NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — The man convicted in a traffic stop that killed a Newport News police officer in 2020 was sentenced to decades behind bars.
Vernon Green was sentenced to 40 years in prison for second-degree murder and 10 years in prison for hit and run after he was convicted in the death of Officer Katie Thyne.
Both sentences were the maximum amount of time allowed. The sentences will be served consecutively, meaning Green will spend a total of 50 years incarcerated.
On January 23, 2020, Thyne responded to a call about two people smoking marijuana in a car near the Monitor Merrimac overlook. She and another police officer found Green and a woman in the car.
Body camera video showed the officers repeatedly asking, and then ordering Green to get out of the car. In the video, the officers tried to pull him out of the vehicle when he did not move.
Shortly after, the car took off. But the vehicle dragged Thyne along with it, and she died after the car crashed into a tree.
A jury found Green guilty of second-degree murder in November 2022, and earlier this year at a prior sentencing hearing, Green told a judge he wanted to represent himself.
Green is already serving time for federal gun and drug-related charges, which he pleaded guilty to.
Thyne leaves behind a family that includes her fiancee Brittany, her former wife and co-parent, and her daughter Raegan.