A 24-year-old woman in Georgia will spend at least four decades behind bars for killing a 62-year-old man, fatally shooting the stranger during a botched citizen’s arrest in the aftermath of a hit-and-run. Clayton County Superior Court Judge Jewel C. Scott on Friday ordered Hannah Payne to serve a sentence of life with a chance for parole in the 2019 slaying of Kenneth Herring.
Scott also ordered Payne to an additional 13 years, to be served consecutively, meaning after the completion of the life sentence with parole. Payne, who became emotional multiple times during the hearing, will be eligible for parole after serving a minimum of 43 years in a state correctional facility.
Following the five-day trial, a 12-person jury on Tuesday needed less than two hours of deliberation before finding that Payne unlawfully attacked and killed Kenneth Herring in May 2019. She was found guilty on all of the charges levied against her, including 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 was sentenced to consecutive eight and five-year terms, respectively, on the false imprisonment and firearm possession charges.
Before handing down the sentence, several of Herring’s family members read victim impact statements, many of which explicitly asked the court to sentence Payne to life without parole.
“As I watched [Payne] leaving and she was crying as she was going through the doors, that’s the same way I felt when they closed that casket on [my brother]. That door would never open again. I’ll never see my brother again. Only through pictures,” Herring’s sister, Jacqueline Herring, said during the hearing. “I can’t call him if I wanted to. I can’t visit him if I wanted to. I can go to the grave site, but he can’t respond. Where he got death without parole. I would like for her to have life without parole.”
Herring’s youngest sister, Vickie Lynn Herring, also read a prepared statement.
“I no longer have a big brother,” she said. “His grandchildren won’t know him. He has two children who don’t have a father anymore. There were six of us. Now there’s the five of us that are left.”
Hannah Payne during her sentencing hearing Friday (Law&Crime)
Reana Novotny, Payne’s co-worker and friend, addressed the court on her behalf, asking the court to “show mercy and understanding of who the real Hannah Payne is when determining her sentence.”
Payne, who testified in her own defense at trial, did not address the court during Friday’s proceeding.
On May 7, 2019, Payne and a semi-truck had a green light when Herring breezed through a red light in his Dodge Dakota pickup truck, causing a minor crash with the semi-truck. Testimony at an earlier hearing suggested that Herring stayed at the scene of the crash for roughly 15 to 20 minutes before ultimately getting back in his truck and driving away.
Payne, who was not involved in the initial crash, pulled over and called 911, she testified on Monday.
A witness — a state corrections officer with medic training — also saw the crash and came up to speak to Herring, a detective previously testified. Based on his training, the witness suggested Herring was having a medical emergency — a diabetic shock or something of that nature. For example, Herring was disoriented, displayed red-orange eyes, and had walked around his truck several times.
But Payne thought Herring was drunk — toxicology tests would later show Herring had no drugs or alcohol in his system.
“He’s OK, but he’s definitely inebriated,” the officer said at one point, according to Payne. This alleged claim prompted her and the semi-truck driver to ask at the same time: “Do you mean he’s drunk?”
After Herring left the initial crash site, however, Payne had settled on the idea that he was drunk. She got back into her Jeep and pursued Herring despite being told at least once by 911 not to do so.
“I saw him stopped in the turning lane, so I turned as well,” Payne testified. “When I stopped, I was under the impression, with having 911 on the phone, that I could be a messenger.”
Payne said she initially only intended to get the driver’s license plate information, which she said the 911 dispatcher had asked of her.
Prosecutors argued the audio from the 911 call shows the dispatcher was adamant that Payne not pursue Herring. The audio is also clear the defendant was adamant she was going to go after him.
“He is drunk. I’m not,” Payne told the dispatcher before the fatal confrontation. “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.”
An image of Kenneth Herring’s truck and Hannah Payne’s Jeep from in front. (Law&Crime Network)
After the two shouted at one another for a few moments, Herring reached out of his truck and grabbed her, Payne testified on Monday. She claimed he ripped her shirt with the grab and eventually “mashed the gas,” briefly dragging her forward with his car.
Payne said she never stopped trying to pull away from Herring and eventually announced that she had a gun to try and get her alleged assailant to let her go. That’s when Payne admittedly drew the gun.
“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. Then, she said: “He grabbed my hand with the gun in it.”
All the while, the defendant said, she screamed for Herring to stop.
“As he’s pulling it is when it — the trigger went off,” she testified. “After it went off, my entire body kind of fell backwards.”
The state, on the other hand, proved during the trial, relying on witness testimony and recordings, that Payne actually cut Herring off with her car, then jumped out and “very aggressively” ran up to Herring’s car, cursed at him, immediately started punching the confused man through his window, took out her gun, threatened to shoot him twice, and “immediately” shot him.
Payne was initially charged with one count of murder. She made $100,000 bond in late May 2019. By mid-June of that year, she was charged with several additional felony counts, and her bond was revoked.
“She’s using deadly force; she wasn’t faced with deadly force,” District Attorney Tracy Graham Lawson said at the time of her initial murder charge. “You cannot claim self-defense and use deadly force unless you’re not the initial aggressor — she is.”
Colin Kalmbacher contributed to this report.
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