Several Motions Made by Dylan Simmons Defense Lawyer's Dismissed Ahead of Jury Trial

Stillwater – Following a two-week recess to review new evidence, the trial in the death of a 17-year-old Stacy, Minnesota girl resumed on Monday with a hearing on motions filed by the Defense on Friday, December 6.

The 10 motions were presented to Judge Siv Mjanger by the Defense counsel of Dylan Simmons. The majority of these motions asked for either the full dismissal or limited use of evidence expected to be presented by the State’s prosecution during the trial.

Judge Mjanger granted the Defense’s motion to dismiss a three-minute video from a Forest Lake Police Officer’s body camera the night of Darisha Bailey Vath’s death on July 16, 2023. The video shows her father, Darius Bailey, arriving at the scene of her death, responding with grief and heavy emotions at the sight of his daughter.

Simmons's Defense lawyers, Travis Kowitz and C. Connor Cremens argued that this clip was irrelevant to evidence as it “would only be used to inflame the passions of the jury” in the state’s case. After reviewing the video herself, Judge Mjanger agreed to dismiss it from being used in the State’s evidence for their case.

Several other of the Defense’s motions included a stipulation of the charged offenses to Simmons that caused the death of the alleged victim (Bailey Vath), as well as the removal of video evidence being presented to the jury from Bailey Vath’s phone.

The Defense’s argument regarding the removal of the video from Bailey Vath’s the night of her death was based on the first eight seconds only being video while the rest of the 13 minutes were audio only. The video had blacked out on her phone due to the impact of Simmons's car after hitting her.

“The video doesn’t have any evidential value and will only inflame the jury’s passion in their decision,” Cremens argued on behalf of his client.

The state, however, rebutted this claiming the video from Bailey Vath’s phone was necessary to include in the evidence presented to the jury. They claimed even without the picture still running in the video, the audio still included important evidence of witnesses' voices claiming they saw Simmons in the car and leaving the scene.

Judge Mjanger allowed this evidence on Bailey Vath’s phone into the record for the jury and denied the Defense’s motion to remove it.

Additionally, the Defense asked to prohibit all 13 cumulative videos filed by the state as evidence. The Defense said investigators provided at least three duplicate copies to the state, and these videos did not provide relevant or new information to the jury compared to previously filed evidence, which made them cumulative.

State prosecutors responded to this motion saying each of these videos provided a different point of view from what happened that night.

“Each of these shows what happened from a different perspective which is extremely important to the case,” said Marc Berris, Prosecuting Attorney with Washington County. “The fact they show the same crimes doesn’t make them cumulative.”

Judge Mjander did not decide on the motion regarding the 13 videos on Monday.

Jury selection will begin for Simmons trial Tuesday morning and both representing parties hope to complete the selection before the end of the week to keep up with the Defense’s request for a speed trial.