The four sets of parents and guardians of the four teen girls who were killed in an April 2025 crash in Marin County are divided in how they believe the now 17-year-old driver in the case should be held accountable.

The families had an opportunity to speak before a judge in Marin County on Wednesday, as the Chronicle reports, and while some support diversion for the 17-year-old vehicular manslaughter suspect, others want to see her go to trial.

The crash occurred on San Geronimo Valley Road in Woodacre on April 18, 2025, and following the release of a California Highway Patrol report on the crash in October, the suspect driver was charged with four counts of misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter.

The victims were identified as 14-year-old Olive Koren, 15-year-old Sienna Katz, 15-year-old Josalyn Osborn, and 15-year-old Ada Kepley. 14-year-old Marley Barclay survived the crash and told authorities she believed she had seen headlines veer into their vehicle's lane, causing the then-16-year-old driver to veer off the road.

The driver, because she is a minor, was previously named in the media as a survivor of the crash but her name has subsequently been kept out of reports due to her age.

The CHP has relied on a spedometer that melted in place at 60 miles per hour as evidence that the driver was speeding well over the 40-mph limit on the road at the time. And at least a few of the parents don't believe that this is sufficient evidence that the driver should be held at fault.

In fact, the parents have filed four separate lawsuits against the county, seeking damages and alleging that hazardous road conditions were primarily to blame for the crash.

Speaking to the judge on Wednesday, per the Chronicle, Ada Kepley's mother, Linda Kepley, said, "I’m not satisfied that speeding alone was the cause of this accident."

Kepley added, "And can anyone impose a punishment more profound than the one that [the driver] lives with? I don’t believe that they can."

Olive Koren's grandparents echoed that, as the Chronicle reports, saying that all the evidence in the case, or lack thereof, leads to reasonable doubt, and their granddaughter would have wanted "to understand why her friends died."

“She would want every lead pursued and every piece of evidence pursued,” Gail Koren said, per the Chronicle. “We want [the driver] to have the opportunity to have diversion. That’s what Olive would have wanted."

But the parents of Josy Osborn and Sienna Katz voiced their opinions that the teen should not get diversion. Peg Minicozzi, Katz's mother and a local teacher, told the judge that losing her daughter, as a single mother, "has been the most devastating and heartbreaking experience of my life." As the Chronicle reports, she said she felt strongly that juvenile diversion was sufficient for a case like this, and that "Accountability is one of the most important lessons we teach our children."

Other family and community members are going to have a chance to speak before the judge at a hearing on August 10, at which point he will likely rule on the issue of diversion. As the Chronicle reports, if the case goes to trial, because of her age, the maximum sentence the driver would face would be one year in juvenile detention.

Minicozzi told the judge she hoped that a trial or a sentence like that would send a message to other teens about driving carefully. "I have empathy [for the driver] and for everyone involved,” Minicozzi said, per the Chronicle. “I sincerely hope she has learned from this tragedy [and] what I want most is for my daughter’s death to not be in vain."

Previously: In Marin Crash That Killed Four Teens, Parents Point Fingers at CHP, County Road Maintenance