronted her. But he didn't notify police until after he had read news reports the following week about the alleged attack.
by CNB