Vigilante woman Hannah Payne, 24, sobs as she is found guilty of murder after chasing down driver, 62, and shooting him dead when he tried to leave scene of minor car crash

A vigilante woman cried in court as she was found guilty of murder after chasing an elderly man and shooting him dead as he left the scene of a car crash.

Hannah Payne, 24, was in tears with her head down as Judge Jewel C. Scott announced the guilty verdict Tuesday afternoon in Clayton County, Georgia.

Payne “acted like a cop” and chased Kenneth Herring, 62, in her car after seeing him have a minor collision with a truck on May 7, 2019.

She interrupted him and then jumped out of her car, punching Herring through his window before pulling out the gun and killing him on the busy highway near the intersection of Riverdale Road and Forest Parkway on the outskirts of Atlanta.

“Kenneth Herring, who was unarmed and minding his own business, was chased, detained, shot and killed,” the lead prosecutor said during the state's closing arguments. “You don't get the death penalty for committing a traffic violation.”

Hannah Payne, 24, was in tears with her head down as Judge Jewel C. Scott announced the guilty verdict Tuesday afternoon

Payne was convicted of the murder of Kenneth Herring, 62, following a minor traffic accident on May 7, 2019, that occurred on a busy highway near the intersection of Riverdale Road and Forest Parkway in Georgia.

The Georgia woman was charged with two counts of murder, three counts of possession of a weapon during a crime, and one count of malice murder, aggravated assault and false imprisonment.

Twelve Peach State jurors reached a verdict after approximately 90 minutes of deliberation, finding that Payne unlawfully assaulted and killed Herring. She will be sentenced on Friday.

Payne took the stand Monday, insisting she never intended her gun to fire a bullet and claiming he shot himself during a struggle over the gun.

“I pulled it out and immediately started trying to just keep pushing it against the door – like I was pushing it away from him,” she testified. “He grabbed my hand with the gun in it.”

“As he was pulling it, the trigger went off,” she added. “After it went off, my whole body fell backwards.”

But the state had used witness statements and recordings to prove otherwise at trial, stating that Payne quite deliberately cut Herring off with her car, then jumped out and ran toward the man “very aggressively” before shouting profanities at him.

She then allegedly proceeded to punch the startled man through his window, before withdrawing her gun and threatening to shoot him twice, while she shot him 'instantly'.

“She uses deadly force; she was not confronted with deadly force,” District Attorney Tracy Graham Lawson said when she was initially charged with murder. “You cannot claim self-defense and use deadly force unless you are not the initial aggressor – she is.

The Georgia woman was charged with two counts of murder, three counts of possession of a weapon during a crime, and one count of malice murder, aggravated assault and false imprisonment.

Payne, 21 at the time of her crime, reportedly “acted like a cop” and tried to stop Herring from leaving the scene.

Payne decided to follow his pickup after she saw it hit a tractor-trailer near Clark Howell Highway on May 7, despite a 911 dispatcher telling her to stay at the scene.

Herring's family described him as a hardworking man who was not a violent person

In 2019, Clayton County Magistrate Court Judge William H. West ruled there was probable cause for the prosecution to proceed in the murder case against Payne during a preliminary hearing.

Herring left the scene of the accident that day and appeared to be in the midst of a medical emergency that a witness described as “probably like diabetic shock,” Clayton County police Detective Keon Hayward testified.

“He was disoriented, he was asking what happened, who hit me, what was going on,” Hayward described.

Payne, who was not involved in the accident, followed Herring and blocked his car at an intersection about a mile away, where she confronted him.

Armed with a 9mm handgun, she told him to return to the crash site, then pulled a gun on him.

Payne's attorney Matt Tucker argued that an altercation between Payne and Herring “ended in her shooting her gun,” fatally wounding Herring, WXIA-TV reported.

He said the shooting was an act of self-defense and described his client as a “Good Samaritan” for blocking Herring's pickup with her Jeep after seeing Herring hit a semi-truck and attempting to do so around 6:15 p.m. did to drive away. .

But Clayton County District Attorney Tracy Graham Lawson described that claim as “questionable” because Georgia law only allows “citizen's arrest” if the citizen witnesses a crime. Lawson claimed the collision was a traffic violation.

She told the court: 'You cannot claim self-defense and use deadly force unless you are not the initial aggressor – which she is.

Herring's estranged wife, Christine, said her husband was not the aggressor, and said witnesses saw Payne hit her husband three times as he sat disoriented in his car.

Herring allegedly struck a semi near the intersection of Riverdale Road and Forest Parkway in Clayton County and attempted to leave but was blocked by Payne's Jeep

Police in Georgia say Payne shot Herring in the stomach after blocking his Dodge pickup with her Jeep following the crash on May 7, 2019 (photo)

“I think she thinks she's a police officer or wants to be a police officer… she stops him and he has nothing (he's unarmed), and then she shoots him.”

Herring's wife, Christine, described the killing as whimsy and claimed there was a racist element to it, likening the shooting to the death of Trayvon Martin.

She said at a press conference afterwards: 'I know he had a diabetes episode because he didn't just run away from the scene. I knew he was trying to get to the hospital.

'I had a feeling about that. He was a hardworking man, he stayed true to himself. He's not a violent man, so I knew from the accident with her that this wasn't true.

She said her husband was not the aggressor because he couldn't get out of his truck because she stopped him.

“I wondered why she followed him and didn't do what the 911 operator said, get the tag number and stay behind. I wondered why she followed him all the way, stopped him and killed him.”

“They said she punched him in the face three times. She tried to act like the police.”

Detective Hayward claimed Herring remained at the scene of the accident for approximately 18 to 20 minutes before leaving.

Witnesses claimed Payne approached Herring's car and punched him “repeatedly” through the driver's side window while he was behind the wheel before the gun fired.

Payne broke down when the defense claimed Herring had a medical episode as he drove away from the scene of the 2019 crash

Payne appeared emotional during a 2019 hearing where a Clayton County Magistrate Court judge ruled there was probable cause to move forward with the murder charge against her

Hayward also described how Payne called 911 while following Herring and remained on the line during the episode.

The defense claimed the phone was knocked out of her hand. In the background, Herring can be heard telling her to “get out of the car, get out of the car, get out of the damn car.”

Hayward testified that when she picked up the phone again, she told the operator, “He just shot himself with my gun.”

Tucker alleged that Payne received “mixed communications” from the 911 operator who told her to remain on scene but also to get the vehicle tag number as Herring left.

He said, “Throughout this entire event, Ms. Payne was compliant, remaining at the scene and calling 911.”

“She did everything necessary to make sure this collision was handled properly and that her actions were handled properly.”