Michigan family left devastated after teen who killed their son in 100 mph crash avoids jail: ‘Everything is dim'
A heartbroken Michigan family was left in disbelief after the driver who killed their son in a 105-mph crash during his college winter break was given a light sentence that allows him to avoid jail time.
Kiernan Tague, 18 — who was initially charged with second-degree murder for killing Flynn MacKrell in a deadly crash in November 2023 — had the charge reduced to manslaughter with a motor vehicle last year.
Tague, who was 16 at the time of the crash, was charged with adult designation, meaning that the judge could sentence him as a juvenile, as an adult, or create a blended sentence, the Detroit Free Press reported.
5 Kiernan Tague, 18, sits next to his lawyer, Gabi Silver, on June 13, 2025, as he awaits to learn his sentencing for killing his friend in a 105 mph crash in Grosse Pointe Farms in 2023.
Tresa Baldas / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
Judge Mark McClory opted to sentence the teen to serve probation at a Level 2 juvenile placement facility, which is an out-of-home residential facility, on Friday.
His time at the facility will be determined by his progress, allowing him to be released on probation once he completes his treatment, according to the Detroit Free Press.
However, if Tague is found to violate any term of his probation, he will be sentenced as an adult to 19-38 months to be served at the Wayne County Detention Facility.
The light sentencing has left MacKrell's family outraged with the justice system.
'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,' MacKrell's heartbroken mother, Anne Vanker, told WDIV outside the courtroom Friday.
5 The crash scene from Nov. 17, 2023, when driver Kiernan Tague lost control of a BMW at 105 mph on a residential street, killing his passenger, Flynn MacKrell.
Grosse Pointe Farms Police
As for Tague, Vanker said he has once again not been held 'accountable' for his actions.
'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 said.
His brother, Thaddeus MacKrell Jr., told the court before Tague's sentencing that he was 'robbed' of a brother.
'I was robbed of seeing him graduate. I was robbed of being his best man. I was robbed of meeting his children,' he said.
5 (From L-R) Thad MacKrell, Flynn MacKrell and Anne Vanker.
Anne Vanker / Facebook
His father, Thad Mackrell, told the judge, 'Everything is dim,' since his son was killed in the reckless driving crash.
Tague, who was a neighbor and friend of MacKrell, picked him up from his parents' home in Grosse Pointe, a suburb of Detroit, on Nov.17 while he was home from college over Thanksgiving break.
However, just minutes after picking up Mackrell in a BMW X3 M series, Tague lost control of the vehicle while traveling 105 mph in a 25-mph zone and crashed into a utility pole and then a tree — splitting the car in two.
Mackrell, a stand-out freshman swimmer at the University of Dayton, died on impact. Tague was transported to a nearby hospital with serious injuries, but survived.
Tague had a history of speeding and reckless driving before the crash, investigators found, using data from the GPS tracking app Life360.
5 If Tague is found to violate any term of his probation, he will be sentenced as an adult to 19-38 months to be served at the Wayne County Detention Facility.
fox2detroit
Investigators also unearthed texts indicating Tague's mother, Elizabeth Puleo-Tague, was aware of her son's carelessness behind the wheel and even called him out for his speeding habit in a text message two months before the deadly wreck.
Despite being aware of her son's reckless driving, Puleo-Tague allowed her son to continue to use her brand-new BMW.
Mackrell's parents compared Puleo-Tague's behavior to that of the parents of Oxford High School shooter, Ethan Crumbley, who were held responsible for their child's actions in a school shooting.
'She was sitting on a ticking time bomb. She knows he's out of control, yet she basically gets him a weapon,' Vanker previously said. 'It's like she handed him an AR-15.'
5 Vanker said Tague has once again not been held 'accountable' for his actions.
Ryan Garza / USA TODAY NETWORK
Vanker said she was unaware of Tague's driving habit or home life until after her son was killed and the investigation was launched.
However, in December 2024, Wayne County prosecutors declined to charge the teen's mother, according to the Detroit Free Press.
During Friday's sentencing hearing, Tague addressed the court, saying he was remorseful for his actions.
'My heart is profoundly heavy with grief, regret and remorse,' Tague said.
'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.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
USA Today
2 hours ago
- USA Today
Trump's LA National Guard orders draw comparisons to Jan. 6
Trump's LA National Guard orders draw comparisons to Jan. 6 Some legal experts and Democratic lawmakers question why Trump didn't deploy the Guard to quell the Jan. 6 Capitol assault but is doing so in LA. Show Caption Hide Caption National Guard major general clarifies military's role in Los Angeles National Guard Major General Scott Sherman outlined the role of military personnel in Los Angeles and said troops will not conduct arrests. President Trump said the National Guard was needed to put down a 'form of rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States." Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Congressional leaders had pleaded for National Guard troops during the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol by Trump supporters. A former Trump-appointed prosecutor told USA TODAY the 2020 Geroge Floyd riots are a more appropriate comparison with Trump's actions in Los Angeles. WASHINGTON – One group was considered a rampaging mob whose members bear-sprayed and beat police officers while breaking into the seat of American democracy to stop the peaceful transfer of power. The other was a more dispersed and uncoordinated group of violent agitators burning empty cars, looting and throwing rocks at police. In the first incident, the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, then-President Donald Trump never called in the National Guard, despite pleas from local officials and some congressional lawmakers. They said troops were needed to prevent further violence from an angry mob that Trump himself had riled up to stay in power after losing the 2020 election. In the second case, which is still ongoing, Trump not only deployed the California National Guard over the objections of Gov. Gavin Newsom, he also called in 700 active duty Marines to quell anti-ICE protests that erupted in Los Angeles over aggressive immigration raids. The contrast between Trump's actions in 2021, when the U.S. Capitol was overrun by a violent mob, and this month in Los Angeles is proof, his critics say, the president is using the U.S. military for political purposes. But some supporters of the president say the more appropriate comparison isn't with the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, but the riots and disturbances that rocked American cities in the summer of 2020 after the police killing of George Floyd. The Floyd protests showed "you've got to put out small fires before they turn into forest fires,' Jay Town, who served as U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama during Trump's first administration, told USA TODAY. Trump said the troops were needed in Los Angeles to put down a 'form of rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States." The protests in Los Angeles are seen as more tepid compared to the Jan. 6 riots in terms of constituting a rebellion or threat to the federal government, according to Newsom, Democratic lawmakers, and legal experts. They accuse Trump − who was impeached and criminally indicted over Jan. 6, though the charges were dropped after his reelection − of deploying soldiers to serve his own political ends. "There was not plausibly a rebellion in Los Angeles, under any reasonable interpretation of the term," said Chris Mirasola, a law professor at the University of Houston and a former Department of Defense legal advisor. Critics saw a cracked mirror image of Jan. 6 in Trump's mobilization of the National Guard in Los Angeles. 'This is a reverse of Jan. 6, where Trump allowed his most violent supporters to attack the Capitol on his behalf," Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., told USA TODAY, "and here he is sending in federal troops to provoke his opponents to attack them.' "In both instances, his aim is chaos,' Swalwell said. What happened on Jan. 6, 2021? Four people died during the Jan. 6 assault on Congress and five police officers died in its aftermath − one from a stroke the following day and four by suicide. About 140 other law enforcement officers were injured. More than 1,575 people were charged in connection with Jan. 6, ranging from misdemeanors such as trespassing to felonies such as assaulting police officers and seditious conspiracy. At least 600 were charged with the felony of assaulting or impeding law enforcement, according to the Police Executive Research Forum. Damages for Jan. 6 surpassed $2.7 billion, according to an investigation by Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. How much damage in LA? In the current case, at least nine LAPD officers and an unknown number of protesters have been hurt, with most sustaining minor injuries. The Los Angeles Police Department has arrested more than 500 people in eight days of protests, the majority of them on minor charges such as failure to disperse or not obeying a nighttime curfew. Two were charged with throwing firebombs, authorities said on June 11. Though the extent of damage from the current LA protests are unknown, it is far less significant than on Jan. 6, Democratic lawmakers and city and state officials say. What's Trump's response? Trump and other administration officials repeatedly have said there's no comparison between Jan. 6 and the Los Angeles violence, and that California and LA officials forced the President's hand by failing to quell the growing protests. 'Generations of Army heroes did not shed their blood on distant shores only to watch our country be destroyed by invasion,' Trump told Army soldiers in a June 10 speech at Fort Bragg, N.C. 'As commander in chief, I will not let that happen.' Trump didn't make any such pronouncements four years ago as a stunned nation watched the Capitol attack unfold, with organized groups including the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers militia taking leading roles. In 2021, Trump spent 187 minutes watching the Capitol assault on TV, while mobs ransacked Congressional offices and hunted for Democratic lawmakers and even his own vice president, Mike Pence, according to a House committee investigating the attack. Hours later, only after the crowd began dispersing, Trump posted a video on social media at 4:17 p.m.: 'Go home. We love you, you're very special.' It wasn't until 5:20 p.m. on Jan. 6 that the first National Guard troops arrived at the Capitol, while police secured the complex. 'In a bipartisan way, on Jan. 6 − with violence against the Constitution, against the Congress and against the United States Capitol − we begged the president of the United States to send in the National Guard,' former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi , D-Calif., told reporters. 'He would not do it.' 'And yet, in a contra-constitutional way, he has sent the National Guard into California,' Pelosi said on June 10. 'Something is very wrong with this picture." On June 13, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily halted a federal judge's order blocking Trump's Guard mobilization in Los Angeles. 'Small fires' vs 'forest fires' Supporters of Trump's National Guard call-out in California point to a different set of disturbances to justify his actions. Jay Town, the Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama from 2017 to a 2020 and a former Marine, described a more complex set of circumstances than Pelosi. He cited statements by Steven Sund, the U.S. Capitol Police chief at the time, that he begged for National Guard assistance on Jan. 6 but that it was congressional officials who reported to Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell who delayed approval. More: Amid LA deployment, Hegseth falsely attacks Tim Walz over 2020 George Floyd riots Town said the appropriate comparison isn't with Jan. 6, but the National Guard deployments in 2020 during riots following the murder of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis. 'What we learned in 2020, as a guy who was in office then, is that you've got to put out small fires before they turn into forest fires,' Town told USA TODAY. "President Trump is not going to let what happened under the failed local and state leadership in Minneapolis and Seattle and so many other places happen again.' Trump's order in Los Angeles On his first day back in office in 2025, Trump pardoned all but 14 of the approximately 1,270 convicted Jan. 6 rioters. He and Cabinet members including Attorney General Pam Bondi say they will prosecute anyone who even touches a law enforcement official in Los Angeles to the fullest extent of the law. Asked if that was hypocritical in light of Trump's Jan. 6 pardons, Bondi said, "Well, this is very different." "These are people out there hurting people in California right now,' Bondi said in an on-camera gaggle with reporters at the White House. 'This is ongoing." Newsom, who is suing Trump over the Marines and Guardsmen in Los Angeles, disagreed. "Trump, he's not opposed to lawlessness and violence, as long as it serves him,' Newsom said. 'What more evidence do we need than Jan. 6?"
New York Post
5 hours ago
- New York Post
Michigan family left devastated after teen who killed their son in 100 mph crash avoids jail: ‘Everything is dim'
A heartbroken Michigan family was left in disbelief after the driver who killed their son in a 105-mph crash during his college winter break was given a light sentence that allows him to avoid jail time. Kiernan Tague, 18 — who was initially charged with second-degree murder for killing Flynn MacKrell in a deadly crash in November 2023 — had the charge reduced to manslaughter with a motor vehicle last year. Tague, who was 16 at the time of the crash, was charged with adult designation, meaning that the judge could sentence him as a juvenile, as an adult, or create a blended sentence, the Detroit Free Press reported. 5 Kiernan Tague, 18, sits next to his lawyer, Gabi Silver, on June 13, 2025, as he awaits to learn his sentencing for killing his friend in a 105 mph crash in Grosse Pointe Farms in 2023. Tresa Baldas / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images Judge Mark McClory opted to sentence the teen to serve probation at a Level 2 juvenile placement facility, which is an out-of-home residential facility, on Friday. His time at the facility will be determined by his progress, allowing him to be released on probation once he completes his treatment, according to the Detroit Free Press. However, if Tague is found to violate any term of his probation, he will be sentenced as an adult to 19-38 months to be served at the Wayne County Detention Facility. The light sentencing has left MacKrell's family outraged with the justice system. '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,' MacKrell's heartbroken mother, Anne Vanker, told WDIV outside the courtroom Friday. 5 The crash scene from Nov. 17, 2023, when driver Kiernan Tague lost control of a BMW at 105 mph on a residential street, killing his passenger, Flynn MacKrell. Grosse Pointe Farms Police As for Tague, Vanker said he has once again not been held 'accountable' for his actions. '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 said. His brother, Thaddeus MacKrell Jr., told the court before Tague's sentencing that he was 'robbed' of a brother. 'I was robbed of seeing him graduate. I was robbed of being his best man. I was robbed of meeting his children,' he said. 5 (From L-R) Thad MacKrell, Flynn MacKrell and Anne Vanker. Anne Vanker / Facebook His father, Thad Mackrell, told the judge, 'Everything is dim,' since his son was killed in the reckless driving crash. Tague, who was a neighbor and friend of MacKrell, picked him up from his parents' home in Grosse Pointe, a suburb of Detroit, on Nov.17 while he was home from college over Thanksgiving break. However, just minutes after picking up Mackrell in a BMW X3 M series, Tague lost control of the vehicle while traveling 105 mph in a 25-mph zone and crashed into a utility pole and then a tree — splitting the car in two. Mackrell, a stand-out freshman swimmer at the University of Dayton, died on impact. Tague was transported to a nearby hospital with serious injuries, but survived. Tague had a history of speeding and reckless driving before the crash, investigators found, using data from the GPS tracking app Life360. 5 If Tague is found to violate any term of his probation, he will be sentenced as an adult to 19-38 months to be served at the Wayne County Detention Facility. fox2detroit Investigators also unearthed texts indicating Tague's mother, Elizabeth Puleo-Tague, was aware of her son's carelessness behind the wheel and even called him out for his speeding habit in a text message two months before the deadly wreck. Despite being aware of her son's reckless driving, Puleo-Tague allowed her son to continue to use her brand-new BMW. Mackrell's parents compared Puleo-Tague's behavior to that of the parents of Oxford High School shooter, Ethan Crumbley, who were held responsible for their child's actions in a school shooting. 'She was sitting on a ticking time bomb. She knows he's out of control, yet she basically gets him a weapon,' Vanker previously said. 'It's like she handed him an AR-15.' 5 Vanker said Tague has once again not been held 'accountable' for his actions. Ryan Garza / USA TODAY NETWORK Vanker said she was unaware of Tague's driving habit or home life until after her son was killed and the investigation was launched. However, in December 2024, Wayne County prosecutors declined to charge the teen's mother, according to the Detroit Free Press. During Friday's sentencing hearing, Tague addressed the court, saying he was remorseful for his actions. 'My heart is profoundly heavy with grief, regret and remorse,' Tague said. '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.'
USA Today
12 hours ago
- USA Today
Matthew Perry's doctor pleads guilty to ketamine distribution
Matthew Perry's doctor pleads guilty to ketamine distribution Show Caption Hide Caption LA police probe Matthew Perry's death Los Angeles police said Tuesday that detectives and federal agents are investigating the death of 'Friends' star Matthey Perry. Dr. Salvador Plasencia, a physician charged along with four others in the death of actor Matthew Perry, has pleaded guilty to his role in the substance abuse that contributed to the "Friends" star's tragic passing. Plasencia, also known as "Dr. P," pled guilty to four counts of distribution of ketamine, according to a copy of the plea agreement obtained by USA TODAY. The physician faces up to 40 years in prison for the offenses. In August 2024, Plasencia was charged alongside Jasveen Sangha, whom the Department of Justice previously referred to as "The Ketamine Queen" of North Hollywood, and the pair faced 18 criminal counts for allegedly "distributing ketamine to Perry during the final weeks of the actor's life." 5 people charged in Matthew Perry death, including 'Friends' actor's doctor, assistant Other co-conspirators named in the case were Perry's live-in assistant Kenneth Iwamasa, Dr. Mark Chavez and Erik Fleming, the latter of whom was described as Perry's acquaintance. Perry, best known for his role as the wisecracking Chandler Bing on "Friends," died in October 2023 at the age of 54 after the actor was found dead in a jacuzzi at his Los Angeles home. Remembering Matthew Perry: Why the iconic actor was 'Friends' with all of us An autopsy report released in December of that year revealed that Perry's death was an accident, with the cause being "the acute effects of ketamine." Contributing factors were drowning, coronary artery disease and the effects of buprenorphine. This is a developing story. Contributing: KiMi Robinson, Taijuan Moorman and Jay Stahl, USA TODAY
