Brandon Vess appears at his sentencing hearing on March 21, 2025, in Douglas County District Court.

A Lawrence man who was convicted of crashing into the Big Mill restaurant while drunk was sentenced to probation on Friday but will also have to serve 30 days in jail.

In February, a jury convicted Brandon Lee Vess, 32, of two counts of aggravated battery by DUI, both felonies, and one misdemeanor count of reckless driving. Vess crashed his SUV into the Big Mill restaurant at 900 Mississippi St. on Nov. 4, 2022, injuring multiple people inside and causing substantial damage to the historic building.

Judge Sally Pokorny sentenced Vess on Friday in Douglas County District Court to a total of two years in prison for the battery counts, then suspended the prison sentence to 18 months of probation, in accordance with state sentencing guidelines. She then ordered Vess to spend 30 days in jail, starting on March 31, for the misdemeanor reckless driving conviction.

Before Vess was sentenced, Deputy District Attorney David Greenwald read a statement from one of the women hurt in the crash, who was not present at the hearing.

In her statement, the woman wrote, “Only by a miracle from God my life was saved and I didn’t break any bones or lose my life.” She said that she would carry the mental trauma of the crash with her for the rest of her life.

“The one thing I find myself most worried about is ever having to feel the feeling that ran through my body when I was thrown by the car in the restaurant. That feeling is something I can never forget,” she wrote. “My body went into shock, and for a moment, I remember telling myself, “It’s OK, you’re going to wake up now,” as if it were a dream, but it wasn’t.”

Having to prepare to testify about these events in court — “not knowing to the last minute if I was actually going to testify, or if the date would be postponed or be continued” — added to the stress she was already dealing with as a college student, she wrote. “The only thing I could ask for is to be able to move on with my life.”

However, “It would be even more difficult for me to move on knowing that someone who has had three DUIs over the last few years, including one that caused him to crash into a building and injure two young girls, isn’t receiving any prison time,” she wrote. “I hope the court will take these lasting effects on my life into consideration.”

The woman said that Vess should be sentenced to prison, and Greenwald seemed to agree: “This is the kind of case where somebody belongs in prison,” he said. “He is a constant and perpetual threat to the safety of the public.”

However, Greenwald also said he knew that because prosecutors had charged the case as a low-level felony, the court was required to grant Vess probation. He argued that Vess’ underlying prison sentence should be the maximum allowed for these offenses — 28 months — and should be required to spend 60 days in the county jail before starting his probation.

photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

Brandon Vess, left, appears with his attorney, Nicholas Hayes, right, at his sentencing hearing on March 21, 2025, in Douglas County District Court.

Vess welled up with tears as Greenwald made his argument. Vess’ attorney, Nicholas Hayes, said Vess had been in alcohol treatment since the crash and had made strides in recovery. He said Vess had always taken the charges seriously and would have taken a plea deal short of trial, but that prosecutors refused to negotiate for a lesser charge.

“I understand that the court wants to send a message, but I feel that that message is something that (Vess) fully understands and by placing him in custody for 60 days, he’s going to lose his job,” Hayes said.

In response, Greenwald noted that Vess was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving again in December 2022, just a month after crashing into Big Mill. He was convicted in that case in April 2023.

Vess, with tears in his eyes, told Pokorny that he and his family were homeless and he needed to keep his job to support them. He said that in the case from December 2022, he was not driving, but was just in the seat of a car with the keys in his pocket. He also claimed that after the crash at the restaurant, he’d experienced similar trauma to what the woman wrote about in her statement.

“I’m going to keep with my recovery and push forward,” Vess said. “As far as being able to function in society, I’ve been doing great.”

Brandon Vess appears at his sentencing hearing on March 21, 2025, in Douglas County District Court.

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.