NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (WAVY) – The man convicted in the January 2020 death of a Newport News police officer was sentenced Friday to 50 years in prison.

10 On Your Side’s Andy Fox was in the courtroom and says Vernon Green was sentenced to 40 years in prison for second-degree murder and 10 years for hit-and-run.

Green was found guilty of these charges in November in connection to the death of Newport News Police Office Katie Thyne.

In April 2021, Green was also sentenced to 10 years on federal drug and gun charges related to the deadly traffic stop.

Authorities say 24-year-old Thyne, who was also a former U.S. Navy sailor, was killed after she was dragged for a block by Green’s vehicle during a traffic stop before it crashed into a tree. She later died at the hospital.

Thyne joined the Newport News Police Department in 2018.

The Commonwealth’s Attorney said during Green’s trial that he had a single-minded focus on the gun inside the car and that he intentionally put it into gear and drove off with Officer Thyne in the door.

Outside the Newport News Courthouse Thyne’s family gathered to speak with 10 On Your Side.

“She was an amazing woman,” said Katie Thyne’s mother Tracy Maher.

She remembered how Katie was a bright light, compassionate, once wept following the death of a homeless man.

A family member said people she stopped at times would report how polite she was when giving them a ticket.

She cared about children, and she reached out to be a positive force in the community.

In sentencing Vernon Green to fifty years, the maximum, Judge Christopher Papile noted Green’s career criminal activity, his lack of remorse, his failure to participate in a pre-sentence report and that there really was no mitigating circumstances in his favor.

During impact statements the family spoke about what Vernon Green took from them.

“He took a part of my life,” Maher said. “There is a hole in my heart. He took one of my children and that is the worst thing you could do to a mother.”

After reading her statement to Green, she got up and walked by him, staring at the man who killed her daughter.

“What did I see? I saw emptiness. Just emptiness,” Maher said. “I pray for him. I pray for him. He will answer to God one day.”

We asked Katie’s brother, Jonathan Thyne, what he wanted to say about his sister?

After an eight second pause and with tears in his eyes and voice breaking, he said that “there never was and there never will be a person like her. Taking that flame out of this world was taking a really bright one out.”

Maher also spoke about not only losing a daughter, but not having the usual access to her granddaughter.

“Reagan, she is just a shining light,” Maher said. “She has two moms that are raising her, and she knows her angel mommy, and she won’t miss out on anything in life.”

Cassie Fenlon, Katie’s aunt, gave a victim’s statement, and is concerned that when Vernon Green killed Katie, he took away one of Reagan’s mothers.

Katie’s side of the family does not get to see Reagan as much.

“What we have taken from our family, what he has taken from Reagan,” Fenlon said. “In a sense we see every time we see Reagan, we see Katie it is not the same. It is like we are on the outside looking in.”

Fenlon says Katie would drive 10 hours with a two-year-old (who is now five).

“Katie would hop in the car, I think at a drop of a hat, and see us in New Hampshire and would not think twice about it,” Fenlon said.

Brittany Fellman had just been engaged to Katie when Katie was killed. They were planning a whole life together with Reagan.

She did not want to comment on camera, but on the stand, she looked at Vernon Green, reminding him of the families he destroyed, the bad choices he made, denying Katie the opportunity to watch Reagan grow up.

These were some of her comments on the stand:

“In a room full of people, Katie would stand out,” Fellman said on the stand. “I was deeply in love with her. She was an amazing mom to Reagan. We were in the process of building a home, and everything was in front of us.”

Then Fellman turned her comments to Green.

“You took away her smile,” Fellman said. “I remember screaming when I heard what was going on over the police radio. I knew it was her. You made multiple bad choices. Driving off with her attached to the car. Hitting a tree and then taking off. The love of my life lost her life because of these bad decisions.”

We asked Jonathan Thyne what he thought as he walked by Green.

“What I saw someone who was not listening to anything of what we were saying,” Jonathan Thyne said. “He was in his own mental space of, I am the victim here. That is what his face and energy was saying.”

One of those not surprised with the 50-year sentence against Vernon Green was Newport News top prosecutor Howard Gwynn.

“I think when you look at the criminal history, the damage that he has done, his life of crime, but the key topper, I think the straw that broke the camel’s back,” Green said. “He expressed zero remorse.”

Before handing down the sentence, Judge Papile said it was significant to him what Vernon Green had done to Katie Thyne and her family.

As he was trying to get away from the police, he had no regard for dragging Thyne with the car until he ran into a tree tearing off the door.

Gwynn added that, “even today, even though it was 50 years (40 years for second degree murder, and 10 years for hit and run), the judge gave the most, I still don’t think there is any sentence that can soothe the pain of this family for the loss they suffered.”

Judge Papile continued addressing Green.

“You fled the scene to cover up the crime, throwing the gun you were not supposed to have under a bush. … You showed no remorse, never checked on Officer Thyne. Never helped … and you left her two-year-old daughter behind.”

Katie’s brother Jonathan also addressed the court and told us:

“The sentence he deserved today he got, and I think it is perfect. … My statement was more than I do not give a s**t what he was sentenced to, because he is going to have to suffer as a human being, whether it will be with regret, guilt or mental illness for the rest of his life.”

Gwynn remembers Katie’s last traffic stop on the day she died – a father speeding late to pick up his daughter.

“When Katie stopped the car and heard what happened she did not give him a ticket, and then said she was praying for his family,” Gwynn said. “I think that spoke volumes who she was.”

Vernon Green really had nothing to say in court, except that he plans to appeal.

He was also assisted by Attorney Jim Ellenson in court, but Ellenson on this day just sat next to Green.