A Georgia woman covered her face with her hands and sobbed as she was found guilty on Wednesday of killing a stranger during a citizen’s arrest that had gone fatally wrong.
Hannah Payne, 24, claimed she never intended to shoot 62-year-old Kenneth Herring, who back in May 2019 caused a minor traffic crash by running a red light – only to take down his license plate number.
But after the jury heard from witnesses that she chased Herring down and punched him before pulling the trigger, they determined Payne had unlawfully attacked and murdered the man.
“Kenneth Herring, who was unarmed and minding his own business, was chased down, detained, shot, and murdered,” lead prosecutor Nigel Hunter said in his closing arguments. “You don’t get the death penalty for committing a traffic offense.”
Payne was found guilty on two counts of felony murder, three counts of possession of a weapon during a crime, and one count each of malice murder, aggravated assault, and false imprisonment. She is set to be sentenced on Friday.
The witnesses also told the court that Payne brandished her hip-holstered gun, threatened to shoot Herring twice and “immediately” did so, FOX5 Atlanta reported.
Earlier this week, Payne took the stand in her defence and while she agreed with jurors that she had drawn her gun, she claimed she never intended to fire and instead it was Herring who shot himself in a struggle for the weapon.
Hannah Payne, 24, claimed she never intended to shoot 62-year-old Kenneth Herring, only to take down his license plate number for 911 dispatcher— (Law&Crime )
The 2019 incident in Clayton County began with a minor car crash with a semi-truck that was reportedly caused by Herring running a red light in his Dodge Dakota pickup truck. Payne was not involved in the crash, but said she witnessed it and pulled over to call 911.
Payne testified that a corrections officer who also witnessed the crash told her the man was "OK, but... definitely inebriated” as they waited at the scene.
This led Payne and the semi-truck driver to ask at the same time, “Do you mean he’s drunk?”
Meanwhile, the state corrections officer testified that Herring was displaying symptoms of a diabetic shock. He said the man’s eyes were red-orange, he appeared disoriented, and he had circled his truck several times before he drove off.
Herring waited at the scene for about 15 to 20 minutes before he left, according to Law & Crime.
Payne realised no one at the scene had Herring’s information or license plate number so despite being told a total of four times by a 911 dispatcher not to do so, she sped off after Herring in her Jeep.
“OK, so you couldn’t get a tag number?” a 911 dispatcher asked Payne, according to a recording of the 911 call played in court.
“No, but I’m catching up to him right now,” she responded.
“OK, ma’am we actually do not want you to chase him, we just want you to be safe,” the dispatcher added.
“He is drunk. I’m not,” Payne told the dispatcher. “I’m sorry, but I’m here to tell you I’m not not going to follow him because he is going to cause an accident.”
Payne then testified that she “was under the impression, with having 911 on the phone, that she would be a messenger.”
The fatal confrontation happened moments later when Payne caught up with Herring, who was stopped in a turning lane at an intersection, and demanded he return to the scene of the crash.
“We’re loud, it’s near an interstate, it’s a busy road and I can’t hear what he’s saying to me. But as I’m getting closer to him, I hear him ask me who the f*** am I,” Payne told the court.
She claimed that at one point Herring knocked her phone out of her hand and then reached out of the window and grabbed her, ripping her shirt. He then “mashed the gas,” briefly dragging her with his car.
Payne said that’s when she told Herring that she had a gun, which she then showed to him.
“I pulled it out and immediately started trying to just continue to push against the door with it — like push it away from him,” she said. “He grabbed my hand with the gun in it.”
“As he’s pulling it is when it — the trigger went off,” she continued. “After it went off, my entire body kind of fell backwards.”
Witnesses who testified at Payne’s trial, however, told a different story.
They claimed that Payne chased Herring down, cut him off with her car, then jumped out and “very aggressively” ran up to his car, cursed at him, immediately started punching the “confused” man through his window.
She then took out her gun, they claimed, threatened to shoot him twice, and “immediately” shot him dead.
Payne’s defence attorney Matt Tucker said in his closing arguments that his client was just trying to help.
“This is not some killer, this is not some murder. She’s some young girl who got caught up in the wrong situation.”
“In her mind, she was a young individual trying to help out,” Mr Tucker continued. “No good deed goes unpunished.”
Several family members were in the courtroom when the verdict was announced.
“When I heard the first verdict, I knew we weren’t supposed to show signs,” Jacqueline Herring, one of Herring’s sisters, told FOX5.
“But tears just started rolling down my face because at that moment I felt a relief that came over.”
