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Vernon Green II, of Newport News, was found guilty of the second-degree murder of Newport News Police Officer Katherine "Katie" Thyne on Thursday, Nov. 17, the outlet reports.
The 24-year-old got stuck between the driver's door and frame of Green's car while officers tried pulling him out during a marijuana investigation on January 23, 2020, the outlet reports.
Thyne died when the car crashed into a tree about a block away. She was the first Newport News police officer killed in the line of duty in 25 years and the first female officer to die on the job, the outlet continued.
"It’s the best we could have asked for in the legal system," Whitlee Cavanaugh, Thyne's wife at the time, told WTKR. "She was doing a job and she is supposed to come home from that job and she didn’t that night."
Thyne was born in Lowell, MA, and grew up in Hudson, NH, her obituary reads. Thyne enrolled in ROTC her senior year at Alvirne High School and enlisted in the Navy upon graduation. She later joined the Newport News Police Department in June 2019 as a patrol officer.
"Well-liked and respected by even the most senior officers, Katie felt right at home and was deeply proud to be part of her police family," her obituary reads. "Her life, while much too short, was a life of service, a life of passion for her community, and most of all, a life of love for family and friends."
Thyne left behind many family members including her now four-year-old daughter Reagan, who Cavanaugh said still thinks very fondly of her.
"She calls her mom, her angel mom," Cavanaugh told WTKR. "I’m not sure where it came from but it stuck."
Green faces up to 41 years in prison. His sentencing is scheduled for February 17, 2023.
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