photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World Photo

Brandon Vess, center, is pictured at his trial on Monday, Feb. 3, 2025, in Douglas County District Court. His attorney, Nicholas Hayes, is at right.

After six hours of deliberation over two days, a Douglas County jury on Wednesday found a Lawrence man who crashed into a restaurant two years ago guilty of multiple crimes, including two counts of aggravated battery and multiple counts of drunk and reckless driving.

Brandon Vess, 31, crashed his SUV into the Big Mill restaurant at 900 Mississippi St. on Nov. 4, 2022, injuring three people inside and causing substantial damage to the historic building.

Those facts were never in doubt. What jurors had to grapple with was what exactly led to the crash.

photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

Brandon Vess awaits the jury’s verdict on Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025, in Douglas County District Court.

Deputy District Attorney David Greenwald argued at trial that it was a straightforward case of Vess driving drunk — twice the legal limit at .16 — and losing control of his vehicle on wet pavement as he sped down Ninth Street at 58 mph — twice the speed limit — and crashed into the corner of the building, where the three injured diners had been sitting. The evidence, he said, supported no other scenario.

Defense attorney Nicholas Hayes, however, sought to convince the jury that “something else” caused the collision, such as faulty brakes or another car hitting Vess’ and forcing it into the building, rendering Vess free from all blame. As to Vess’ speed, Hayes said that could be accounted for by his tires spinning — the rotations per minute, or RPMs, making it appear that the car was moving fast when it was just moving in place.

Hayes maintained that the most important evidence — the car — had been destroyed, preventing testing of its brakes, and he additionally accused the police of zeroing in on the driver as the cause of the wreck and “ignoring” other possible explanations.

“Something happened to his vehicle that caused it to spin out,” Hayes told jurors. “I don’t know what.”

But Hayes’ own witness, a Lawrence police detective who investigated the crash, did not offer support for any of Hayes’ theories. Instead, his testimony aligned far more closely with the state’s explanation of the case.

Hayes also sought to convince the jury that the bloody cuts and bruising suffered by the victims, at least one of whom said she required help getting out from the building’s rubble, did not constitute bodily harm.

Vess had originally been charged with three counts of aggravated battery, but the jury found him guilty of only two. Jurors had heard during trial how one victim, a father dining with his daughter, had a slight cut on his hand, and saw photos of the bruised and cut legs of the other two victims — the daughter and her college roommate.

The jury also found Vess guilty of multiple DUI counts that were listed as lesser included offenses to the aggravated battery charges — a situation that Hayes said he intended to contest before sentencing, which was set for March 21. A jury may indicate on its verdict form that a defendant is guilty of the main charge (here, aggravated battery) and all of the lesser included offenses (here, various forms of DUI), but the defendant may only be sentenced for one offense per count.

The jury acquitted Vess of driving without proof of insurance, a misdemeanor, but found him guilty of misdemeanor reckless driving.

During their deliberations, jurors asked the court five questions, their last inquiry being “Does a verdict of not guilty have to be unanimous?” to which Judge Sally Pokorny answered that all verdicts must be unanimous, and that a non-unanimous decision would mean the jury was hung. Shortly afterward, the presiding juror announced that the jury had reached its verdicts.

Vess has two previous DUI convictions, one in March of 2017 and another in April of 2023, as the Journal-World reported.

photo by: Submitted

A vehicle that hit the Big Mill restaurant at Ninth and Mississippi streets is shown shortly after the accident on Nov. 4, 2022.

photo by: Kim Callahan

Emergency crews respond after a car struck the Big Mill restaurant at Ninth and Mississippi streets on Friday, Nov. 4, 2022.

Previous coverage of the trial:

Jury deliberating case of man who crashed his SUV into Lawrence restaurant

Witnesses tell jury about injuries from SUV plowing into restaurant; defense attorney says driver wasn’t to blame