Hannah Payne, 25, was found guilty of all eight charges she was facing including murder.
A Georgia woman has been found guilty of all charges she was facing including murder in a 2019 citizens arrest which went tragically wrong, according to reports.
Hannah Payne, 25, was found guilty of felony murder, malice murder, aggravated assault, false imprisonment, and three charges of weapons possession during a crime on Tuesday in a Clayton County courtroom for the May 2019 death of 62-year-old Kenneth Herring.
It took jurors just under two hours to deliberate and come up with a guilty verdict on all eight accounts she was facing, according to Atlanta News First.
Prosecutors said Payne followed Herring after he left the scene of a crash she was not directly involved in. Prosecutors accuse her of playing cop and they say Payne cut him off and eventually shot him, according to Fox 5.
“Kenneth Herring, who was unarmed and minding his own business, was chased down, detained, shot, and murdered,” District Attorney Nigel Hunter said Tuesday in his closing arguments. “You don’t get the death penalty for committing a traffic offense.”
Authorities say that Herring blew through a red light and hit a semi truck, which was near Payne’s car. Payne’s car was not hit. Witnesses say that Herring stuck around the scene for 15-20 minutes before he returned to his car and drove off, according to Law and Crime.
One witness, a state corrections officer who happened to have medical training, tried treating Herring at the scene and said Herring was disoriented possibly because of some sort of diabetic or medical shock, according to Law and Crime.
Payne, however, thought Herring was drunk and went after him, according to Law and Crime.
“Do you know how much entitlement you have to have to chase somebody down, detain them, jump out of your car, and run toward a stranger?” Hunter added during his closing arguments. “The audacity (of her) to come here and take that stand and blame everybody else.”
In 911 calls played during the trial, Payne at one point told a dispatcher, “He is drunk. I’m not. 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 had taken the stand the day before the verdict was testified that Herring shot himself with her gun during a struggle for the weapon, according to Law and Crime.
Prosecutors said that as Payne approached Herring there was a struggle and she shot him. Her defense argued that she acted in self-defense.
“I pulled it out and immediately started trying to just continue to push against the door with it — like push it away from him … He grabbed my hand with the gun in it,” she testified. “As he’s pulling it is when it — the trigger went off. After it went off, my entire body kind of fell backwards.”
She also admitted that she never drew her hip-holstered gun before the day of the shooting, according to Law and Crime.
“This is not some murderer. This is a young girl who got caught up in the wrong situation with a good heart and good intention,” Payne’s attorney said during closing arguments.
Payne will be sentenced on Friday.
