The parents of 17-year-old Magnus White sat forward, staring at the Boulder County court floor, as the woman charged with causing their son’s death took the witness stand on Thursday.

The trial of Yeva Smilianska — the woman charged with hitting and killing cyclist White in Boulder County in 2023 — continued into the fourth day Thursday with the defendant testifying.

The 24-year-old Ukranian refugee, speaking through a Russian interpreter, remained solemn.

“The last thing I remember, I’m holding the wheel. The next thing I remember, my car is downhill and it hits the fencing,” she said, claiming that she did not believe she had struck a person or another vehicle.

“She killed a boy,” Nereida “Neddy” Cooper, Smilianska’s former friend who was with her the morning of the crash, said during cross examination through tears. “I can’t fathom being in her position and I don’t want anything to do with it.”

Twentieth Judicial District Attorney Michael Dougherty charged Smilianska with vehicular homicide in connection to the July 29, 2023, crash on Highway 119 and North 63rd Street near Gunbarrel, where investigators said Smilianska’s Toyota Matrix slammed into White and his bicycle.

Smilianska had no prior criminal history after moving to the United States in 2022. She was a screenwriter in Ukraine who sold her first television show at 18.

White, a champion cyclist phenom from Boulder, was riding on a paved portion of the road before Smilianska crashed into him. Smilianska was estimated to have been driving around 60 mph, and White was going 25 mph, according to investigators.

White was placed on life support and later died around 10:30 p.m.

He was practicing before traveling to Glasgow to participate in the World Mountain Bike Championships for the U.S. National Team.

Smilianska was arrested on suspicion of vehicular homicide after the crash, with prosecutors arguing that she had fallen asleep at the wheel.

She admitted she was falling asleep in a text to Cooper before taking the wheel around 12 p.m., 30 minutes before the crash.

While the defense does not argue that the crash happened, they are arguing that the charge should be lessened to careless driving causing death.

In the four days of the trial, which began Monday, prosecutors have presented various witnesses and evidence to show that Smilianska was partying the night before.

She worked at 3’s Bar in Longmont the night before the crash, testimony showed. Her coworker and friend, Cooper, was at the bar hanging out. The two left around 3 a.m. and went to Cooper’s home to continue drinking.

Video evidence showed the two singing karaoke at Cooper’s home in the early morning of July 29, a tumbler of whiskey being passed between them.

Cooper claimed that Smilianska was not a heavy drinker and did not drink as much whiskey as Cooper did during the evening. She said they went to bed around 6 a.m. and woke around 11 a.m.

The two only shared one cup of whiskey, according to the defendant.

“We didn’t have more,” she said.

Cooper left for work and Smilianska stayed behind. Cooper told the defendant that she could stay at the home and continue to sleep, but Smilianska told her she was leaving around 12 p.m.

Smilianska called Cooper following the crash, frantic and inaudible, Cooper said, despite other witnesses claiming the defendant appeared calm and unbothered at the crash scene.

“I completely turned off,” Smilianska said about the time immediately after the crash. “I couldn’t understand what was happening. I was comprehending really poorly because I was so shocked. I was frantically going back and forth between people.”

“Very quickly did it become anger,” Cooper said of her feelings toward the defendant after the crash. “She did not take the options I had given her. She had the option to stay at my house or the option to come to the bar with me. She didn’t do either.”

Cooper said the two haven’t been friends since the crash.

“I am mad at her because Magnus died,” Cooper said.

“Ms. Cooper didn’t offer me verbally to stay at her house,” Smilianska said. “When the host leaves for work, what do you have left to do?”

The defense, led by Timur Kishinevsky, argued that Smilianska couldn’t have drank enough in the three hours to have had an effect on her driving, especially after sleeping for five hours and only sharing one 16-ounce mixed drink.

The prosecution, led by Dougherty, argued that the defendant could have been drinking before she got off work and also had the tumbler in her car during the crash.

“It was strictly forbidden,” Smilianska said about drinking at the bar while working.

When asked if she felt drunk the morning of the crash, the defendant said “absolutely not.”

Smilianska had stopped at a nearby McDonalds and got a large iced coffee prior to the crash to stay awake.

“To my deep regret, it didn’t help,” she said.

Still, the prosecution argued that the defendant may have been intoxicated during the crash, not just tired.

For example, a text message from June 2023 showed Smilianska messaging another coworker about how she had scared herself by drinking and driving and how she didn’t remember getting home.

In other witness testimony, Colorado State Patrol Sgt. Robert Madden discussed the case as a crash reconstruction expert who oversaw the investigation.

Madden initially suggested a charge of careless driving in his report, not vehicular homicide, but the prosecution claimed that the department’s Vehicular Crimes Unit was overworked at the time and did not respond to the scene for investigation until July 30.

Madden also confirmed that Smilianska did not touch her brakes at all, was wearing headphones and took no actions to swerve away from White before hitting him.

Smilianska initially claimed that she had a steering malfunction, but Madden said there was no evidence to support that.

“It was very difficult to accept what happened. I really wanted it to be the fault of the car,” Smilianska testified Thursday about telling the police about the steering, despite allegedly passing out before the crash instead.

Cooper also admitted that she lied in her first report to the Longmont Police Department. She told investigators that they had not been drinking and lied about when they went to bed to protect Smilianska, Cooper said Thursday.

The prosecution implied that the muddled interviews and the late response may have caused Madden to form the recommended charge of careless driving incorrectly.

Madden agreed that his initial suggested charges were based off of limited evidence at the time.

The trial will continue Friday morning, with the jury expected to begin deliberations after closing arguments possibly Friday afternoon.