A Michigan family sat in a courtroom in disbelief on Friday after hearing that the teenager who killed their son in a 105-mile-per-hour car crash will avoid jail time.
Judge Mark McClory sentenced 18-year-old Kiernan Tague to a Level 2 juvenile placement facility — an out-of-home residential facility — with the possibility of 19 to 38 months in adult prison if he violates probation, according to a report by the Detroit Free Press.
In November 2023, Tague was driving 105 miles per hour in a 25 mph zone when he lost control of his vehicle and struck a utility pole and a tree, splitting the car in half and killing his friend, 18-year-old Flynn MacKrell, in the wreck, police said.
The Grosse Pointe teen was initially charged with second-degree murder, but it was later reduced to manslaughter with a motor vehicle.
On Friday, Tague was sentenced to the out-of-home residential facility, with the amount of time he spends there being contingent on his treatment progress. The teen will be released on probation once he completes treatment, the Detroit Free Press reported.
The family of MacKrell — who was a star swimmer and freshman at the University of Dayton — had asked Judge McClory to give Tague an adult prison sentence.
“It’s a travesty of justice,” the victim’s brother, Thaddeus MacKrell Jr., said of Tague’s sentencing. “Flynn’s life is over, and he gets to go on. It’s insulting.”
The Michigan Department of Corrections had also suggested an adult prison sentence for Tague, who was 16 years old at the time of the car crash that resulted in MacKrell’s death.
Additionally, Tague had a history of speeding and reckless driving, according to police reports and investigators, who cited data from the GPS tracking app Life360, as well as text messages from Tague’s mother, Elizabeth Puleo-Tague.
“Slow the fuck down!” Puleo-Tague texted her son, just two months before the fatal car wreck, according to court records obtained by the Detroit Free Press.
“I have screen shots of you — doing 123 mph,” the mother added in another text. “It scares me to my bone.”
In the weeks and months leading up to the crash, Tague reportedly hit speeds of 127 mph, 143 mph, 102 mph, 150 mph, and 155 mph, all on separate days, court documents reveal.
“The only thing that could have made our lives worse is what happened here today,” MacKrell’s mother, Anne Vanker, said in reaction to Tague’s sentencing.
Before his sentencing on Friday, Tague addressed the court, saying, “My heart is profoundly heavy with grief, regret, and remorse.”
“What pains me most is that I know that any pain that I’ve experienced is nothing compared to what Flynn’s loved ones — especially his parents, sister, brother, and family — have experienced,” the teen added.
MacKrell’s brother, meanwhile, told the court he was “robbed” of his sibling.
“I was robbed of seeing him graduate. I was robbed of being his best man. I was robbed of meeting his children,” Thaddeus MacKrell Jr. said.
The victim’s father, Thad Mackrell, told the judge, “Everything is dim” since the day his son was killed.
Outside the courtroom, MacKrell’s mother told WDIV that Tague had not been held accountable.
“Do you know how much pain and energy and suffering it is to have no justice and still have no justice? I’ve spent the last year and a half, and I waited for that,” Vanker said.
“It’s a cunning, manipulative, criminal individual who just once again was not held accountable for killing my son, so no, his fake tears are disgusting,” she added.
Alana Mastrangelo is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Facebook and X at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
