Jury convicts man in Forest Lake hit-and-run that killed teen girl

A North Branch man who ran over and killed a teenage girl last summer in Forest Lake was found guilty of second-degree murder at the conclusion of a jury trial, court documents show.

A Washington County jury on Thursday returned a guilty verdict against Dylan Robert Simmons, 21, on charges of second-degree unintentional murder, criminal vehicular homicide, and three counts of second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon for the July 16, 2023, incident at Lakeside Veterans Memorial Park. Jurors acquitted him of one count of second-degree murder with intent.

Simmons was initially charged with third-degree murder and criminal vehicular homicide; those charges were later upgraded.

According to a criminal complaint, the vehicular assault arose from a fight between two groups of people, some of whom were armed with baseball bats, hammers, a crowbar and a knife.

Simmons and another person got into a Mazda sedan and looped around the parking lot, narrowly missing bystanders multiple times before striking 17-year-old Darisha Tela Bailey Vath of Stacy. Witnesses told police they believed Simmons was intentionally trying to hurt them.

A sentencing is set for March 20. Prosecutors filed a notice of their intent to seek an aggravated sentence due to the “particular cruelty” of the crime and because the murder was committed in the presence of children.

Simmons faces a maximum sentence of 40 years for the second-degree murder charge.