BOULDER COUNTY, Colo. — The driver who struck and killed young rising cycling champion Magnus White is being considered for a halfway house just months into her four-year prison sentence.
The development comes in a case Denver7 has been following since July 2023, and more than seven months after Yeva Smilianska was found guilty of vehicular homicide by a jury of her peers.
Smilianska was sentenced to four years in prison in June of this year.
In a letter obtained by Denver7 Friday, the Colorado Department of Corrections (DOC) informed both Jill and Michael White, Magnus’ parents, that Smilianska was being referred, per Colorado law, for placement in a halfway house — a residential facility where inmates are transferred before being fully released into their communities.
The letter goes on to state that people placed in a halfway house may eventually be given the opportunity to serve the remaining portion of their sentence outside of the halfway house, so long as they are electronically monitored.
- Read the letter from the Department of Corrections here or in the embed below:
It's standard protocol under Colorado law, which states offenders who were not convicted of a violent crime can be considered for placement at a Community Corrections center 16 months prior to their parole eligibility date.
Jill and Michael White believe the consideration for Community Corrections is emblematic of a larger issue within Colorado's criminal justice system.
“It sends a message to the drivers... you can lie for two years, deny accountability and responsibility, and you'll get off with a very light, easy joke of a sentence," Michael said. "The state continues to just keep on letting us down. Letting the community down.”
"To be hit with this news yesterday was just like, it just knocked us down," said Jill. "I came home from work, Michael said there's some bad news. He told me what the news is. I said, I can't live here anymore, and I left. I walked out. And I wasn't walking out of my family. I was just like, I can't. I was walking out of the state. I was like, I'm done."
The update in Smilianska's case came during the same week when Magnus would have turned 20 years old. His parents had a birthday cake they never ate, with candles that burned until they naturally went out.
"No one to blow them out," Michael said.
The two also decorated a Christmas tree — complete with ornaments that were zip tied to each branch — underneath Magnus' ghost bike along the Diagonal Highway in Boulder.
"So everyone who passes by knows there's a boy that loves Christmas, and he's not here, but his parents are remembering him and how much joy he brought us during that season," Jill said. "We were trying to rebuild, and he loved Christmas — like, loved Christmas — and it was the first year we felt like we had the strength to put up a Christmas tree in honor of him.”
Now, the Whites feel as though they have been thrown back into the fight for what they consider justice when it comes to their son.
"Cruel is the word, I feel. It's very cruel," Jill said.
"I mean, we're back fighting again so quickly," Michael added.
Although routine, the news of such a consideration by the Community Corrections Board is still jarring for 20th Judicial District Attorney Michael Dougherty, who prosecuted Smilianska's case.
"This has been in the law in Colorado for as long as I can remember. That doesn't mean it's right," Dougherty told Denver7. “In a lot of ways, I view it as a sentence reconsideration board. In other words, a judge imposed a sentence of four years in state prison, and here we are just a few months later talking about the possibility of release by a Community Corrections Board.”
Dougherty believes Colorado needs to enact more certainty in sentencing.
"We had the trial in April, and the defendant was then sentenced to four years in state prison, and here we are, and it's November. That's not how the system should work, and this case really highlights that failure," Dougherty said. "This case shows the retraumatization for victims families and the injustice that can result.”
Smilianska, who remains housed at the La Vista Correctional Facility in Pueblo, is scheduled for a mandatory release from prison on April 1, 2029. She becomes eligible for parole on April 1, 2027.
“We were only aware of her eligible parole date, which was April 2027, and so like, okay, we have almost two years of, we don't have to think it. She's not in our head," Michael explained. "It's the system. The system is giving convicted felon of a vehicular homicide every opportunity to get out and not be held accountable for their crime.”
Denver7 reached out to Timur Kishinvesky, the attorney who represented Smilianska during her trial, for a comment about the potential transfer to a Community Corrections program.
"Unfortunately, I will not be providing any additional information as I do not want the continued pattern of misinformation and misconceptions that have occurred throughout the pendency of this case by the media," Kishinvesky replied in an email.
Family of Magnus White files complaint
Denver7 on Friday also obtained a formal complaint against the Boulder County Community Corrections Board filed by Magnus’ family.
The complaint asks that the 20th Judicial District, state-level community corrections and criminal justice oversight agencies “examine how this Board overstepped its statutory role, ignored victims’ rights, and compromised community safety through a procedurally flawed and emotionally negligent decision.”
“The Board’s decision to make community corrections available for Ms. Smilianski [sic] disregarded a mountain of evidence indicating that she poses an ongoing risk to public safety,” the complaint reads.
The letter alleges that during a June 10 hearing on the case for Smilianska, the board engaged in “speculative discussions about sentencing philosophies and plea bargains” and shifted the conversation from public safety to potential rehabilitation, “which is not within their scope.”
The hearing in June occurred prior to Smilianska's sentencing, and according to the White family, placed Community Corrections on the table for the judge to consider as punishment in the case.
The family requested an immediate review of the board’s decision and process in the case and demanded accountability and reform.
“The Board not only failed Magnus and our family, it failed the community,” the complaint reads. “It normalized the idea that someone who killed a child while impaired, lied for months, and never made direct amends can return to live among the very people she harmed, unaccountable and protected.”
Denver7 also received the response to the complaint from the Boulder County Community Corrections Board, which decided to allow the court the option to sentence Smilianska directly to community corrections instead of prison. The response said the board will "be emphasizing trauma-informed practices and victims’ rights in future Board member trainings."
The board said they reviewed the transcript and found their decision complied with the law.
As a result of the way the board voted ahead of sentencing, the White family fears Smilianska will be permitted to transfer to a halfway house.
The family has less than a month to prepare victim impact statements for the board to consider.
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