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A woman who chased down and killed a 62-year-old man who caused a
minor traffic crash by running a red light claims she never intended
to shoot him – only to take down his license plate number for 911
dispatchers.
However, witnesses told a different story at 25-year-old Hannah
Payne's murder trial, telling jurors that the woman cut off Kenneth
Herring with her car, jumped out and punched him after the May 7,
2019 collision.
Then, witnesses said, she brandished her hip-holstered gun,
threatened to shoot Herring twice and "immediately" did so, per FOX
5 Atlanta.
"You don’t get the death penalty for committing a traffic
infraction," Nigel Hunter, a Clayton County assistant district
attorney, said in his closing arguments.
On Tuesday, Payne was convicted on felony murder, malice murder,
aggravated assault, false imprisonment and weapons possession
charges in a Clayton County court, the outlet reported.
The jury reportedly took just two hours to render the verdict. The
woman looked down and sobbed as it was read, per FOX 5.
Both Payne and witnesses agreed she drew her gun – but during her
Monday testimony, she claimed she never intended to fire. Instead,
she claimed, Herring shot himself in a struggle for the weapon.
Payne's car was not involved in the crash at the center of the
deadly altercation. She reportedly pulled over to dial 911 after
witnessing Herring run a red light in his Dodge Dakota pickup truck
and cause a minor crash with a semi-truck.
Herring waited at the scene of the crash for 15 to 20 minutes before
driving away, according to Law & Crime.
At that time, a state corrections officer who also witnessed the
crash testified, he displayed symptoms of a diabetic shock – his
eyes were red-orange, he appeared disoriented and he reportedly
circled his truck several times.
Payne testified that the corrections officer told her the man was
"OK, but... definitely inebriated" as they waited at the scene.
Per her testimony, this prompted Payne and the semi-truck driver to
ask at the same time "Do you mean he's drunk?"
Despite being told a total of four times by 911 operators not to do
so, she pursued Herring in her Jeep after he left the scene of the
crash after realizing no one at the scene had taken down his license
plate number.
"OK, so you couldn’t get a tag number?" a 911 dispatcher asked, per
FOX 5.
"No, but I’m catching up to him right now," Payne responded.
"OK, ma’am we actually do not want you to chase him, we just want
you to be safe," the dispatcher said in the recording.
Payne claimed in her testimony that Herring was revving his engine
as he pulled away.
"He is drunk. I’m not," Payne told the dispatcher, per recordings of
her two 911 calls played in court. "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 would tell the court she was "under the impression, with
having 911 on the phone, that [she] would be a messenger." She also
told the court that she understood the dispatcher's instructions to
disengage as "suggestions."
Payne confronted Herring after catching up with him at an
intersection, telling him to 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 said he then knocked her phone out of her hand and later reached
out of his truck to grab her by her shirt. He ripped the shirt with
the force of his grab, she claimed, and dragged her along with his
car when he "mashed the gas."
The Georgia woman said she announced that she had a gun when the man
refused to let go, and was forced to unholster it when he would not
listen, she said.
"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
testified.
"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."
Based on witnesses' testimonies, prosecutors refuted the claim.
"She’s using deadly force; she wasn’t faced with deadly force,"
District Attorney Tracy Graham Lawson said, per Law & Crime. "You
cannot claim self-defense and use deadly force unless you’re not the
initial aggressor – she is."
After shooting the man, per the recorded 911 calls, Payne asked that
an ambulance be sent to the scene.
In body camera footage captured by a responding police officer and
played for jurors, Payne said that she "was overwhelmed," "scared"
and "didn't really know what was going on" after the incident.
"Clearly, trying to do the right thing is not the right answer,"
Payne said as she began to cry, per FOX 5.
Payne's sentencing is scheduled for 10 a.m. Friday. Matt Tucker,
Payne's defense attorney, asked the judge to poll every juror after
they read their verdict. He could not be reached for comment at
press time.
"This is not some killer, this is not some murder," Tucker said in
his closing arguments. "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," Tucker
continued. "No good deed goes unpunished."
Herring's family was photographed rejoicing after Payne's verdict
was read, and told FOX 5 Atlanta that the Clayton County jury "did
its job."
"When I heard the first verdict, I knew we weren’t supposed to show
signs, but tears just started rolling down my face because at that
moment I felt a relief that came over," said Jacqueline Herring, one
of Herring's sisters.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/georgia-woman-fights-murder-case-
killing-stranger-citizens-arrest
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