In Boulder, the driver accused of fatally hitting a 17-year-old cyclist in July 2023 testified Thursday to 14 jurors and a packed courtroom, where she admitted to passing out while driving and killing Magnus White.

Yeva Smilianska, 24, is charged with one count of reckless vehicular homicide for the death.

Smilianska, who remains out of custody, described the moments of the fatal crash that occurred July 29, 2023, speaking through an interpreter.

“The last thing I remember, I am holding the wheel and the next thing I remember my car is downhill and it hits the fencing,” Smilianska said through an interpreter.

She admitted to passing out while driving and killing White.

“You passed out while you were driving?” Deputy District Attorney Trish Mittelstadt asked.

“Yes,” Smilianska said through an interpreter.

“You drove off the road, off 119?” Mittelstadt asked.

“Yes,” Smilianska said.

“And you smashed into the back of Magnus White’s bicycle?” Mittelstadt asked.“That’s correct,” Smilianska said.

“And you killed him?”

“That’s correct.”

Smilianska testified that before leaving Longmont for Boulder, she ordered a large coffee and breakfast from McDonald’s.

“Did you try to do anything to prevent your tiredness?” defense attorney Timur Kishinevsky asked.

“Yes,” Smilianska responded.

“It didn’t help?” Kishinevsky asked.

“To my deepest regret, it didn’t help,” Smilianska said through an interpreter.

Earlier in the week, witnesses testified that Smilianska seemed “emotionless” and “odd” following the crash.

“I couldn’t understand what was happening. I was comprehending really poorly because I was so shocked,” Smilianska said through an interpreter about the moments after the crash.

“I was frantically going back and forth between people and asking, ‘What I can help with?’ but there was a large group of people gathered around already and I didn’t want to interfere and I knew the police were called already.”

‘She just looked very tired’

Earlier in the day, Smilianska watched on as her former friend spoke about the night before and morning of the crash.

Neddy Cooper, 30, testified she saw Smilianska at around 9 or 10 p.m. the night before the crash at 3’s bar in Longmont, where the pair worked. Cooper testified she saw Smilianska drinking something she believed to be liquor and could not remember if Smilianska was working or not.

Smilianska later testified that she was working and had no drinks before leaving for Cooper’s home around 3 a.m.

The two both testified that around 2:30 or 3 a.m., they left the bar separately and went to Cooper’s house in Longmont, where they drank whisky, sang karaoke, taught each other their native languages and possibly did arts and crafts. Cooper recalled sleeping sometime after 6 a.m.

Boulder County District Attorney and prosecutor Michael Dougherty asked Cooper how she felt when she woke up, to which Cooper said she recalls having a slight headache but was not nauseous and on the floor of her bathroom. Dougherty said that in a previous interview, Cooper described feeling like she had been “hit by a bus.”

“We both just looked very tired. She just looked very tired,” Cooper said. “When we woke up, I knew how tired I was and I could just compare how I felt to how she looked and I assumed we were the same amount of tired.”

‘I feel like it could’ve been avoided. There was no urgency for her to go home’

Cooper had to return to work at 11:30 a.m. that day but said she told Smilianska she could stay at her house or come back to the bar and eat breakfast and drink coffee.

“She lived quite far, and there was no reason she needed to go home. I gave her options so she didn’t have to go home,” Cooper said.

Cooper said after the crash she received a call from Smilianska.

“It took a while to calm her down,” Cooper said. “I couldn’t understand what she was saying. She wasn’t coherent. She was emotional. She was upset. I couldn’t understand what she was saying.”

Cooper said she became angry with Smilianska and, shortly after the crash, left her bartending job and ended her friendship with Smilianska.

“I feel like it could’ve been avoided. There was no urgency for her to go home,” Cooper said.

She later added: “She killed a boy. I can’t, I can’t fathom being in her position, and I don’t want anything to do with it.”

‘She’s responsible of killing Magnus White’

During cross-examination, Kishinevsky, the defense attorney, questioned Cooper about statements she made to Longmont police that she later admitted were wrong, as well as how aware Cooper was that Smilianska was drinking the night before.

“She wasn’t very thirsty very often,” Cooper said. “The ice would melt into the drink before she would finish it.”

Dougherty noted that the tumbler Smilianska and Cooper were using to drink whiskey from the night before was later found in the defendant’s car. Cooper’s testimony ended with Dougherty asking Cooper why she yelled at Smilianska recently.

“Because she’s responsible of killing Magnus White,” Cooper said.

During Smilianska’s testimony, the prosecution showed the jury a text from Smilianska on June 13, 2023.

It read: “Nah i’m fine i’m just scared of myself cos i drove SO drunk, so i don’t even remember it, my whole way home I was mad and I really fucked up.”

‘If you have a bicycle that was hit by a car at highway speeds in Boulder County, we should’ve responded’

After Cooper testified, the prosecution rested its case, and expert crash reconstructionist Colorado State Patrol Sgt. Robert Madden took the stand.

Kishinevsky confirmed with Madden that he approved Trooper Sean McCall’s October 2023 report that recommended a careless vehicular homicide charge.

Dougherty asked Madden if he knew that more evidence came out after the October report, to which he said yes.

“I was not privy to all additional investigation,” Madden said.

Dougherty also asked Madden about the fact the Vehicular Crimes Unit of CSP was not called out on the day of the crash. “Immediately upon learning of the crash and dynamics around it, the two pieces jumped into my mind is if you have a bicycle that was hit by a car at highway speeds in Boulder County, we should’ve responded,” Madden testified.

Madden explained that at the time, White was still alive and therefore VCU was not called to the scene. Madden added that at the time, the unit was “overworked and understaffed.”

White was riding his bike southbound on Colo. 119, just south of the 63rd Street intersection at 12:33 p.m. July 29, 2023, when he was hit by Smilianska, who was driving a Toyota Matrix that had crossed from the righthand lane into the shoulder, according to CSP Trooper Gabriel Moltrer.

White was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Investigators said in an arrest affidavit that “based on the totality of circumstances, it appears most likely that Smilianska was asleep at the time of the crash.”

In May 2024, White’s parents filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Smilianska.

According to court documents, the civil action is stayed, pending the conclusion of Smilianska’s criminal matter.