Devon Bailey Vath told the court that he is haunted every day by the memory of Dylan Simmons intentionally hitting his 17-year-old sister with his car and then running her over with all four tires.

He recalled how he ran to Darisha Bailey Vath’s lifeless body, thinking she was going to get up.

A plaque in honor of Darisha Bailey Vath on a tree at Lakeside Park in downtown Forest Lake. (Courtesy of Sarath Vath)

“Like I said during the trial, Your Honor, she was dead. Then she woke up spitting blood, looking at me,” the 21-year-old told Washington County District Judge Siv Mjanger at Simmons’ sentencing Thursday. “And then she started crawling for her life, Your Honor.”

Jurors in December found Simmons guilty of second-degree unintentional murder for killing Vath with his car in the parking lot of Lakeside Memorial Park in downtown Forest Lake in July 2023. The killing followed a fight among two groups of teens.

Mjanger denied requests for both upward and downward departures and gave Simmons a 19½-year prison term, the maximum he could have received under sentencing guidelines for the conviction. Simmons, 21, will receive credit for 614 days he’s already served in custody.

Jurors had acquitted Simmons, of North Branch, of second-degree intentional murder, while also finding him guilty of criminal vehicular homicide and three counts of assault with a dangerous weapon.

Simmons’ attorneys argued during trial and at sentencing that he was faced with an “angry mob” and had acted in self-defense when he drove his Mazda sedan at Vath and others from the opposing side around 1:20 a.m. July 16, 2023.

Assistant Washington County Attorney Marc Berris told the judge at sentencing the evidence showed that not only did Simmons have a chance to leave the parking lot after the fight, he drove at the group twice before hitting the back of a car, reversing it and hitting Vath and running her over. He then drove away.

Friends and relatives of Vath and Simmons filled two courtrooms, which included five deputies and more outside as a deterrence to what broke out on the first day of the trial. During opening statements, a shouting match erupted while a graphic video showing officers and paramedics trying to save Vath’s life was shown. Later, a 17-year-old punched a hole in a wall outside the courtroom and a fight broke out in the lobby.

Forest Lake high school groups

A conflict between Simmons’ group of friends and Vath’s group of friends — all former or current students at Forest Lake Area High School — had been brewing for about two years. On the night of the killing, Simmons had sent a text message to Devon Bailey Vath telling him to go to the park to fight.

Once there, Simmons and friend Ryan Anderson took out hammers from Simmons’ Mazda; people in Bailey Vath’s car had a baseball bat and a folding knife. A few punches were thrown, but the fight simmered down after Simmons began swinging his hammer.

Simmons and Anderson then got into the Mazda. A video, taken from a nearby business, “shows you there is no attack when he starts his vehicle and he chooses to start driving it at people,” Assistant Washington County Attorney Kayla Wengronowitz said in the state’s Dec. 18 closing argument.

Witnesses testified that Simmons drove at Vath and her brother, narrowly missing them. Simmons then circled around the parking lot, accelerated and struck the back of a parked car. Simmons, with Anderson now recording on his cellphone, reversed his Mazda and again drove directly toward several people, striking Vath and driving over her. Anderson can be heard saying, “You gotta go, bro, you gotta go.”

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Two people who were walking home heard screams and ran over to Vath and gave her CPR. Vath, of Stacy, Minn., who would have been a high school senior and dreamed of becoming a veterinarian, died at the scene of traumatic head injuries.

Anderson called a witness at the scene. The witness gave his phone to a police officer, who directed Simmons to return.

Later, Simmons told an investigator during questioning he thought he hit a “speed bump.”

“A speed bump?” Wengronowitz told jurors at closings. “Are you kidding me? He says, ‘I hit a speed bump.’ Her name is Darisha.”

Sentencing arguments

Prosecutors in August 2023 filed a notice of its intent to prove to a jury that the following factors support an aggravated sentence: the crime was committed with particular cruelty toward the victim; the crime was committed while the victim was particularly vulnerable; and the crime was committed in the presence of children.

After the verdicts, Simmons waived his right to have the jury decide whether he should receive a stiffer sentence, leaving the decision up to the Judge Mjanger.

The judge said the standard on the first factor is that a defendant’s actions were particularly cruel. “For example, if the defendant had reversed the vehicle and driven over the victim a second time, this court could find that that was particular cruelty,” she said. “Although cruel by the nature of the charge and the nature of the facts, the facts here do not support a finding that the defendant’s actions were particularly cruel or any more cruel than a second-degree unintentional murder.”

The state argued that Vath was particularly vulnerable as she was on foot and Simmons was in his 3,000-pound car. “This factor typically applies when a victim is particularly vulnerable due to age, infirmity or reduced physical or mental capacity, none of which are present here,” Mjanger said.

In also rejecting the third factor, Mjanger said it typically applies to scenarios where the children are innocent bystanders and are likely to be physically or emotionally harmed by witnessing or being near the commission of the crime. She also noted how the defense pointed out the children the state referred to “are the teenagers who were directly involved in the altercation that led to the victim’s death.”

In order for the court to grant a downward durational departure, the court must find there are substantial and compelling circumstances related to the offense that warrant the departure.

The defense argued that Vath was the aggressor because she had pounded on Simmons’ car before being struck. But Mjanger noted that Simmons admitted in a letter to the court to challenging Vath’s brother to fight him on several occasions, including on the night of the killing.

As to the defense’s imperfect self-defense claim, Mjanger said she recognizes that Simmons may have been afraid during the fight. “However, he had an opportunity to leave the parking lot once he had the keys,” she said. “… Had he left when he had the opportunity, we wouldn’t be here today.”

‘Her name is Darisha’

This week, Simmons’ attorneys filed in court 23 letters written to the judge by Simmon’s family and friends.

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A few asked for leniency, others for understanding. His father said he has seen “firsthand the pain and remorse he carries every day.” His mother said his daughter was born four months before the incident and that he was “so excited to become a daddy and still is.”

Simmons told the court he realizes it was his actions that put him in the courtroom. “And I’m so sorry. I know an apology will never do justice … I know where I’m going is a scary place, with scary people,” he said. “I just have to ask for mercy.”

Earlier, Vath’s younger sister, Deriona Bailey Vath, said she will never forgive Simmons. “Darisha was a living human being. She was ready to see her future and her family grow. She was ready to graduate. She was ready to start college. Her name is Darisha.”