BOULDER, Colo. — For the parents of Magnus White, a 17-year-old who knew from a young age he wanted to become a professional cyclist, Friday night marked the end of a highly anticipated trial.
Over the course of five days, Magnus' parents were inundated with details of their son's death, timelines of what the defendant — who admitted to passing out behind the wheel and hitting their son— was doing leading up to the crash, evidence they had not known prior to the trial.
"None of it seemed real. The trial didn't seem real," Magnus' father Michael White said. "How could this be? How could this be real?"
"And then we got into it. And then it was really real, really fast," Jill White, Magnus' mother, said.
The Verdict
When 5 p.m. hit the Boulder County Courthouse on Friday, the doors were locked with dozens of people anxiously waiting inside for a verdict. Some people paced the halls, others sought solace in empty corners of the courthouse. Outside, the sun was beginning to set behind the Flatirons and snow started to fall. The hours crept by as everyone inside wondered if the jury would reach a verdict.
Then minutes before 10 p.m., a flurry of people quietly crowded inside the courtroom. The room was still and silent until the jury walked in and the judge read the verdict aloud.
That night, 24-year-old Yeva Smilianksa was found guilty of reckless vehicular homicide, a class 4 felony. Her defense attorneys argued she should have been charged with careless driving resulting in death, a misdemeanor.
"I don't think I actually heard what was read," Michael said about the moment when the verdict came down.
Jill said she "had to turn to my friend and be like, 'What just happened?'"
Their son, Magnus, was hit and killed in July of 2023 while on a training ride for what would have been his third world championships in Scotland. Hailed as a rising star in the cycling community and already a US National Cycling champion, Magnus was wearing his Team USA cycling kit at the time of the crash.
But as District Attorney Michael Dougherty said in his final remarks to the jury, "What made Magnus White so special was not how good of a cyclist he was... it was the light inside of him that we'll never see again."
"There are times in this world where a young person dies, and that's a tragedy," Dougherty told the jury just before they left the courtroom to begin deliberating. "And there are times in this world where a person kills a kid, and that's a crime."
The conclusion of the trial has not brought the kind of closure the Whites expected.
"I felt like, for some reason, after the trial, like I'd be somehow, reunited, like closer to Magnus, or reunited with Magnus," Jill explained. "Because it's like, we're fighting — we've been fighting for, you know, over 20 months — for the truth, for the story, for Magnus. And I'm like, okay, when it's done, he'll just come back to us. He'll be here. I'll get to see him, or, you know, like 'We did it Magnus,' and just be able to say that to him."
Instead, Jill said it feels like they have been thrust back into deep grief yet again.
"I was looking to his room, thinking, 'You're going to come out, right?' It's like, over. It's like, over, now you could come out," Jill said.
Smilianska's sentencing is scheduled for June 13. The charge carries a presumptive range of two to six years in state prison, and is probation eligible — meaning there's the chance Smilianska serves no prison time.
On Friday evening, Smilianska and her defense team declined to comment on the case with Denver7.
The Whites will be advocating for the maximum punishment during her sentencing hearing.
"It'll be almost two years since Magnus was killed, and that's excruciating to wait that long," Michael said about the sentencing date.
"At least it'll be our opportunity to bring Magnus back into the conversation and how this impacted us and Magnus and his community," Jill said. "I think it'll be the opportunity for us to just finally tell her [Smilianska] what she did and how it impacted us."
Crime
Jury finds woman guilty after she struck, killed young cyclist Magnus White
The Trial
Michael was the first witness called to the stand in the trial.
"It's not something that is in any father's plans," Michael said about testifying. "I hadn't told anybody what I saw at the hospital, because I saw him in the worst condition... Just to see what no parent should see, and knowing right away that he wasn't going to make it."
Part of Michael's testimony was ensuring the jury understood who Magnus was as a person — beyond his accomplishments as a cyclist.
"He was just so balanced in his life. I mean, he'd get home from his training and then go hang with friends right away, when he wasn't sitting here on his phone," Michael said with a smile. "After he died, then at least a dozen friends came forward and said 'Magnus was my best friend.'"
Following Michael's testimony, several witnesses of the crash were called to testify in front of the jury.
"All the witnesses, it took so much courage. I mean, they too have been waiting 20 months to tell their story," Jill said. "I walked away just extremely grateful for everyone that day."
One witness to the crash whose spouse testified pulled the Whites aside to let them know their son was not alone in the aftermath of the crash.
"She just wanted to make sure we knew that there were people with him, that cared about him. Even though they didn't know him, they were there to take care of him, and he wasn't alone," Jill said.
The Whites were prepared for witnesses to be overcome with emotion as they relived the day of the crash, but some of the details they learned through their testimony were new. What shocked the Whites the most was certain evidence that was revealed to them in the days leading up to the trial and during the trial itself.
For instance, a video played as evidence for the prosecution showed Smilianska and a friend singing karaoke and drinking whiskey at 6:05 in the morning on the day of the crash. It absolutely floored Jill and Michael.
The two were stunned again when the defendant took the stand.
"Sitting through that was excruciating and hard," Jill said. "I think the hardest thing for me was hearing, you know, her attorney, say, 'I know this is really hard for you.' And I was like, if it's hard for you, imagine how it is for us. It's excruciating, and to have to be waiting for over 20 months for the driver to acknowledge her role."
While testifying, Smilianska admitted she passed out while driving along the Diagonal Highway on July 29, 2023. Originally, she told investigators her steering wheel malfunctioned, causing the car to veer off the road. Smilianska told the jury, she wanted the crash to be the fault of the car since it was difficult to accept it was her fault.
During her testimony, the Whites were waiting to hear an apology.
"I still felt pretty angry, angry again," Jill said. "There wasn't a like, breakdown of, 'I'm so sorry that I killed Magnus.'"
During the cross-examination of Smilianksa, prosecutor Trish Mittelstadt asked Smilianska if she was aware that there is evidence showing Smilianska's residency in the United States "actually started in 2017." Smilianska said that was correct. However, since the beginning of this case, investigators have reported that Smilianska is a refugee who came to America because of the war in Ukraine.
When asked about this line of questioning on Friday evening, Dougherty said prosecutors obtained a permanent resident card that showed Smilianska became a US resident in 2017.
"We had evidence that the defense was aware of that she had become a permanent resident in the country in 2017. She was cross-examined on that, admitted that was true, which is obviously a contradiction to what had been said when she testified in direct about coming to United States for the first time as a result of the war in Ukraine in 2022," Dougherty said.
Denver7 asked Dougherty if it was possible that Smilianska returned to Ukraine after 2017.
"I don't have all the details of that, but we have that card that clearly shows when she arrived as a permanent resident," Dougherty replied.
The Whites first learned of this evidence along with the rest of the courtroom during Smilianska's testimony. The two had been told — since the day of the crash — that Smilianska is a Ukrainian refugee.
"We had sympathy and empathy for her at the hospital, even in our state," Michael said about how the two felt back in July of 2023.
For the Whites, the new detail from prosecutors was shocking.
"We knew the deception around the drinking and the drugs was there, and the blaming the vehicle, but that was a whole other level," Michael said.
The Whites believe the jury made the right decision in this case. Still, nothing will ever fill the void of their son.
"About two or three weeks, maybe, after he was killed, I was just laying in his room, and I posted on his Instagram channel, and through there, we've just been telling stories ever since of him. I don't know how many are there. We post once every week or two," Michael said. "Some of the messages that have come from some of those to us are, 'I've never missed someone so much that I've never met.'"
Jill said they will continue to share Magnus' story — and the stories of countless others who have been impacted by careless or reckless driving.
"We want to keep him alive, because he wasn't able to finish his story here, his life here," Jill said. "We'd like to not only keep Magnus front and center, but also for these families to have an opportunity to keep their loved ones and their kids front and center and in the work we do and the work they do with us, for sure, because we're doing it for everyone. We want to save lives."
Local
PHOTO GALLERY: Yeva Smilianska trial in death of 17-year-old cyclist Magnus White
What's Next?
On Monday, a bipartisan bill was introduced in the Colorado Senate, which aims to increase the penalties for careless driving. Senate Bill 25-281 intends to make careless driving resulting in death a class 6 felony instead of a class 1 misdemeanor, with the possibility of a suspended driver's license for up to one year. The legislation also states that if several people are killed due to careless driving, each death is counted as a separate offense.
In addition, SB25-281 would require law enforcement to administer drug and alcohol testing to a driver who commits careless driving that causes the death of another person.
"We think it'll spark a conversation that needs to happen within the Capitol and that needs to happen in public, about drivers taking responsibility for our actions. And so, we'll see. We'll see what happens with the bill," Peter Piccolo, the executive director of Bicycle Colorado, said. "I think we've, you know, kind of reached a tipping point where folks have recognized that we have to do a better job on this issue, which has reached the level of public health epidemic. And a key part of doing a better job, a key part of the solution set, is acknowledging the fact that we get behind the wheel, we make conscious choices, and those choices can put other people at risk, and when those choices result in the death of another person, we need to be held accountable."
The Whites support this bill wholeheartedly. Smilianska was not tested for drugs or alcohol following the crash that killed Magnus, with law enforcement testifying that they did not see any signs of impairment. Jill and Michael believe if Smilianska was tested at the scene, the charges against her would have been harsher.
After their son's death, the Whites started a nonprofit called The White Line, which honors their son's legacy by striving to make roads safer for cyclists and pedestrians. The nonprofit shares real stories that show the "brutal reality of careless and reckless driving," gathers and analyzes data around such crashes, and aims to transform anger into collective change.
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