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’re 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.”
“Poor Magnus, man, what did he do? It keeps going back to him. He did nothing wrong," said Jill.
Although routine, the news of such a consideration by the Community Corrections Board is still a shock 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.”
Smilianska, who remains housed at the La Vista Correctional Facility in Pueblo, is scheduled for release from prison on April 1, 2029.
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.”
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