Jury deliberations have begun in the murder trial of Dylan Simmons, whose attorney argued he acted in self-defense when he hit 17-year-old Darisha Bailey Vath with his car in Forest Lake after a fight between two groups of people that knew one another.

The jury, made up of 11 men and one woman,  were given the case just after 12:30 p.m. Wednesday, following morning closing arguments in Washington County District Court in Stillwater. Deliberations resumed after the lunch hour. The trial began Dec. 11.

Darisha Bailey Vath (Courtesy of GoFundMe)

Simmons, 21, of North Branch, is accused of intentionally striking and killing Vath, of Stacy, Minn., with his car around 1:20 a.m. July 16, 2023, in Lakeside Memorial Park in downtown Forest Lake.

He faces six criminal charges in connection with Vath’s death: second-degree intentional murder, second-degree unintentional murder, criminal vehicular homicide and three counts of assault with a dangerous weapon.

Before closing arguments, Washington County District Court Judge Siv Mjanger granted the defense’s request for the jury to also consider first-degree manslaughter. The prosecution opposed the request.

To make their cases during the trial, prosecutors and defense attorneys relied on four videos that captured the fight and Vath’s death.

“A video shows you there is no attack when he starts his vehicle and he chooses to start driving it at people,” Assistant Washington County prosecutor Kayla Wengronowitz said, adding that Simmons could have left.

Simmons’ attorney, Travis Kowitz, told jurors in closing arguments that the Lakeside Park video did not show the real story: that people were surrounding Simmons’ car and beating on it.

Dylan Robert Simmons. (Courtesy of the Washington County Sheriff’s Office)

The hit-and-run allegedly happened after a fight involving two groups of people that knew one another. “Participants on both sides were shouting at the other and multiple participants had armed themselves with weapons such as a baseball bat, hammers, a crowbar and a folding knife,” the criminal complaint states.

After the conflict de-escalated, Simmons and Anderson got into a white Mazda 3 sedan.

Simmons was out for revenge and was not going to leave Lakeside Park humiliated and embarrassed as part of the group that lost the fight, Wengronowitz told jurors Wednesday in closing arguments.

Instead, while his passenger, Ryan Anderson, recorded on his cellphone, Simmons intentionally drove his Mazda sedan at a group of people who were doing nothing to them, Wengronowitz said in closing arguments.

“Nothing. They were standing by their cars. They were walking away. They were getting ready to leave.”

But it wasn’t enough, Wengronowitz said. Simmons made a second pass around the parking lot and then drove his Mazda “violently at another group of people and made them jump out of the way,” she said.

Simmons backed up his car and accelerated forward “quite literally burning rubber, as he told Detective (Luke) Hanegraaff, aimed it into Darisha and mowed her down, then fled the scene,” she said.

Vath, who would have graduated from high school next spring and dreamed of becoming a veterinarian, died at the scene.

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