Hannah Payne Chased and Shot Kenneth Herring After Minor Crash, Convicted of Malice Murder

In May 2019, Hannah Payne watched 62-year-old Kenneth Herring run a red light and collide with a semi-truck in Clayton County, Georgia. The crash was minor. Herring eventually drove away. Payne called 911, then ignored repeated instructions from the dispatcher to stop following him. She pursued his truck, blocked it with her own vehicle, confronted him, and fatally shot him during the encounter.

The Confrontation and Shooting

Payne got out of her car with a gun, yelled at Herring to exit his truck, and engaged him at the driver’s side. A struggle followed. A single shot struck Herring in the abdomen and killed him. On the 911 recording, Payne claimed Herring had pulled the trigger on the gun in her hand. Prosecutors argued she detained an unarmed man who may have been experiencing a medical episode, not intoxication, and that she acted as a vigilante after being told multiple times to stop the chase. Defense attorneys maintained she acted in self-defense after Herring attacked her.

Witness video and body-camera footage later shown at trial captured parts of the scene. Investigators found no evidence that Herring was armed.

Conviction and Sentence

In December 2023, a Clayton County jury convicted Payne of malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, false imprisonment, and related firearm charges after a short deliberation. The judge sentenced her to life in prison with the possibility of parole on the malice murder count, plus 13 years to run consecutively for false imprisonment and firearm possession. Other counts merged. Family members of Herring spoke at sentencing and asked for the maximum.

The 2026 Appeal Twist

Payne later sought a new trial. When the case reached the Georgia Supreme Court in 2026, justices discovered that both the prosecutor’s filings and the trial court’s order denying her motion contained multiple fabricated or misattributed case citations generated by artificial intelligence. Assistant District Attorney Deborah Leslie admitted using AI tools without properly verifying the results. The high court sanctioned her, suspended her privilege to practice before the Supreme Court for six months, vacated the flawed order, and sent the matter back to the trial court for a new, cleanly drafted ruling. The justices did not grant Payne a new trial or decide the underlying merits of her appeal.

The case drew widespread attention for the citizen’s-arrest gone wrong and, later, for the unusual problems caused by unverified AI-generated legal citations in official court documents.

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