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?”

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