Former reality TV star gets 16 years after fatal DUI crash

The Associated Press
Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018 6:00 p.m. | Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018 6:00 p.m.

Melissa Hancock, 25, has been charged with driving while intoxicated and maiming following the death of Petty Officer 2nd Class Daniel Dill, 29, from a drunken wrong-way collision on Nov. 4, 2017, a Virginia highway, authorities said. Dill died of his injuries the next day.

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — A former reality TV star will serve 16 years in prison for killing a U.S. Coast Guard technician in a drunken wrong-way collision on a Virginia highway.

News outlets reported that Melissa Hancock was sentenced Wednesday after earlier pleading guilty to manslaughter, driving the wrong way and failing to obey a highway sign.

Hancock appeared on Lifetime’s “Little Women: Atlanta,” a reality show that focuses on women of short stature. A court summons described Hancock as 4 feet tall and weighing 77 pounds.

Daniel Dill was a Logan Township, New Jersey, native who was stationed in Portsmouth, Virginia, as an information systems technician. Virginia State Police said Hancock struck Dill head-on around 2 a.m. Nov. 4 on Interstate 264. He died of his injuries the next day.

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