Iowa
Driver distracted by phone gets probation in fatal Iowa City crash
IOWA CITY — Nine days after her 30th birthday a year ago, Kristina Pearson and her partner, Christopher Brown, went out to buy house paint. She stopped at Tractor Supply in Iowa City for a copy of North American Whitetail magazine, featuring her dad on the cover for a fourth time.
“She purchased the magazine and snapped a picture of it at 12:57 p.m.,” her mother, Judith Collora, said. “Then she got in the car, buckled her seat belt, and followed another car through the green light at the intersection.”
At 12:58 p.m. Aug. 7, 2023, as Pearson and Brown headed north on Boyrum Street, Drake Brezina, then 24, stared down at his cellphone as he drove his Chevrolet Silverado through two intersections and then a third on Highway 6, despite the red light — slamming into Pearson’s driver’s side door. The crash rupturing her spleen, tearing her vertebral artery, fracturing her skull, breaking ribs and causing extensive internal bleeding.
Minutes later, Collora got a call from her husband, telling her Kristi and Chris were in an accident, that they were both unresponsive at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, and that the couple was to come immediately.
“After three and a half hours of surgery, they directed us back to the neural department, to a room with tables and chairs and Kleenex,” Collora said. “The young doctor came in to tell us they could not save her.”
The physicians expected Brown to survive. And they were able to keep their daughter’s heart beating until the family could gather to say goodbye.
“They said I needed to let them know when to stop the heart medicine,” Collora said. “It was 9:30 p.m. Kristi kept it going for about 20 minutes. We watched her last heart beat.”
Just under two months later, on Sept. 29, 2023, officers arrested Brezina on suspicion of vehicular homicide and serious injury by motor vehicle due to reckless driving.
The second-grade teacher had no prior criminal offenses. Beloved by family, friends and members of his community — having transferred to Iowa Mennonite School, now Hillcrest Academy, in Kalona as a high school freshman — Brezina pursued elementary education at Northwestern College in Orange City, returning to Washington, Iowa, after graduation to teach at Highland Elementary.
Expressing devastation at his own actions, Brezina pleaded guilty and took responsibility for his distracted driving and the lives it destroyed. And on Monday in a packed Johnson County courtroom — walls lined with family and friends on both sides who couldn’t find a seat — Brezina, now 25, awaited his fate.
Prosecutors requested the maximum 15 years in prison. Brezina sought probation, promising to share his story as a warning against distracted driving and honoring Kristi “so that something like this never happens again.”
“There are no words that I can say to express how deeply sorry I am for what happened on that day,” Brezina said. “That sorrow will live in me forever.”
With those opposing sentence requests before him, Johnson County District Court Judge Chad Kepros faced the question of whether to make an example of Brezina or a testament of him — to make him pay behind bars, or behind a microphone, sharing the tragic consequences of his decision to focus on his phone instead of the road.
“This case is just extraordinarily challenging,” Kepros said. “In fact, I personally believe that this type of sentencing can be the most difficult that a judge faces.”
On one hand, he said, “The consequences flowing from the defendant’s criminal acts are just the worst. They can’t be overstated.”
“What’s even more tragic is that all of this pain of loss was completely avoidable,” Kepros said. “While Kristi’s death and Christopher’s injuries certainly weren’t intended, it’s not accurate or fair to describe them as accidental. Because they only came about due to defendant’s recklessness.”
So the real question, the judge said, the one required of him by law, is what sentence would offer “the maximum opportunity for rehabilitation and protection of the community.”
“The nature of this offense is, I think, extremely challenging, because we’ve all seen, perhaps on a daily basis or near a daily basis, people driving while distracted by phones,” Kepros said. “And yet, this is the exact thing that is the danger when you operate a heavy piece of machinery in reckless way. Just because a lot of people do it doesn’t mean that you get a pass when something tragic happens.”
Ultimately, he said, prison wouldn’t offer the maximum opportunity for rehabilitation — nor was it necessary for community protection. Imposing supervised probation for five years instead, Kepros took the extra step to ensure Brezina follows through on his commitment to share his story.
“I generally don’t order community service as a part of a suspended sentence, in fact I don’t remember ever doing it,” Kepros said. “But in this instance, the court believes that Mr. Brezina can potentially have a positive influence on the community by speaking about these events, the dangers of distracted driving, texting and other forms of distracted and impaired driving as a major problem in our society.”
Upon hearing the judge’s sentence, Brezina’s family wept, gripped one another’s hands, lips quivering. Pearson’s family — who in March filed a wrongful lawsuit against Brezina, set for trial in February 2026 — remained stoic, having just shared their concerns that letting Brezina walk will cost more lives.
“I have no forgiveness for Drake Brezina,” Judith Collora told the court. “He knew very well what he was doing. What would you feel if it was your child? How many more people have to die because they’re texting instead of driving?”
Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com
DES MOINES, Iowa (Gray Media Iowa State Capitol Bureau) — U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson told Gray Media Iowa that he got briefed late Thursday afternoon, a few hours before President Donald Trump gave a prime-time speech to make his latest claims about election fraud.
“Yeah, I just got off of a telephone call literally in the motorcade as we were driving here,” Johnson said after arriving at a campaign appearance with U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R – 1st District, Ottumwa) at a Pella bakery.
Miller-Meeks is running for re-election in what is again considered a competitive race with Democrat Christina Bohannan, a University of Iowa law professor from Iowa City.
This is the third straight election that the two will meet in a general election.
Johnson said the “off the record” intelligence briefing to leaders in the U.S. House and Senate previewed Trump’s new election fraud claims. He called it “blockbuster information.”
“It’s the result of an investigation that’s been ongoing for some time now about fraud and irregularity in in federal elections, American elections around the country,” Johnson said.
Gray Media Iowa asked Johnson whether he believes congressional colleagues were elected because of fraud.
He did not directly answer that question.
“…everybody’s going to be able to evaluate all that information on their own, and it will lead to other investigations, I’m certain,” Johnson said of the briefing.
He added, “we’ll have to see where all this goes.”
For years, Trump has alleged widespread fraud that cost him the 2020 election. Trump has lost dozens of court cases on the matter.
On January 7, 2021, Congress certified his defeat to Democrat Joe Biden, a day after Trump supporters rushed the U.S. Capitol Building. Some attacked law enforcement officers and damaged the outside and inside of the building.
After returning to office in 2025, President Trump pardoned supporters for their crimes.
Copyright 2026 Gray Media Iowa State Capitol Bureau. All rights reserved.
With the college football season right around the corner, the Iowa State Cyclones will be hoping to have a strong campaign with a new regime coming in. However, a lot of their success might depend on one key player.
Following the departure of Matt Campbell to the Penn State Nittany Lions, the Cyclones saw their roster get completely gutted. Most of their players entered the transfer portal, leaving new head coach Jimmy Rogers with plenty of work to do.
Fortunately, Rogers and the coaching staff were able to get out there and bring in a lot of new players from all over the country. While Iowa State might be lacking star power and aren’t going to be as talented as they were last year, they do have a good amount of depth.
There should be quite a bit of competition for spots in camp, but there are some players who should clearly be starters that transferred in.
Pete Nakos of On3 recently predicted who would be the starting quarterback for every team in the Big 12. Unsurprisingly for the Cyclones, it was Jaylen Raynor who was the choice.
Raynor an Easy Pick
After bringing in the three-year starter from the Arkansas State Red Wolves, Raynor instantly became the favorite to be the starter for the Cyclones in Week 1. Him being predicted as that guy should come as no surprise, and his ability to play against elevated competition on a weekly basis will be key.
There is a lot to like about Raynor’s game, and he could certainly help Iowa State exceed expectations next year.
Last season with the Red Wolves, he totaled 3,361 passing yards, 19 passing touchdowns, and a 66.5 completion percentage. It was career-highs for him in all three of those categories, showing some nice improvement in his junior season.
As a dual-threat player, he also totaled a career-high in rushing yards and rushing touchdowns. The junior recorded 423 yards on the ground to go along with seven rushing scores.
Overall, the numbers for Raynor were really solid, and there is reason to believe he might be even better in his senior season. For the Cyclones, with all of the new players on the roster, there will undoubtedly be some competition for starting spots around the field. However, it should certainly be Raynor who is under center to start.
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CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) – Syringes from injectable weight loss medications are turning up in drug drop-off boxes across eastern Iowa, creating a safety hazard for law enforcement officers who handle the containers.
Sgt. Erich Lear of the Linn County Sheriff’s Office said emptying the drug drop-off box is part of his daily routine — and the box fills fast.
“It’s probably a 30-gallon tote, and I’d say 3 out of the five days of the week it’s completely full,” Lear said.
Needles found mixed in with other medications
Lear said he has noticed over the past five years that people are placing medicine, nasal sprays and syringes in the bin. He said many of the syringes come from people discarding GLP-1 medications such as Ozempic and Wegovy.
“That tote that I pull out — there’s nothing that protects me from needles other than my observation and using gloves when I sort through things,” Lear said.
The Hiawatha Police Department said it is also seeing an increase in improperly discarded syringes.
Where syringes should go
The Cedar Rapids Linn County Solid Waste Agency is the proper disposal site for sharps. The agency said it has seen syringe intake increase by more than a ton in recent years.
“We’re talking about two thousand pounds of sharps and syringes coming in,” said Joe Horaney of the solid waste agency. “Before 2021 we were around 1.9, maybe 2 tons a year — now we are over 3 tons a year.”
Horaney said any Linn County resident can bring syringes to the facility, provided they are contained properly.
“We just ask that you have it in a heavy plastic container — so one of those medically certified red biohazard containers,” Horaney said. “If you don’t have that, it can be a heavy plastic container like an old laundry detergent [bottle].”
A third-party company picks up the sharps from the facility and incinerates them.
Some drop-off programs discontinued
Lear said another reason sharps are appearing at drop-off locations is that some agencies have ended their disposal programs. The Marion Police Department said it stopped offering the service after people continued to place broken glass, liquids and other garbage inside the box.
Copyright 2026 KCRG. All rights reserved.
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