On Friday, almost eight months since teen biking champion Magnus White was killed throughout a coaching experience earlier than touring to the UCI World Championships, the twentieth Judicial District Courtroom in Colorado postponed the accused driver’s listening to and trial date.
The accused driver, 23-year-old Yeva Smilianska, faces one depend of vehicular murder by reckless driving, which is a category 4 felony in Colorado, carrying a penalty of two to six years in jail and a tremendous of $2,000 to $500,000.
Throughout Friday’s courtroom look, Smilianska’s protection legal professional requested for the postponement of the listening to as a way to assessment the almost 70 hours of regulation enforcement body-cam footage. His request was granted, and Smilianska didn’t enter a plea at the moment.
“We live via each dad or mum’s worst nightmare. Each missed vital milestone in his life, every vacation, and now each courtroom continuing carry a heavy tidal wave of feelings that no household ought to ever should expertise. It hurts emotionally and bodily as we proceed to confront daily with out Magnus,” the White household mentioned in an announcement after the courtroom look.
“The motive force’s choice to not enter a plea at the moment and file a movement to increase the proceedings doesn’t shock us. It solely delays the end result of the case and prolongs our struggling. Every courtroom look continues to, and can proceed to take us again to reliving the day Magnus was killed.”
The household implored the courtroom to “grasp the complete extent of the devastation” the collision has introduced upon their household and emphasised that White’s demise was not an accident however a criminal offense.
“[Smilianska] ended Magnus’s life—a life that was brimming with immense potential. She has stolen his future, denied him any alternative to pursue his ambitions, and irrevocably destroyed our lives. We’re resolute in our pursuit of justice for Magnus, to make sure that no different household has to endure the nightmare we live. We belief that the justice system will maintain the motive force accountable for her actions,” the assertion reads.
On July 29, 2023, the 17-year-old White was using on the vast, paved shoulder alongside Freeway 119 close to his hometown of Boulder, Colorado, when he was struck from behind by Smilianska, who was driving a 2004 Toyota Matrix. Smilianska was arrested in December.
In response to a crash report, Smilianska didn’t seem to have been on her cellphone, distracted, or affected by a medical episode. Nonetheless, no braking or avoidance maneuver was tried. After hanging White, the automotive continued to journey into the grass embankment earlier than coming to a halt upon colliding with a fence.
A Colorado State Patrol affidavit means that Smilianska was asleep on the time of the crash, however the defendant denies the allegations, claiming there was a steering malfunction. Nonetheless, authorities decided that her automotive and steering wheel had been functioning correctly on the time of the crash.
The motive force’s subsequent courtroom listening to will now happen on Could 24, 2024, the place she is predicted to enter a plea.
