A Lincoln man has been sentenced to 90 days in jail after pleading no contest to misdemeanor motor vehicle homicide in the crash that killed Civic Nebraska operations director Kristine “Kris” Hess. Cesar Leos also received 24 months of probation, 200 hours of community service and a $1,000 fine for the Nov. 15, 2025, collision that killed the 61-year-old Omaha woman as she walked to a nonprofit event in northeast Lincoln.
According to 1011 Now, Leos was driving a tow truck owned by Midwest Towing west on St. Paul Avenue when he approached the intersection at North 48th Street. He told police that as he waited to turn, an eastbound vehicle turned north onto North 48th Street, and he then made a left turn — striking Hess as she was crossing the street. The crash report stated that Leos was operating the vehicle in an inattentive manner leading up to the collision, while police also said Hess was distracted by a phone before the crash.
First responders arrived at about 10:44 a.m. and found a passerby already rendering aid to Hess, the station's report notes. She later died from her injuries. There is a discrepancy in Leos's reported age: the sentencing coverage lists him as 34, while an earlier report on the citation identified him as 33 at the time of the crash.
Who Was Kris Hess
Hess was Civic Nebraska's director of operations, a statewide nonprofit based in Lincoln, where she oversaw internal systems and supported the Finance and People & Culture teams, per the same account. She was walking to an event the organization was hosting when the crash occurred, according to the Lincoln Journal Star. Civic Nebraska has said Hess was struck just outside the venue where the event was being held.
A profile published by Civic Nebraska shows Hess began the operations director role on Sept. 29, 2025, just weeks before her death. Before joining the organization, she served as chief operating officer at TOGETHER in Omaha. Colleagues credited her with helping strengthen the systems supporting the nonprofit's mission and supporting staff across its programs.
The Plea and Sentence
The Journal Star reported that the 34-year-old Lincoln man pleaded no contest to misdemeanor motor vehicle homicide in connection with the fatal crash, a plea that led to this week's sentencing. Under Nebraska's motor vehicle homicide statute, state law notes that a conviction based on reckless or willful reckless driving does not, on its own, give a sentencing court authority to order a driver's-license action.
Misdemeanor motor vehicle homicide cases elsewhere in Nebraska have produced a range of outcomes. The Associated Press has reported on a Stamford woman found guilty of the same charge after fatally striking an 86-year-old pedestrian in Holdrege, and on a Cheyenne man who pleaded no contest to misdemeanor motor vehicle homicide in a separate Nebraska traffic death. A state courts record also shows a defendant convicted of the misdemeanor and sentenced to six months of probation and a $500 fine in an earlier case.
The Journal Star has also reported that pedestrian traffic fatalities climbed statewide in 2025, a trend cited without further detail in that same coverage. For Civic Nebraska, the loss of Hess came just weeks into a role in which she was still settling into overseeing the organization's internal operations.
