Probation for brandishing a loaded reptile

updated 3:04 p.m. ET May 1, 2007

SUNBURY, Pa. - A woman accused of holding police at bay by brandishing poisonous snakes was sentenced to house arrest and probation.

“I just wasn’t in the right frame of mind that night,” said Terry Jackson, 36, at her sentencing Monday.

Officers were trying to prevent the despondent woman from harming herself with a hunting knife when the confrontation took place Oct. 25, police said.

Jackson picked up two western diamondback rattlesnakes, a pigmy rattlesnake and two copperheads to try to keep police from taking her into custody, authorities said.

Jackson, who was raising the snakes for laboratories, received several bites during the standoff and was taken to a hospital after police subdued her with a stun gun.

The snakes were later donated to a zoo in Hershey.

Jackson pleaded no contest in March to one count of reckless endangerment. She was sentenced to two years’ probation and will spend the first six months of her sentence under house arrest. She must also receive drug and alcohol counseling.

She said she was beset by alcohol abuse and family problems and had wanted to kill herself.

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