NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — Vernon Green, the man convicted in a traffic stop that killed Newport News police officer Katie Thyne in 2020, was sentenced to decades behind bars.
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 Thyne. Green will be serving his terms consecutively.
Both sentences were the maximum amount of time allowed.
On January 23, 2020, Thyne responded to a call about two people smoking marijuana in a car near the Monitor Merrimac Overlook. Officer Thyne 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. The officers tried to pull him out of the vehicle when he did not move, as described in the video.
The car took off shortly after. 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.
Thyne leaves behind a fiancé, Brittany, her former partner, and daughter Raegan.
