Mackenzie Shirilla's prison fate decided after latest appeal for freedom
Mackenzie Shirilla’s appeal has been denied by the Ohio Supreme Court.
It means that the 22-year-old, serving 15 years to life for intentionally killing her boyfriend and a friend in a high-speed car crash, will no longer be able to issue state-level appeals.
“It is ordered by the court that the motion for reconsideration in this case is denied,” wrote Supreme Court of Ohio Chief Justice Sharon L. Kennedy, according to documents obtained by FOX 8 I.
The then-17-year-old high school student was dating her boyfriend, Dominic Russo, 20, for around four years, when she got behind the wheel of her Toyota Camry in the early morning hours of 31 July 2022.
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Shirilla then drove the car into the brick Plidco Building in Strongsville, Ohio at upwards of 100 mph.
She was seriously injured while Russo and his friend Davion Flanagan were declared dead at the scene.
In August 2023, Shirilla was found guilty of all 12 charges against her, including murder, aggravated vehicular homicide, felonious assault and drug possession.
Prosecutors proved that Shirilla intentionally crashed her car as a premeditated murder plot driven by a highly toxic, volatile relationship with her boyfriend.
Shirilla was 'on a mission' to kill Russo because their relationship had deteriorated and he had threatened to break up with her.
Investigators said she chose to orchestrate the fatal crash to prevent Russo from leaving her under the mindset that if she could not have him, no one would.
“She had a mission, and she executed it with precision. The decision was death,” Judge Nancy Margaret Russo said.
“Her actions were controlled, methodical, deliberate, intentional and purposeful. This was not reckless driving. This was murder.”
Earlier this year, Shirilla asked an appeals court to consider new evidence, suggesting she has a medical condition that affects her heart rate and blood flow. She says the condition may have caused her to black out just before the crash.
The court rejected her 2024 appeal because it was filed one day after the 365-day deadline.
Her lawyers argued it should still count as timely because 2024 was a leap year and had an extra day.
Shirilla took the issue to the Ohio Supreme Court, but in June the justices declined to hear the case, saying the 365-day deadline was clear. The court has again rejected the matter.
In July, Shirilla filed a separate case in federal court, arguing that her 2023 trial and imprisonment violated her constitutional rights and that her lawyers did not provide adequate help. That case is still pending.
Her case was featured in Netflix true-crime documentary The Crash, which came out in May.
Mackenzie Shirilla timeline
17 July 2022 - Mackenzie Shirilla and her boyfriend Dominic Russo get into an argument. A friend allegedly overhears Shirilla tell him: “I will crash this car right now.”
31 July 2022 - Shirilla is driving Russo, 20, and their friend Davion Flanagan, 19, from Russo’s home to a friend’s house. At around 5.30am, she crashes the car into a Plidco Building in Strongsville, Ohio, travelling at 100mph without braking. Police arrive on the scene 45 minutes later. Russo and Flanagan are pronounced dead and Shirilla is transported to MetroHealth Medical Center.
August 2022 - 200 people attend a vigil for Russo and Flanagan. Shirilla remains in critical condition. When a detective visits her in hospital, she is said to be speaking a ‘unique language’ similar to pig Latin.
October 2022 - Shirilla attends a Halloween party wearing fancy dress which resembles a corpse, which Davion’s father considers in very poor taste. He says in Netflix’s The Crash: “Dressing up as corpses three months after she killed two people, it just sickened us to the very core.”
4 November 2022 - Shirilla is arrested and faces 18 charges, including two counts of aggravated murder. She also faces charges for allegedly breaking into the Columbia Church of God in Columbia Station days before the crash, along with drug possession charges.
7 August 2023 - Shirilla’s trial begins. Her defence team argue she may have passed out at the time of the crash due to postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), but no medical records or expert testimony confirms the diagnosis.
14 August 2023 - Shirilla is found guilty on all counts. Judge Nancy Margaret Russo calls her ‘hell on wheels’, and the court concludes she intentionally crashed the car in a premeditated act.
23 August 2023 - Shirilla is sentenced to two concurrent 15 years to life sentences. Her legal team later lose an appeal and relief petition. She remains incarcerated in the Ohio Reformatory for Women.
22 May 2025 - Shirilla’s parents insist that she’s innocent. Her father Steve tells WKYC: “Show me one piece of evidence - one - that says she did this on purpose. Show it to me, then she's right where she belongs and she's guilty of it. But there isn't any.” Her mother Natalie claims there are texts in which Shirilla says Russo was ‘trying to end her life’.
15 May 2026 - Netflix’s The Crash premieres. In it, Shirilla insists she is ‘not a murderer’ and has no memory of the crash, continuing to blame POTS.
18 May 2026 - Steve Shirilla is placed on administrative leave from his job as an art and digital media teacher at Mary Queen of Peace School in Cleveland following allegations he had ‘demonstrated poor judgement’. Viewers of Netflix’s documentary objected to his attitude towards Shirilla’s marijuana use and his dismissal of claims she told a classmate to end their life.
23 June 2026 - The Ohio Supreme Court declines to review Shirilla’s appeal case. Her lawyers missed the deadline for a post-conviction review by one day because 2024 was a leap year, and the court upheld an earlier decision that Shirilla’s conviction therefore could not be challenged.
6 July 2026 - Shirilla’s attorneys file a motion asking the Ohio Supreme Court to reconsider her appeal, arguing that the filing deadlines were confusing.
September 2037 - This is when Shirilla will be eligible for parole.
Topics: Netflix, Crime, Mackenzie Shirilla
Anish Vij