Elizabeth Summerlee Hegadorn
Credit: Newtown police
An Upper Southampton woman was sentenced to state prison for firing a gun at her former stepfather last year.
Elizabeth Summerlee Hegadorn, 31, was sentenced to three to 10 years in a state correctional facility by Bucks County Judge Brian McGuffin Tuesday after pleading guilty to attempted murder, aggravated assault and discharging a firearm into an occupied structure, and multiple counts of recklessly endangering another person. In addition to the prison time, the judge imposed four years of consecutive probation and ordered Hegagorn to have no contact with the victim, according to the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office.
According to authorities, Hegadorn fired three shots at her former stepfather inside his home in the 1100 block of Swamp Road in Wrightstown last September 13 after allegations that he physically abused one of her young brothers. Police concluded their investigation into the allegations and found that no crime had been committed. The investigation wrapped up shortly before Hegadorn shot at her stepfather.
Hegadorn arrived at her former stepfather’s home after retrieving a .22 caliber semiautomatic pistol from her place of work, a tattoo parlor in Bristol. She fired the handgun until it jammed and her former stepfather, who was making dinner at the time, was able to wrestle the fun away from the woman.
The man’s fiancée and two young children in the Wrightstown home at the time of the shooting.
No one was hit with the bullets, which landed above her former stepfather’s head and in a stove next to him.
Hegadorn, a college art student, fled the scene and drove to her mother’s home in Upper Southampton.
The shooting was captured on home surveillance video and was played in court.
Hegadorn, who has Asperger’s syndrome, told the court her crimes were “nauseating.” She recognized that the shooting could have left someone dead.
McGuffin cited that he was giving Hegadorn a lighter sentence due to her unstable upbringing and effort to get help.
