Vaughan E. Breedlove apologized yesterday in court. "What I did was inexcusable, but I was going through a rough patch. I've been embarrassed by it, and I'm ashamed."

A South Richmond man who cited NFL quarterback Michael Vick as his reason for threatening to bomb three local jails will spend eight months in one of those facilities.

Vaughan E. Breedlove, 39, apologized yesterday to Chesterfield County, its court system and the judge hearing his case before blaming his actions on a series of personal misfortunes. They included falling behind thousands of dollars in child support payments and losing his best friend and roommate in a Richmond slaying seven days before he made the threat.

"What I did was inexcusable, but I was going through a rough patch," Breedlove told Circuit Judge Cleo Powell. "I've been embarrassed by it, and I'm ashamed."

But Powell told the Army veteran and father of five that his troubles "didn't privilege" him to carry out such a disruptive act on Aug. 17 -- which turned out to be the second of two bomb threats in less than two months.

In the first incident June 20, authorities were forced to evacuate two Chesterfield court buildings for three hours after Breedlove allegedly called Richmond's 911 center to report that bombs would explode in both courts in 35 minutes. Court proceedings were canceled for the day and bomb-sniffing dogs were used to search the buildings for explosives.

"You inconvenienced every citizen who had a court hearing that day," the judge said.

In sentencing Breedlove to five years in prison with all but eight months suspended, Powell exceeded state sentencing guidelines for the felony threatening to bomb charge, which called for probation for the first offense.

According to evidence, Breedlove called Chesterfield's 911 center at 9:45 a.m. Aug. 17 and stated, "Chesterfield, Richmond, Henrico jail just had been blown up due to Michael Vick."

But authorities said Breedlove was not really upset about how Vick was being treated in his felony dogfighting case. He simply wanted to avoid jail for failing to pay child support.

Breedlove was in arrears by more than $25,000 and knew he was going to jail for 12 months that day for contempt of court, said his attorney, Sharon Fitzgerald.

Using the 911 system, authorities traced Breedlove's call to a pay phone at a convenience store across from Chesterfield's courthouse complex on Iron Bridge Road.

Officers rushed over and viewed video footage from the store's surveillance camera that included photos of a man taken about the time of the threat.

That man's description was broadcast to officers, and they found Breedlove walking in the courthouse parking lot.

After his arrest, authorities realized that Breedlove was the same man they had interviewed weeks earlier as a suspect in the June 20 bomb threat. He confessed to both threats, and was sentenced later that day to 12 months in jail for nonpayment of child support.

Breedlove now faces a March 10 trial in Richmond Circuit Court for the June threat, which was telephoned from the city.