BOULDER COUNTY, Colo. — On the second day of Yeva Smilianska's trial on Tuesday, a handful of witnesses tearfully recalled the afternoon they saw the woman swerve off Highway 119, striking and killing 17-year-old cyclist Magnus White.
Her defense has said they do not dispute that Smilianska struck the teen, but rather they are arguing that she did not drive in a reckless manner, which is the charge she is facing. Because of this, Denver7 is not using the word "allegedly" when specifically discussing Smilianska striking Magnus.
Just about to start his senior year in high school, Magnus, a young and accomplished cyclist, headed out on the afternoon of July 29, 2023 for a training ride for the Junior Mountain Bike World Championships in Scotland. As he neared Highway 119 and N. 63rd Street in unincorporated Boulder County, he was struck from behind by a driver. He died of his injuries.
The investigation continued for about 20 weeks before the driver, identified as Yeva Smilianska, then 23, was arrested in December 2023. She is a refugee from Ukraine and fled to the United States to escape the war. Investigators wrote in an affidavit that they believe she fell asleep at the wheel when she struck the young bicyclist. She faces a charge of vehicular homicide - reckless, which is a class 4 felony.
In May 2024, the White family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Smilianska. The family also started a nonprofit called The White Line, which advocates for safer roads and tougher penalties for careless or reckless driving resulting in death, and helps young cyclists compete around the world.
Opening statements in Smilianska's jury trial began on the afternoon of March 31.
Monday's opening statements and first testimony, which came from Magnus' father Michael White, finished around 5 p.m. You can read Monday's recap here.
Court resumed Tuesday morning.
Witness recalls seeing Magnus "fly into the air"
The first witness to testify on Tuesday was Clifford Tuttle, a retired school teacher. On July 29, 2023, he had been shopping in Longmont and was headed to Boulder with his wife. He said the weather was clear and sunny, and the roads were dry. That day, he recalled seeing "several" bicyclists on the road, he testified.
Smilianska was driving in front of him, Tuttle said, and both were going about 50 mph. When asked by prosecutor Trish Mittelstadt, Tuttle said he saw her car slowly swerve to the right and then quickly jerk back into the lane. He said the bulk of her car was on the shoulder. Tuttle said he saw this happen twice, then saw the car swerve again and go straight off the road and "into the ditch."
He did not see Magnus cycling along the shoulder, and only realized the driver had struck him when he saw someone "fly into the air," Tuttle said. He called 911 and went to try to help, as other drivers pulled over as well.
He saw Smilianska get out of her car, which had a broken windshield. He said he saw her talk to an officer who arrived shortly afterward, but did not notice anything unusual about her demeanor.
He told prosecutors that he did not see if Smilianska braked.
During a cross-examination, Tuttle said he thought Diagonal Highway (Highway 119) had "typical weekend traffic." When asked by the defense team, he said he did not see Smilianska weaving in traffic or any apparent road rage.
Witness driver after crash about defendant: "She seemed very collected"
The second witness of the day was Abigail Smith, who lives in Boulder County.
She said July 29, 2023, sticks out in her head.
"It was the day that we saw the accident where the cyclist was hit by a car," she tearfully explained.
She and her husband had been driving to Flatirons Mall on Diagonal Highway — a route that she has used often. She said it is not unusual to see bicyclists on that road. That day, they were driving next to Smilianska. Smith said she remembers looking over to see the car swerve to the right and saying out loud that she hoped the driver corrected themselves. They were going about the same speed. But the car continued off the road, and she watched the crash in her rearview mirror. She testified that it appeared as though the driver was aiming at Magnus.
"Then I saw her hit the cyclist, he hit her car and then went over the top of it. I remember screaming... Um, sorry," she said, pausing. "... My husband, he yelled too, and so we just immediately tried to pull off the side of the road, and I told him to call 911."
Prosecutor Mittelstadt asked if Smith had seen any "corrective action," and Smith responded that she had not.
The prosecutor had Smith describe the aftermath. Smith said the driver appeared "pretty calm," and was looking at her car and the windshield as others rushed to Magnus.
"I just remember she walked around us as a group and then walked down the road, almost to the stoplight, and then circled back," Smith testified. "But she seemed very calm. There were several of us in the group that were very upset and crying about what happened... But she seemed very collected, I guess is the best way to put it."
Smith said she could see Magnus was struggling to breathe, and others at the scene were asking if anybody had any medical experience to help.
During a cross-examination, Smith said aside from the swerving, she did not see any "remarkable" driving from Smilianska. After the crash, Smith explained that she was about 10 feet away from Smilianska, who had appeared calm, but she did not speak with her.
When prompted by the defense, Smith said it is "safe to say" that people process events differently, and that Smith's attention was mostly focused on Magnus.
"Everything happens very fast and very slow at the same time"
The third witness of the day — and fourth overall for the prosecution — was Trinity Wilbourn. On July 29, 2023, her 16-year-old son was driving and she was a passenger. They were headed to Boulder and her son had his driver's permit. It was the first time he drove on that road, Wilbourn said, as she had not allowed him to drive it before because of all the bicyclists. Her daughter was napping in the backseat.
Their car was in the right lane, closest to the shoulder, Wilbourn testified. Smilianska's car was ahead.
When asked what happened, she replied, "Everything happens very fast and very slow at the same time." But she said she saw a car veer off the road, over an embankment, and then saw an older man jump off his bike in "sheer panic." She said the driver did not brake or react to leaving the road.
"Seemed to me like it took a long time for the vehicle to stop," Wilbourn said.
She testified that the car finally stopped, and she saw a person in the front seat reach up to their ear, and it appeared that they removed something, which she assumed were AirPods.
Wilbourn said they did not stop at the scene because so many others had pulled over, and she did not want to expose her son to what had happened. She did report the crash though, she said.
She later learned that Magnus had been struck and killed there.
"I didn't feel like her response was reflective of the situation"
On the morning of the crash, Rachel Blaydes, of Berthoud, was running errands with her soon-to-be husband for their upcoming wedding. As the day's fourth witness, she said she went to medical school for two years and had some medical training before July 2023.
She testified that she remembered seeing a car in front of them on Highway 119 swerve out of its lane and hit a cyclist.
"It looked like it veered straight into the cyclist," she told the court, adding that she saw no attempt to avoid the cyclist or brake. "I saw the whole thing."
Blaydes, who was in the driver's seat, pulled over. Along with her now-husband, she ran to the driver since she was closer to them. Seeing that she appeared OK, she ran to Magnus while her now-husband stayed with the driver.
Blaydes asked another cyclist at the scene if they knew each other, and the cyclist said they saw each other often while training and had decided to ride together that day.
She said Magnus was not coherent, and she recalled thinking that he was not going to survive. Blaydes instructed the group of people to not touch him as they waited for an EMS to arrive, and then walked back to Smilianska's vehicle. She told the court that Smilianska did not appear to know that she had hit a cyclist. She did not seem upset, concerned or as emotionally impacted as the people around her, she said.
"I think everyone was shaken up. It was an incredibly hard situation, and I didn't feel like her response was reflective of the situation," Blaydes said.
Blaydes testified that Smilianska asked if she could leave because her car did not have much damage, but the witness had seen the broken windshield. Her fiancé told Smilianska she could not leave. They both noticed that Smilianska was holding a vape. The couple walked Smilianska to Magnus, who was convulsing on the ground.
The prosecutors asked Blaydes about Smilianska's reaction.
"Very flat. I think at the time she did say, 'Oh,'" Blaydes replied.
During a cross-examination, Blaydes said she did not notice anything remarkable about Smilianska's car. She also told the court that her primary focus after the crash was Magnus, and that while she recalled Smilianska saying that her car appeared fine, she does not remember Smilianska asking if she could help.
Witness driver says defendant appeared very upset when she saw Magnus
Following a morning break, witness Monica Bonney took the stand.
Bonney had been traveling from Longmont to Boulder on the day of the crash. As a cyclist herself, she said she always tries to move over a lane to give them extra space.
Leading up to the crash, she recalled seeing two cyclists on the shoulder of Highway 119 headed to Boulder, and then saw one of the drivers appear to head straight toward Magnus.
"When the car hit the cyclist, it was at the speed that we were going on the highway, and it was very physically violent in that the cyclist was sent flying through the air," she said.
Like prior witnesses, she said that she did not see any brake lights or attempt to swerve back into the proper lane. She told the court the first time she saw the brake lights was after the car had come to a halt.
Bonney pulled over and while headed toward Magnus, passed Smilianska, who told Bonney that she was "fine." Bonney said she responded, "I'm not worried about you right now," as she had not seen the bicyclist stand up. She noted that Smilianska appeared to use a vape before Bonney went to check on the cyclist.
Bonney described his condition, crying on the stand. She recalled standing back when somebody moved closer to Magnus, saying they had medical training.
When Smilianska came closer to Magnus, Bonney said she seemed very upset and asked if she could do anything to help. Bonney told her to stay back. During a cross-examination, Bonney told the court that Smilianska did not seem to know she had hit anybody until she saw Magnus in the grass.
"He was up in the air... Maybe 7 feet up in the air"
The prosecution's seventh overall witness was Preet Cooper, who was driving to Boulder the day of the crash with her fiancé, who is now her husband. Like other witnesses, she was familiar with the "beautiful highway" and how cyclists often used it for rides.
That day, she was in the right lane. When she looked at her rearview mirror, she saw the crash happen.
"That's when I saw the boy — he was up in the air," Cooper said. "It was a couple feet, actually. Maybe 7 feet up in the air."
She recalled "kind of screaming in the car" and telling her fiancé that a driver had hit a cyclist behind them. She pulled over and remembered taking a few minutes to process what had happened, as others pulled over too.
They both left the car and walked over. On the courtroom's stand, Cooper wept when District Attorney Michael Dougherty asked her to describe what she saw.
"It was just — it seemed really bad at the time," she said.
She said she kept her distance and asked another woman who had hit the cyclist. Cooper said she felt like Smilianska was calm amid several people who were crying. Smilianska was also vaping, Cooper testified.
Once authorities arrived, they asked everybody to return to their cars. Cooper said she waited about 30 minutes to tell them what she had witnessed, and during that time she tried to find information online about the boy. She later learned he had died. When a state trooper came by her car, she told them that the driver did not seem bothered and overall seemed "off." She told the court on Tuesday that it was "very inappropriate."
"(She) kind of seemed like a mess at the moment, personally, I felt — the way she was standing there, it didn't feel right," Cooper said. "It just felt very emotionless, like nothing had happened for her."
During a cross-examination, Cooper confirmed that she did not directly interact with Smilianska. The defense stressed that Cooper's social norms — like crying at the scene — do not apply to everybody else.
The court then broke for lunch.
Boulder police chief: "(She) potentially did not understand what had just occurred"
The first witness to speak after lunch was Boulder Police Chief Stephen Redfearn.
He said the crash technically happened in unincorporated Boulder County, which is Colorado State Patrol's jurisdiction. Redfearn had been on his way to Longmont for a barbecue when he saw the crash scene, which he initially thought may have been a rollover, and immediately thought, "Something's not right," he told the court.
Redfearn parked his car and jogged over to where a bunch of people were standing on the side of the road, he said. He recalled putting his badge around his neck so people knew who he was.
When he saw Magnus in the grass, he put in a call for paramedics to hurry because of the teen's serious injuries and convulsions.
Somebody pointed out the accused driver, and he spoke with her, he told the courtroom. Smilianska told Redfearn that she was not under the influence, but had had some alcohol the night prior. He said she seemed like she wanted to tell him what had happened, but he did not have a body camera on him, so he asked her to wait. He said he did not see any noticeable signs that she was intoxicated during their brief interaction. Redfearn said her windshield was "destroyed."
He said he was at the scene for about 10 to 15 minutes before on-duty Boulder police officers arrived.
The prosecutors then brought out the bicycle to show the courtroom.
During a cross-examination, Redfearn reiterated that nothing about Smilianska's actions that afternoon led him to believe she was intoxicated. In the prosecution's redirect, Redfearn said "she wasn't understanding what happened," which was not the typical reaction.
"She did not seem upset at that time, and potentially did not understand what had just occurred," he told the courtroom.
Boulder PD officer: Defendant claimed steering wheel "stopped listening to me"
The next witness to be called up to the stand was Boulder Police Department Officer Andrew Mills. He was called out to the crash.
Within two or three minutes of his arrival, Magnus was transported to a hospital, Mills said.
Mills then spoke with the cyclist who had been with Magnus. The man was shaken and had blood on him, Mills told the courtroom. He seemed confused and surprised by what had happened. But the man explained that he was within 100 feet of Magnus and they were both traveling about 25 mph.
Mills then spoke with Smilianska, whom he described as "nonplussed." He said she chuckled a few times during their conversation.
The prosecutors showed body-worn camera footage from Mills.
In the video, Smilianska, who had a nicotine vape hanging around her neck on a lanyard, says: "I was driving my car... It's an old car... I was just driving and you know this feeling when you're driving in the rain or the snow when you can't control your wheels?... And my car was just like, whoosh."
She said she panicked and tried to gain control but barely remembered what happened. When asked by Mills, she said she had worked late at a bar the night prior and had taken medication the day prior. Just before Mills began to walk away in the video, she said, "What can I do?" and "I'm super new to this country."
Mills said Smilianska reported some sort of mechanical error with the car's steering wheel, where it "stopped listening to me."
In the cross-examination, Mills said he does not have any knowledge how her medication may affect her demeanor.
Troopers collect evidence, reconstruct crash site
Tuesday afternoon ended with two Colorado State Patrol troopers on the stand.
First was Trooper Heidi Jewett. In the courtroom, she said the weather on July 29, 2023 was clear and sunny. She responded to the crash and arrived at the scene at 12:53 p.m. Jewett recalled trying to understand how the crash had occurred and collecting evidence. She estimated that the bike and Smilianska's vehicle were about 100 feet apart.
Jewett testified that she saw no evidence on the roadway that the driver had tried to brake. At the scene, Jewett said Smilianska was on her phone throughout several of their conversations. She said there was a bit of a language barrier, but they could understand each other. Jewett told the courtroom that she did not observe any signs that the driver was intoxicated, but did note that she did not appear to be "emotionally upset" and she did not ask about the bicyclist.
In several instances, Smilianska asked if she could leave the scene and if they were done with the investigation, Jewett said.
The prosecutors pulled up some photos from the scene for the courtroom to view. One included a close-up of Magnus' bike, which was missing its rear tire and appeared to have been "crushed," Jewett said.
The windshield damage from the crash was right in front of the driver, she explained.
Jewett said she spoke with all of the witnesses at the scene. All of them were "incredibly upset," she said.
She said she learned the following day that Magnus had died.
The second trooper to testify on Tuesday afternoon was Sean McCall. He is qualified as an expert in crash reconstruction, though this trial was his first time qualifying as an expert witness. He was the lead investigator on this case for CSP.
McCall conducted interviews with multiple witnesses, who attested to the fact that Smilianska was traveling 55 to 60 mph when the front left of her vehicle collided with the back tire of Magnus' bike. Per his investigation, he found that the defendant did not hit the brakes before she struck Magnus, and there was no evidence that she attempted to swerve to avoid him.
Mechanics inspected the vehicle for any possible malfunctions. They did not find any evidence of a malfunction with the steering wheel or how the tires responded. They did find that the tires were dry rotting.
McCall took the car for a test drive in September 2023, when he was able to safely travel at various speeds, he told the court. He noted that if he let go of the steering wheel, it pulled slightly to the right, which may have been an alignment issue. But this issue was easy to control with hands on the wheel.
District Attorney Dougherty brought up a few videos from these test drives, where McCall — who was wearing a body-worn camera — narrated what he was doing. A CSP sergeant followed him with a dash camera also recording.
McCall confirmed that at no point did the car swerve with his hands on the wheel, nor did the brakes or steering ever fail.
As they began to dive into crash reconstruction and diagrams, the judge suggested they pause for the day. This is where they will pick up testimony on Wednesday morning.
Denver7 asked Rep. Joe Neguse on Tuesday if he planned to re-introduce a bill he had brought forward in 2024 that would instruct the Colorado Department of Transportation to issue a rule requiring automatic braking systems to be installed on all new passenger motor vehicles. These systems can help detect if there is a person in front of the car and prompt the car to brake. Neguse said it would be called the Magnus White Cyclist Safety Act. The bill wasn’t picked up during the 118th Congress.
Neguse told Denver7 that he plans to reintroduce the bill in the coming weeks.
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