Jury Convicts Minnesota Man For Killing Teenage Girl in Hit & Run

Forest Lake, MN (KROC-AM News) - A jury today found a Minnesota man guilty of murder and other charges connected to a deadly hit-and-run that occurred back in July.

The Washington County jury returned a guilty verdict against 21-year-old Dylan Robert Simmons after spending nearly a week reviewing the evidence and hearing testimony in the case.

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The criminal complaint alleged that Simmons struck and fatally injured a 17-year-old girl while driving a car in the parking lot at a park in Forest Lake. It states that an initial investigation found that two groups of people, mostly known to each other, were engaged in arguments and fights when Simmons got into his car and drove the vehicle at members of the opposing group and collided with one of their vehicles.

The charges alleged that Simmons, who is from North Branch, then drove the car at the same group of people a second time and struck the teenage victim with the front passenger corner of his vehicle. Videos recorded by witnesses at the scene show the car running over the girl with its passenger side tires before driving away.

The court document says a witness, who was in the car with Simmons, called a person at the scene while that person was speaking to a law enforcement officer. The officer convinced Simmons and the passenger to return to the site of the fatal incident, where he was taken into custody.

The Ramsey County Medical Examiner later ruled the death of Darisha Vath a homicide and indicated her death was the result of "traumatic head injuries due to a automobile-pedestrian collision."  A GoFundMe page was created for her family.

Simmons was charged with two counts of second-degree murder, criminal vehicular homicide, and three counts of second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon. The jury hat the heard the case convicted him of one of the counts of second-degree murder, the criminal vehicular homicide, and the assault charges.

He is scheduled to be sentenced in March.

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