CLAYTON COUNTY, Ga. — Jury selection in a high-profile murder case had to be postponed after the defendant said her attorney suffered a stroke. The judge seemed to question if that’s true.
Hannah Payne is accused of shooting and killing Kenneth Herring in May 2019. Police said Payne blocked Herring in and shot him after she believed he was involved in a hit-and-run and was trying to get away.
Channel 2′s Tom Jones was inside the courtroom Monday morning where jury selection was supposed to begin. Clayton County Superior Court Judge Shana Rooks Malone noticed that Payne didn’t have her attorney in the courtroom.
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Malone asked Payne where her attorney Matt Tucker was. Payne responded that Tucker suffered a stroke on Saturday. Malone said her office did not hear from Tucker and they called area hospitals, but didn’t find a record of him as a patient.
“I’m not really making any disparagement on Mr. Tucker, but he knows what he should have done, so that we could have all been aware prior to today. Because you knew Saturday,” she said.
The judge said this was not the first time she has had an issue with him not showing up. She found Tucker in contempt of court and said she would also file a grievance with the state bar.
Malone also advised Payne to get a new attorney. The trial is on hold until that happens.
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Jones has contacted Tucker for comment on this story. Monday afternoon he told Jones he did have a stroke and is in the hospital. Jones said his voice sounded slurred when he spoke to him on the phone.
Tucker said he sent an email to the judge letting her know his condition. He said he still plans to represent Payne.
Police said Payne shot and killed Herring at the intersection of Forest Parkway and Riverdale Road in May 2019 after she saw him leaving the scene of a minor accident.
Prosecutors said Herring may have been having a medical episode at the time of the crash.
In a previous court appearance, prosecutors said Payne ignored the instructions of 911 dispatchers who told her to stay at the scene of the initial hit-and-run and not to engage the other driver.
“In the background, you can hear (Payne say), ‘Get out of the car. Get out of the car,’” Clayton police Detective Keon Hayward said in court at the time.
After the shooting, a witness recorded a video that appears to show Payne changing her clothes before police arrived.
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Tucker argued that his client was provoked into further action when Herring’s truck hit her Jeep, but police said the two vehicles did not collide at any point during the incident. Tucker also said his client claims self-defense in the shooting, saying Herring bruised her and ripped her shirt.
“It just seems like an unfortunate situation of a good Samaritan trying to stop a person on a hit-and-run,” he previously said.
Payne was initially charged with murder without malice but was later indicted by a grand jury on charges of felony murder, malice murder, aggravated assault and false imprisonment.
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