NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — Jurors in the trial of a man accused of killing a Newport News police officer, saw body camera footage in court Wednesday.
Vernon Green faces second-degree murder and felony hit and run charges, following a January 2020 traffic stop that killed Officer Katie Thyne.
The body camera video shows the moments leading up to the deadly traffic stop nearly three years ago.
Thyne was killed after responding to a call about two people smoking marijuana in a car near the Monitor Merrimac overlook on January 23, 2020.
She and another police officer found Green and a woman in the car. The other responding officer testified in court Wednesday.
Body camera video shows the officers repeatedly asked, and then ordered Green to get out of the car. They later try to pull him out of the vehicle when he does not move, according to the video.
Shortly after the car takes off.
But the vehicle dragged Thyne along with it, and she died after the car crashed into a tree.
At times, tears could be heard and seen in the courtroom
Green’s attorney argued he did not fight or threaten the officers and wanted to get away from them.
Several people testified, including crash scene investigators, the medical examiner and even one of Green’s former cellmates in Western Tidewater Regional Jail, who said Green later told him he was trying to get away because he had a prior conviction.
Investigators who searched the scene found marijuana and a blue bag with a gun and an identification card with Green’s photo.
And investigators previously said Green later admitted he wasn’t supposed to have a weapon, due to a prior felony conviction.
Green is already serving a 10-year sentence for federal gun and drug charges related to that traffic stop, after pleading guilty to those charges in October 2020.
The trial will resume Thursday morning in Newport News.